“Maybe plumbers shouldn’t be going into homes where people are sick,” Alice said.
“They wear protective gear. You know how careful Rudy is.”
“He was still exposed,” Alice said.
Maintaining two machines exhausted her. She collected mail and watered his plants at Rudy’s house. She imagined selling all the machines while he was in the hospital, but she couldn’t face his disappointment when he returned. Although his nurses called often, they reported discouraging news, a Ferris wheel of days with ups and downs. On the fortieth day of his hospitalization, a nurse called, saying Rudy had taken a turn for the worse.
In the ICU anteroom, she donned all the protective gear—shoe and head covers, gloves, scrubs overtop her clothes and a yellow gown overtop the scrubs, two masks, a shield. She left her purse in a bag at the nurse’s station and then stepped into his room. She clutched Rudy’s hand in her gloved one. Still attached to the ventilator breathing for him, he appeared absent, his beard unkempt. She came to say goodbye, clutching his hand as the ventilator stopped. She’d wept uncontrollably over her cat, but now in Rudy’s room, no tears came. Dazed, she asked for a chaplain.
# # #
A muted funeral forced her father’s friends to pay their respect from their cars in the cemetery. A month later, she still hadn’t made any decisions about Rudy’s assets. Helen continued operating the plumbing business with Alice signing documents for her father. Alice made vending runs, and she started the process to establish his estate with the state. Unable to focus on any one thing, she looked for signs from Rudy, signs that Helen said would appear: coins, feathers, songs on the radio with messages, cardinals, dragonflies. No signs came.
The man at the pizzeria, bald with silver earrings, asked her what she wanted from behind his mask.
“Picking up. Alice Oliver.”
The man looked through his orders, then shrugged.
“Sorry. Nothing for Alice Oliver,” he said, barely audible through his mask.
“I phoned it in. Cauliflower crust pizza with artichokes and vegan cheese.”
The man laughed, his eyes crinkled with mirth. “We don’t sell that here.”