He once admired her quiet efficiency.

But now she moves cheerfully through her task and he knows that he will never look her in the eye again.

“There you go, all clean.”

He arranges his face into a smile as his wife tucks the clean sheets around his failing body.

Delancey Stewart is a fiction writer living in Southern Maryland. When no indulging her imagination, she works for the man as a tech writer and tends two small boys who, her husband assures her, are hers. Find her at delanceystewart.wordpress.com.