“Who’s there?” Winnie yelled from the bedroom. “Who’s at the door?”

“It’s just me,” Lin Su called back. “Just stay where you are and I’ll...”

Before she could say another word, Winnie came shuffling out of the bedroom on Mikhail’s arm. “Well, it’s about time! I’ve been waiting to hear from you! You know, as much as I hate the look of those walker contraptions, I think I should have one, don’t you? I can’t be calling for someone to walk me every time I want to move! Where is my boy? I want to see him! I thought I’d have to force Troy to take me to your house.”

Lin Su’s eyes got larger than they’d ever been. The very thought! “But I called Grace three times! Charlie is with me. If you’ll just sit down and get comfortable, I’ll get him. For goodness’ sake,” she said, shaking her head at Winnie’s aggressiveness.

Charlie was out of the car before Lin Su could fetch him. And when she got back to the front door with Charlie in tow, Winnie had not taken a seat, nor had she gotten comfortable. She was waiting right there in the foyer, holding Mikhail captive with her arm through his.

“Well, at last,” she said to Charlie. “I don’t think I slept one minute last night!”

“She slept like the dead,” Mikhail said testily. “Snored like a freight train.”

Charlie laughed. It was the first smile Lin Su had seen. “That figures,” he said to Winnie. “You better sit down before you fall down. Go on, then.”

Grumbling something about ingratitude and having no secrets, she turned and hobbled toward the great room where she lowered herself into her favorite chair. Charlie followed. He sat down on the sofa, backpack on the floor.

“Well, you look decent. I guess you’re fine,” Winnie said.

“I’m fine,” he assured her.

“I’m told you were chased by hoodlums,” she said.

“They’re druggies from the neighborhood,” he said.

Lin Su winced. Could their circumstances sound any worse?

“Thing is, they’d rob a nun on Easter Sunday, they’re such lowlifes,” Charlie went on. “I think they rip off houses sometimes—a habit is an expensive hobby and we know they don’t work. But the cops hang around a lot, trying to keep the neighborhood clean. I was looking for a cop—but you can’t ever find ’em when you need ’em.”

“Good Lord,” she said. “Do they live near you?”

“In the area,” Charlie said. “I think they’re from those Section 8 apartments on the other side of the road. I’ve seen them around there. You know—affordable housing for the working poor? It’s a HUD thing.”

“Really,” Winnie said, arching a slim brow.

Lin Su met Troy’s eyes and his eyes laughed. How like Charlie to know all about it and Winnie to not have a clue.

“I’m sure you have some Section 8 housing in Thunder Point,” Charlie said.

“I think I lived in it,” Troy said with a laugh. “I lived in a real crappy apartment complex, old and cheap, right on the edge of town. I added about five dead bolts to my door.” He shrugged. “I’m a schoolteacher. Without a master’s degree.”

“Charlie, did those boys give you a hard time at your old school?” Winnie asked.

Charlie laughed at her. “Winnie, those guys don’t go to school. The guy next door to us, Mr. Chester, used to give me a ride so I wouldn’t have any trouble on the way. School was okay. Once you got there.”

“Have you had breakfast?” Lin Su asked Winnie.

“Yes, of course. Has Charlie?” she asked.

“I ate some sludge they call breakfast at the hospital—it was gross. What have you got?”

“Charlie!” Lin Su admonished.

“Make the boy an egg, Lin Su. I’ll have one, too. Thank God you’re here—everyone is out of sorts without you. We’ll have toast. I’ll have tea and Charlie will have apple juice. Milk will just make him phlegmy, right, Charlie?”

“Right,” he said, pulling his laptop out of his backpack and opening it up. He began clicking away.

“You should try a cup of tea,” Winnie said. “It would be good for you.”

“I’d rather have another asthma attack. Hey, look at this. Average pay for a schoolteacher without a master’s is about forty-two thousand. I don’t think you qualify for Section 8, but if you work at it...”

Troy ruffled Charlie’s hair. “Thanks, bud. Well, now that the first string is on the field, I think I’ll go to the shop and see if Grace needs me. Then set up my classroom for Monday.”

“Is time for walking the town,” Mikhail said. “Thank God!”

Troy headed for the garage to take his Jeep to town while the old Russian went in the direction of the beach to begin his day of wandering. Winnie and Charlie began entertaining themselves with whatever his interest of the day was on his laptop.

With a sigh, Lin Su took to the kitchen.

Ten minutes later she delivered two trays to the living room—each held an egg and toast, on one a cup of Winnie’s favored tea and on Charlie’s tray apple juice. While they ate, Lin Su checked out the bedroom and bathroom. With no nurse or housekeeper to start out the morning, things were a little upside down. She muttered about the lazy men under her breath as she straightened the bedding, folded clothes, cleaned up the bathroom, started a load of wash. Though it only took her ten minutes, she wondered that no one could even attempt order in her absence.

When she got back to the living room the trays with dirty dishes were sitting on the coffee table and Charlie and Winnie were gone. She spotted them on the deck, just as Charlie was helping Winnie to her chair. Aeiiiieee! she thought, holding her tongue, her hand against her heart. She tried to remain calm as she followed them. Talk about the blind leading the blind! A weakened asthmatic boy and a woman with ALS whose balance was horrible at best and her strength flimsy.

“Just what are you doing?” she asked her son. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I told him not to,” Winnie said. “Really, I think I must have one of those atrocious walker things. God, I hate them! But I hate landing on my ass more! Lin Su, I want you to go fix yourself two eggs, toast and maybe some meat—there’s that microwave bacon or turkey sausage in the fridge. Troy eats both like candy. Then I want you to go to the guest room and lie down for an hour. You’re cranky and you have dark circles under your eyes.”