man, boom ka-cha-boom
              Take a look in a telephone book, boom ba-dee-boom
              Call each Elder Care, see if heâs there, ooh pa-pa-shoo
              Direct this car to the closest bar, choo na-na do
              Make some connections, get directions, ooh la-la-shoo
              Find a notary, sign by four-thirty, oom ba-dee-boom
              Back home by ten. Good deal. Amen.
Heâd stop at a Burger King and order a Whopper with fries and a large Cokeâfood frowned upon in nursing homes. After spreading the meal on Rossâs food tray, heâd dig into the paper sack and produce a dozen sugar packets. Old people stole them to prove they were thrifty, able to recognize an opportunity to save a few cents. âYouâd better believe it,â theyâd say. âEvery penny counts!â
The highway climbed through Sedillo Pass. Charred ground and black tree trunks told of a recent forest fire. Heâd missed the event and no one had mentioned it. When heâd asked what had happened in his absence, folks had said, âNot a hell of a lot. Elmer Rodriguez got fired from his job at the high school for taking his Spanish class on a field trip to Chihuahua, buying them booze, and sleeping with two girls. At one time. Terra Thompson let her eight-year-old son offer a hot dog to a brown bear that had been curious about the contents of their garbage can and the kid got his hand chewed off. Alex Hampton couldnât get into the Volunteer Fire Department where heâd forgotten his glasses so he shot the lock off with his pistol. The bullet ricocheted and put a hole in his radiator.â Really, seemed he never left.
Descending from the pass, prickly pear, bear grass, and yucca sprouted along the rocky mountainside. Ahead, the land spread flat as spilled paint through the ruggedmountains of the Gila Wilderness. The trees were still green in the small town of Los Olmos. He continued south for another forty miles, turned west at Badger Creek and switch-backed down the tight curves into Arizona in second gear. No sense hurrying. Go slow or get killed.
Right away he felt trapped in strange surroundings, as though a twelve-foot-high concrete wall divided the two states, different as orange and purple. In Arizona, heâd have to abide by someone elseâs rules, look respectable, throw trash in a can, smoke outside. The fences said, âDo Not Trespass,â instead of, âJump Over Me,â and the gates said, âKeep Out,â instead of, âPlease Close.â Heâd been to Colorado once and it was the same. Civilized. Already homesick, as if an invisible rope tugged him back to Dax County, he resisted the pull back to New Mexico and stayed on course. But man, heâd take a piñon-and-juniper-covered mesa over ocotillos and saguaros any day. This bleak desert was a long way from the Grand Canyon, the one appealing Arizona attraction. Heâd love to hike to the bottom of that deep crack in the earth, but they wouldnât let you go without a guide. Heâd never see it. Nobody was going to guide him, no way, no how.
He pushed through the glass doors of La Ventana Nursing Home. Holding his hat against his chest, he smiled meekly at the girl behind the reception desk, and signed in as ânephewâ in the relationship column.
He found room 328 at the end of a long, wide corridor, the door ajar. Ross sat in a recliner holding a magnifying glass over the Sierra Vista Herald, the Tucson Daily Star scattered on the floor beside his chair. A wall-mounted TV, dresser, hospital bed, desk, and bedside table made up the furnishings. Pictures of Owen, Rita, and the grandkids faced the bed