19 Chapter 19

“I hope I fit somewhere in that equation.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow, or the next day.”

I heard him sigh and light a cigarette. “You’re an asset to the newspaper, Cody. I wouldn’t want to lose you.”

“I’ll call you soon, Hugh.”

After I ed the call, I thought hard about what Hugh had said, You’re an asset to the newspaper.

Long ago, somebody once told me the importance of relationships. It was my father who said, “Build connections that make you happy. Otherwise, you’ll live a long, sad life.”

When I went back inside, my father was sitting up in bed, staring back at me with a glazed expression, as if I were a stranger and someone he’d never met. A nurse came into the room to give him a sponge bath, and he didn’t fight her, his body and brain numb from the drugs. I left the room and walked to the family lounge to let the nurse do her job.

Twenty minutes later, I sat with my dad, holding his hand. When lunch arrived, I told the male orderly to take it away. “He won’t be eating.”