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Rosalie Alderas hu "O Come, All Ye Faithful" in the kitchen while Harry watched the news on TV This was Wednesday, their traditional shopping day, and the advertised grocery specials were in thepaper Soup was on special, tomato, his favorite, two cans for a dollar So was ice creaallons for only six dollars The brand wasn&039;t his favorite but ice cream was ice cream, and Harry had always had a weakness for it He didn&039;t have ht of chocolate ice crea

For years - ever since his retire in the et the car warmed up?" Harry asked He&039;d put off the conversation with his daughters about selling it; ht

"Good idea" Rosalie calanced at the advertisements in the paper, spread out on the coffee table

"You&039;ll want to get a few cans of the tomato soup that&039;s on special," he said

"Yes," she agreed

Because Rosalie had gotten so absent lists of ite they were out of both milk and bread He didn&039;t want to h to have his selection of fresh flowers, too Maybe a potted poinsettia in honor of the seasonHis pleasures were few

"I&039;ll get my coat," Rosalie told hiing on the peg by the door She left, and knowing Rosalie, it would take her tenhie, that habit used to irritate him, but not anymore This tendency to daas part of Rosalie&039;s personality and Harry had learned to accept it

Before he went out to the car, he checked the refrigerator

Another of Rosalie&039;s longti food He didn&039;t understand it but had realized years ago that he was the one who&039;d have to toss the leftovers Thankfully, with her cooking so little, there wasn&039;t much A quick inspection of the contents revealed several odd items Frankly Harry had no idea why they needed anchovy paste or five varieties of rief, he hadn&039;t even known they h, it was ten minutes before Rosalie appeared She&039;d put on fresh lipstick and combed her hair "I&039;m ready, Harry"

"Me, too" Rosalie didn&039;t drive His own abilities were severely limited now and he took to the road only when necessary In fact, he hadn&039;t driven since he&039;d gone to see the doctor on Monday The days of Sunday-afternoon excursions into the country had long since passed

One of the advantages of shopping on Wednesday s was the lack of crowds Mostly it was a few folks like Rosalie and hiotten motorized carts for handicapped and elderly patrons, which made the whole experience a lot more pleasant

Harry drove thethe basket Not once in the past year had Rosalie corocery lists, a chore she used to do

They&039;d just turned down the soup and canned vegetable aisle when Lucy Menard entered frohtened as soon as she saw them

"Rosalie," Lucy called out She left her own cart and hurried toward her friend, ared for an extra-longWorld War II, after Rosalie and Harry werein Europe, she and Lucy had rooon, shipyards At one tiodhter, Lorraine Ever since Jake, Lucy&039;s husband, had died, they hadn&039;t seen much of her, which was sad Mostly Harry bla out and about was so difficult these days

"I swear it&039;s been aback She looked good, better than the last time Harry had seen her, which waswell, no wonder It&039;d been at Jake&039;s funeral

"I&039;ve beento let you know I&039;ve moved," Lucy said excitedly

"Moved?" Rosalie seemed to find that hard to believe

Lucy beaone, I shouldn&039;t be living on my own"

"I&039;m surprised you&039;d leave your holanced at Harry, then looked away If it was up to Rosalie she&039;d delay ot a place at Liberty Orchard, the new assisted-living coht Harry&039;s attention and he instantly straightened

"Harry&039;s been saying we need to do so like that, too, but I don&039;t think I can," Rosalie ad" Lucy nodded "I figured after living in the same house for thirty years, I was too old to e I toldme out of my home"

"That&039;s how I feel," Rosalie said, once again avoiding Harry&039;s gaze

"But you did ht?"

"Oh, yes" Lucy smiled contentedly "I always assuet h and packing up all those years of living just overwhelmed me"

Harry knew that was part of Rosalie&039;s probleoodness the kids cah each roo up what I didn&039;t One day I was infriends at Liberty Orchard It&039;s the best thing that&039;s happened to arded her friend "Don&039;t they serve ?"

"The reat, but a few ti sociable That&039;sto eat I&039;ve got erator and microwave and that&039;s all I need" She held up a box of irl "I love this stuff"

"It sounds like the ideal setup," Harry said

"I&039;m not ready," his wife nized her fears, he hoped to reassure her and gently urge her along "Maybe Rosalie and I could coested jauntily, as though he was proposing a casual visit

His hope was that once Rosalie saw the facilities for herself, she&039;d have a change of heart If he couldn&039;t get her to tour Liberty Orchard, perhaps Lucy could

"How about tomorrow afternoon?" Lucy said "Around three o&039;clock? We have a book clubat two and there&039;s an exercise class before that I wouldn&039;t want to miss either one"

"They have exercise classes?" Rosalie sounded i to do every day Before thedeal just to step outside the house"

Rosalie shared a surprised glance with Harry "I knohat you mean We&039;d love to come by, Lucy"

"I&039;ll see you to pleased

She wasn&039;t nearly as pleased as Harry, though This couldn&039;t have worked out better had he planned it Lucy&039;s opportune appearance had led to the next day&039;s visit in the most natural possible way It was exactly what he&039;d prayed would happen

They finished collecting their purchases and by the time they returned to the house Harry needed a nap The doc had insisted he couldn&039;t carry anything heavier than five pounds, so his wife brought in the groceries froe He made it to his recliner and was asleep alhted at hoell the one She sat in the motorized cart Harry had recently vacated, flushed with pleasure

"How did youon the handlebars of the same cart "Did you know about Lucy?"

Hands behind her head, Mercy leaned back, gleeful with joy "I did some research and discovered that Lucy and Rosalie had once been best friends Then I noticed that she&039;d recently moved into Liberty Orchard After that, all I had to do was arrange a coincidental rocery"

"And, pray tell, how did this &039;coincidental&039;co package of microwave popcorn I also shuffled around her collection of DVDs and put It&039;s a Wonderful Life on top Which re - and that, of course, means she needs popcorn" Mercy chortled "Piece of cake"

"Did so down fro up flyers in the store&039;s foyer A youngster chased after them, then disappeared into the store

When Shirley caught sight of Mercy on the motorized cart, her eyes widened "Don&039;t even think about it," she warned "Gabriel asked me to keep an eye on the two of you He knows, as I do, that you aren&039;t to be trusted"