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We heard slow shuffling steps inside the apart moment later my mother opened the door

"Bonsoir, Maman," Joe said

I just stared at her

She was very thin and very gray and very stooped and she looked about a hundred years older than the last ti heavy plaster cast on her left leg and she was leaning on an alu it hard and I could see bones and veins and tendons standing out She was tre Her skin looked translucent Only her eyes were the same as I remembered them They were blue and merry and filled with amusement

"Joe," she said "And Reacher"

She always called me by my last name Nobody remembered why Maybe I had started it, as a kid Maybe she had continued it, the way families do

"My boys," she said "Just look at the two of you"

She spoke slowly and breathlessly but she was sed her She felt cold and frail and insubstantial She felt like she weighed less than her aluminum walker

"What happened?" I said

"Come inside," she said "Make yourselves at home"

She turned the walker around with short cluh the hallway She was panting and wheezing I stepped in after her Joe closed the door and followed me The hallas narrow and tall and was followed by a living room ood floors and white sofas and white walls and framed mirrors My mother made her way to a sofa and backed up to it slowly and dropped herself into it She seemed to disappear in its depth

"What happened?" I asked again

She wouldn&039;t answer She just waved the inquiry aith an impatient movement of her hand Joe and I sat down, side by side

"You&039;re going to have to tell us," I said

"We caht you were just visiting," she said

"No you didn&039;t," I said

She stared at a spot on the wall

"It&039;s nothing," she said

"Doesn&039;t look like nothing"

"Well, it was just bad tiot unlucky," she said

"How?"

"I was hit by a car," she said "It broke "

"Where? When?"

"Teeks ago," she said "Right outside , I had an u my eyes, I stepped out, and the driver saw ht into me, very slowly, like slow motion, but I was transfixed and I couldn&039;t ently, like a kiss, but it snapped a bone It hurt like hell"

I saw inlot outside the nude bar near Bird, writhing around in an oily puddle

"Why didn&039;t you tell us?" Joe asked

She didn&039;t answer

"But it&039;ll ht?" he asked

"Of course," she said "It&039;s trivial"

Joe just looked at me

"What else?" I said

She kept on looking at the wall Did the disain

"What else?" Joe asked

She looked at aveto the to them, old women who break bones are at risk from pneus can fill and get infected"

"And?"

She said nothing

"Have you got pneumonia?" I said

"No"

"So what happened?"

"They found out With the X ray"

"Found what out?"

"That I have cancer"

Nobody spoke for a long time

"But you already knew," I said

She s," she said "I already knew"

"For how long?"

"For a year," she said

Nobody spoke

"What sort of cancer?" Joe said

"Every sort there is, now"

"Is it treatable?"

She shook her head

"Was it treatable?"

"I don&039;t know," she said "I didn&039;t ask"

"What were the symptoms?"

"I had stomachaches I had no appetite"

"Then it spread?"

"Now I hurt all over It&039;s indoesn&039;t help"

"Why didn&039;t you tell us?"

She shrugged Gallic, feminine, obstinate

"What was to tell?" she said

"Why didn&039;t you go to the doctor?"

She didn&039;t answer for a time

"I&039;m tired," she said

"Of what?" Joe said "Life?"

She smiled "No, Joe, I o to bed, is what I mean We&039;ll talk some more tomorrow I promise Don&039;t let&039;s have a lot of fuss now"

We let her go to bed We had to We had no choice She was the inable We found stuff to eat in her kitchen She had laid in provisions for us That was clear Her refrigerator was stocked with the kinds of things that wouldn&039;t interest a woman with no appetite We ate pate and cheese and made coffee and sat at her table to drink it The Avenue Rapp was still and silent and deserted, five floors below her

"What do you think?" Joe asked ," I said "That&039;s e caet treatment?"

"It&039;s too late It would be a waste of ti When could anyone make her do what she didn&039;t want to?"

"Why doesn&039;t she want to?"

"I don&039;t know"

He just looked at me