“You needn’t stand.” Whistler smiles, solicitous, his hand on the chairback. “Sit here, Mother. Look straight ahead.”

He arranges her hands, fusses with the fall and folds of delicate white lace.

She wriggles free. “I’ll get your socks to darn, Jemie. I can’t just sit here doing nothing, wasting time.

Miriam N. Kotzin teaches creative writing and literature at Drexel University. Her collection of short fiction, Country Music (Spuyten Duyvil Press 2017), joins a novel, The Real Deal (Brick House Press 2012), and a collection of flash fiction, Just Desserts (Star Cloud Press 2010). She is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently, Debris Field (David Robert Books 2017).