Free Holding Hands by Judith Arnold

Chapter
One
     
    “ I’M SEEING SOMEONE,”
Meredith’s mother said.
    Meredith tucked the cordless phone more
firmly between her ear and her shoulder, freeing her hands to press
the lid of the plastic container containing that evening’s
leftovers into place. Emily had moved out several weeks ago, but
Meredith still hadn’t gotten the portions right. She’d intended to
make stir-fry chicken for two, but somehow she’d made enough for
three. This container would be joining the foil-wrapped slab of
salmon, the tub of cooked pasta with clam sauce and the chunk of
rib-eye steak in the refrigerator. Maybe tomorrow, she’d reheat all
the leftovers and serve a buffet dinner.
    She let her mother’s words settle into her
brain. Several possible meanings took shape: “I’m seeing someone
about that thing that looks like a fungus on my toenail.” Or “I’m
seeing someone in the rocking chair your dad always loved. I think
it’s his ghost. Does that mean I’m crazy?” Or...
    “ You’re seeing someone?”
    “ Charlie Abrams. Remember, I
told you he and his wife Helen moved here to Sunshine Village a
couple of weeks ago.”
    “ You’re seeing a married man ?” The
container of stir-fry went forgotten as Meredith gripped the phone,
pressing it against her ear to make sure she hadn’t misinterpreted
her mother’s words.
    “ Helen has Alzheimer’s. I
told you all this when they moved in, don’t you remember? He’s
living in my building, and she’s living in the memory care unit
across the way.”
    Meredith’s mother probably had told her. She
regaled Meredith on a daily basis with news and gossip about her
neighbors in the assisted-living community. This one had to go on
oxygen for her COPD. That one’s granddaughter visited from
California. This one had a big fight with that one over the Sudoku
puzzle in the newspaper. So many names, Meredith couldn’t keep
track of them.
    “ What exactly do you mean
by seeing him?”
Meredith asked.
    Her mother blithely ignored the question.
“Charlie is such a good husband. He goes over to the memory care
unit every day and has lunch with Helen. But she’s been
deteriorating for years. Sometimes she doesn’t even remember who he
is. Thank God your father went fast, and his brain was still
intact. My heart breaks for Charlie, what he’s been through. We’ve
been having dinner together. He’s a sweetheart.”
    A sweetheart who was hitting on her mother
while his wife was living just across the courtyard in the building
for residents suffering from dementia. Very sweet.
    “ We’ve been going to the
evening movies together,” her mother continued. “Last night they
showed The King’s Speech . An excellent movie, did you see it? It won an
Oscar.”
    “ Mom. He’s married. ”
    “ To a woman who sometimes
puts her socks on her ears instead of her feet. Honey, we’re all
getting old. We don’t have that many years left. We need to grab
happiness where we can find it.” Meredith’s mother sighed happily.
“He held my hand while we watched the movie. Your father and I
always used to hold hands at the movies. It’s been such a long time
since I held hands with a man.”
    As long as they were just holding hands,
Meredith supposed there wasn’t too much harm in it. Her father had
died from a catastrophic stroke three years ago, and her mother had
been alone since then. For two and a half of those years, she’d
remained stubbornly in the house she and Meredith’s father had
called home their entire married life. She’d grieved, she’d
withdrawn, she’d grown increasingly isolated. Meredith and her
sister had finally uprooted her and moved her to Sunrise Village,
and the woman had come back to life
    Perhaps a bit too much life. But hell, if her
mother wanted to hold hands with a man while they watched a movie,
so be it. Her mother was still pretty and vivacious. She’d been the
queen of her high school’s prom as a teenager, a beauty pageant
winner in college,