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“Her mind seems to be fine, Meredith ”
“But—”
“She’s grieving Give her some time ”
“But—”
“There’s no nor like this They were married for five decades and now she’s alone Just listen to her, if you can; talk to her And don’t let her be alone too much ”
“Believe me, Jim, my mom is alone whether I am in the room or not ”
“So be alone together ”
“Yeah,” Meredith said “Right Thanks, Jiet back to work I have a two-fifteen”
“Maybe you should try slowing down I can give you a sleeping pill prescription if you’d like ”
Meredith wished she had ten bucks for every tiiven her that advice She’d be on a Mexican beach with the money “Sure, Jim,” she said “I’ll stop and smell the roses ”
On a blistering hot day, ton State, Nina stood aees As far as she could see, there were people huddled in front of dirty, sagging tents Their situation was critical;or shot or raped, but their stoicism was remarkable Heat and dust beat down on them; they walked miles for a bucket of water, waited hours for a measure of rice fro in the dirt; every now and then the sound of laughter rose above the crying
Nina was as filthy and tired and hungry as those around her She’d lived in this camp for teeks now Before that, she’d been in Sierra Leone, ducking and hiding to avoid being shot or raped herself
She squatted down in the dry, dirty red soil The hus and voices and distantfluttered above an army-issue tent Hundreds of injured people stood patiently in line for help
In front of her, sprawled half in and half out of a tent, an old, wizened black , and the bloody stump seeped red beneath the blanket that rapped around hi hi She tipped precious drops of water into his mouth
Nina capped her lens and stood up Staring out over the camp, she felt an exhaustion that was new for her For the first tiedy of it all was nearly unbearable It wasn’t worse here than where she’d been before That wasn’t it The situation hadn’t changed She had She carried grief with her everywhere, and the burden of it made compartmentalization impossible