puzzled, and their laughing diminished. “How can you be there in a body cast?” Katie asked.
“A neighbor will take care of me.” The brightness in his voice had the unmistakable quality of happiness, and the office was completely silent with surprise. They could sense that Bill’s life had undergone some kind of change, and they were unsure how to relate to this new person, this different person whom they were listening to. To them, it was unthinkable that someone would volunteer to help the previous Bill, who was the only Bill they knew, for any period of time. Old Bill was ridiculous, an adult aspiring to be a teenager, but this new Bill was an enigma. Suddenly they had respect for him, and there was a pause of several moments in the conversation.
“Katie, are you there?” Bill asked.
“Yes, yes, we’re—I’m here,” Katie rushed to say. More artfully, she continued, “Could you repeat what you just said?”
Everyone in the office leaned toward her phone to better hear any revelation he might make of the mystery.
The next day toward evening, a hospital worker brought Bill to his studio apartment in a wheelchair, while another hospital worker rolled in a hospital bed behind them. The adjustable bed was to be left in the apartment, so that he could more easily eat in bed and transfer to the wheelchair, when he needed to use the bathroom or move around for another reason.
The journey to his apartment was a source of great stress to Bill, because he thought other residents and the building staff would snicker, when they saw his disabled condition. For someone who had always acted younger than the young, chasing the youngest women who would talk with him, he thought he would appear to them as having suffered a sudden, catastrophic decline. He thought he would look like a sad case, a cripple barely clinging on to life. His face was as rigid and stiff as his back brace, as he was rolled toward the entrance of the building, through the lobby, and down the corridor to his studio. Whenever he passed anyone, his facial features were totally impassive, and they grew grimmer and more stone-like, when he saw Jonathan at the front desk. He feared to hear what they thought. He didn’t say anything to anyone or even nod when someone greeted him.
His mood changed, when he was wheeled into his apartment, where the door was propped wide open. Helen was inside, moving furniture around to make room for the new bed.
“Welcome home, Bill,” she said.
He smiled and relaxed.
Later that evening, when he was settled into his new bed, and Helen had fed him the last spoonfuls of a soup she had made, she placed the dirty dishes in the sink and returned to his bedside with an emergency call device.
“I’ll try to come before the home care attendant arrives in the morning,” she told him, “but if I don’t, the front desk will let her in. If you need anything before she gets here, or there’s a problem, call me. Just press this button, and I’ll come.” She showed him the device and placed it near his hand, wrapping the cord around his wrist.
“Where did you get this thing?” he asked.
“I bought it. I knew it’d come in handy.”
“Tomorrow, I’m going to write you a check for it and for the home care attendant. You shouldn’t have to spend a dime on me. If my health insurance won’t pay, then I need to. I was the foolish one.” The magnitude of the astonishing change that had begun in Bill was apparent in how easily he had assented to a home care attendant earlier in the day, when Helen had suggested hiring one for a few hours everyday, to help him bathe and do other tasks. The change in Bill was still visible now, as he calmly took responsibility to pay for such assistance.
“Are you sure your hand can write a check already?” she teased.
“If not, I’ll give you my bank card and my password, so you can withdraw the money. Without your help, I don’t know where I’d be.”
“Since you were so foolish, maybe I should bill you for my services,” she said breezily. Since she could tell that suggestion greatly disturbed him—fireworks of fear lit up his face, as he mentally calculated the enormity of the expense—she reassured him, “I’m kidding. I don’t mind helping out an old friend. Now, remember, if you need anything tonight, don’t hesitate to