I reached for my phone.

Tom stopped me.

“Elaine, before you call her, there’s something else.”

I looked up.

“She told me you agreed to all this.”

I almost laughed.

“Apparently I’ve been very busy.”

Tom sat down.

“She said the hospital recommended you not live alone anymore.”

“They recommended help while I recover.”

“That’s not how she explained it.”

I looked at Larry.

“Why didn’t you call me?”

He frowned.

“Mom said you needed quiet.”

“She told me you were adjusting.”

“I’m not adjusting, Grandma. I missed you.”

“I can see that.”

He carefully climbed onto the edge of my bed.

“She said calling would make you want to come home.”

There it was.

I called Melissa.

She answered immediately.

“Mom?”

“Why is my pantry door off its hinges?”

Silence.

Then she said, “Tom called you.”

“Your son brought me a hinge in his school backpack.”

“Mom, listen.”

“No. You listen. What are you doing in my house?”

“I’m making it safer.”

“By removing a pantry door?”

“It swings into the walkway. You could catch your cane on it.”

“I don’t use a cane.”

“You might.”

I closed my eyes.

That was Melissa now.

She wasn’t solving the problem I actually had.

She was solving every possible future problem she could imagine before I was allowed a vote.

“What else have you changed?”

“Nothing permanent.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

She exhaled.

“I moved some things. That’s all.”

“Put the pantry door somewhere safe.”

“I already did.”

That stopped me.

“You didn’t throw it away?”

“Of course not.”

She sounded almost offended.

For a moment, I didn’t know what to do with that.

Then I asked the question that had bothered me since the drive there.

“Why eighty miles?”

Silence.

Then: “This one had good reviews.”

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