"No, don't apologize. Don't say anything, Cary.

I'm not upset."

He smiled.

"It would have been a lie if I said I was sorry anyway," he admitted and we laughed.

Then we heard the sound of a dog barking excitedly. "What's that?"

"Sounds like Prometheus. We better get dressed, and fast," he said. We scurried about, pulling on our clothes and heard Holly and Kenneth calling. I brushed back my hair quickly and glanced in the wall mirror, but there wasn't time to do much more. They were shouting now.

"What's going on?" Cary wondered as we climbed up the small stairway to the deck of the boat.

Holly and Kenneth were standing on the dock and in Holly's arms was another chestnut-coated retriever puppy. Prometheus was circling and barking.

"He's going to be company for Prometheus,"

she declared. "We're calling him Neptune in honor of Kenneth's work."

"Oh, he's so sweet," I said hurrying off the boat.

She handed him to me and he covered my face with his licking kisses.

"Everything coming along all right down there?" Kenneth asked Cary, his eyes moving from him to me and then back again. Cary blushed.

"Just fine," he said.

"We're still looking at next Saturday then?"

"No problem I can see," Cary replied firmly.

"Okay, then we should do it on Friday, right Holly?"

"You're not getting away that cheaply Kenneth Childs."

"Getting away with what that cheaply?" I asked.

"If he thinks for one moment we're going to consider that a honeymoon-"

"Honeymoon!" Cary and I exclaimed simultaneously.

They both beamed at us.

"Oh, Holly, congratulations," I cried and we hugged, Neptune squeezed between us. He barked his complaint, which caused Prometheus to join in chorus.

"It's just going to be a small wedding at my father's house," Kenneth said.

"Really?"

"It was Holly's idea to let him marry us. I figured I'd save money so . ."

"That's wonderful, Kenneth," I said, my face flushed with happiness for them both.

"I had a feeling you'd see it that way," he said.

"Well, I guess I'd better get back to work. It looks like this piece is going to be interrupted by something called a honeymoon," he declared.

Cary and I watched the two of them walk back to the house.

"I hope that will be us someday," he said. I took his hand.

"It will," I promised.

He put his arm around me.

Maybe it was changing; maybe the storms had really passed over us at last, I thought.

Two days later Cary drove me up to Grandma Belinda's rest home so I could make my weekly visit with her. Cary liked to visit with Grandpa Samuel. He said he at least got him to talk about fishing. I was anxious to tell Grandma Belinda all the good news. It seemed the only baggage I ever brought with me when I visited her were suitcases full of sadness and tragedy. She was still spending lots of time with Mr.

Mandel, but this time I found him first in the lobby, playing checkers with another man. He recognized me and smiled.

"Good, you're here," he said. "She needs company. I've been trying to beat Mr. Braxton here at checkers all week, but I never get the time. She doesn't let me out of her sight," he explained with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Just his excuse for being afraid of losing to me," Mr. Braxton said. "Blaming that poor old lady.

You should be ashamed of yourself, Mandel."

"We'll soon see who's going to be ashamed,"

Mr. Mandel replied and jumped one of Mr. Braxton's checkers.

Cary laughed.

"She's on the bench in the garden," Mr. Mandel told me.

Cary and I split up in the hallway, he going down to Grandpa Samuel's room first. It was a very bright and warm afternoon. The flowers were in full bloom. Lilacs with their dark purple spikes climbed over the walls and gates. Bees hovered over the honey locusts. The yellow tea roses were especially brilliant and there were petunias everywhere. I knew how much Grandma Belinda liked being outside, how much she enjoyed soaking in the sunshine and drinking in the wonderful rainbow colors all around her.

I saw her on her usual bench, a small smile on her lips, her head back with her eyes closed, basking in the sunlight. Her hands were in her lap and she wore one of her prettier print dresses, with a pearl comb in her hair. I couldn't help but wonder if that was the way I would look when I was her age.

"Hello, Grandma," I said as I approached.

Lately, she had begun to remember more and more about me, although she still said very little about my mother and asked no questions.

She didn't reply so I sat beside her and took her hand into mine. The moment I did, a shudder of abject terror passed like an electric current up through my arm and into my heart, which stopped and then started to pound again frantically. Her hand was ice cold.

"Grandma?" I shook her. Her body trembled and stopped, but her eyes remained shut. Her lips parted just a little more. "Grandma Belinda!"

I shook her harder and then I turned and shouted to the nearest attendant for help.

"Hurry!" I screamed. He ran over.

"What's wrong?"

"She won't wake up," I said and he knelt at her side, felt for a pulse, opened her eyes, and then shook his head.

"She's gone," he declared as if she had just gotten up and walked away.

"Gone? She can't be gone. She's smiling. She's pleased and happy."

"I'm sorry," he said shaking his head.

"No. Please. Call the doctor. Call someone!"

"Take it easy. I'll get Mrs. Greene right away,"

he said. Then he leaned toward me. "She doesn't like us to make too much of a deal of it when this happens," he said in a loud whisper. "It disturbs the others and makes it all that much more difficult around here."

"I don't care what she thinks. Get a doctor!" He stood up.

"I'll be right back," he promised and hurried away.

"Oh, Grandma Belinda, please don't go. Not yet. We're really just getting to know each other and you're all I have. Please, wait," I begged her, babbling stupidly at her side.

I took her cold hand in mine again and sat there beside her, the tears streaming down my cheeks, rocking my body gently back and forth as I muttered my silent prayers and continued to beg her to stay just a little while longer.

Moments later, Mrs. Greene came hurrying down the garden pathway accompanied by two other attendants and a nurse. The nurse charged ahead and examined Grandma Belinda, making the same pronouncements quickly.

"Get the stretcher from the infirmary," Mrs.

Greene ordered the attendants. "Bring it out that side door and take her back in that way. I'll call the mortuary."

"No!" I cried and buried my face in my hands.

"You can come to my office, if you wish," she told me curtly. "I'll have to call Mrs. Logan right away. Don't worry. Arrangements have been made.

We do that immediately after we accept a patient."

"How convenient for everyone," I replied as I brushed the tears off my cheeks.

She pursed her lips with annoyance and nodded at the attendants who rushed away.

"Stay with her," she ordered the nurse. Then she pivoted and started to march back to the building.

I turned to Grandma Belinda and brushed back her hair. The nurse smiled at me.

"She died happy, thinking of something nice,"

she said. "And she loved it so much out here," she added. "I know," I moaned through my tears.

"This is better than her getting sicker and sicker and lingering in the infirmary," the nurse continued, more for my sake than for Grandma Belinda's.

"I have to tell Cary," I realized aloud and rose.

"I'll stay with her," the nurse promised.

I glanced down at her again. Her lips were turning purple and her smile seemed to fade right before my eyes. I reached down to touch her one more time and then, with my chest feeling as if it had turned to stone, I started away.

Cary was Sifting in Grandpa Samuel's room and Grandpa Samuel was still in bed, sitting up. He was in his robe and was unshaven.

"He's not talking much," Cary began, but when his eyes settled on me a moment longer, he knew something terrible had happened. "What is it? You look terrible."

"It's Grandma Belinda, Cary," I wailed. "She's dead. She died in the garden just now, just before I arrived!"

He got up quickly to embrace me as I sobbed.

Grandpa Samuel seemed to finally notice us and slowly came out of his daze.

"Laura?" he said. Cary turned to him.

"No, Grandpa. It's Melody. She's just come from Belinda. I'm afraid it's bad news, Grandpa.

Belinda's gone."

"Gone?" He looked at me, at my tear-streaked face and bloodshot eyes. "I told her not to do it. I told her it was wrong, but she said it was the best, for everyone's best." He stared down at his hands and shook his head. "She always knew what was best, so what could I say?"

"He's just more confused than ever," Cary explained. "What happens now?"

"They are taking her to the infirmary and then calling Grandma Olivia. The arrangements are already made. They were made five minutes after she was brought here," I added bitterly. "Grandma Olivia thinks of everything, plans, plots, never misses a beat for fear of a moment's embarrassment for her precious family."

Cary nodded.

"Yet," he said, "you appreciate all that at times like this."

I hated to admit he was right, to give her any credit. "Please, take me home," I said.

"Okay. Grandpa, we've got to go now. I'll be back to see you again."

Grandpa Samuel turned back to us, his face full of seriousness, his eyes small and dark as he nodded with tight lips.

"She decided it was for the best," he said. "But I'm not so sure. Go down in the basement. You decide," he added.

"He's just doing a lot of babbling today," Cary explained. He squeezed Grandpa Samuel's hand softly, patted him on the shoulder and then guided me out.

We didn't stop at Mrs. Greene's office nor did we stop at the checker table to tell Mr. Mandel. I thought it was better for him to find out himself. I still felt like I was in a daze anyway.

"I'm sorry," Cary said as we drove off. "I know how much you wanted to get to know her and to get her to know you."

"It was starting to happen, Cary. Each time I visited, she seemed to remember more."