“Any news from upstate?” Peter asked, as he always does at dinner.

He was disappointed when I shook my head.  “But Carolynn and Robin are coming this weekend,” I said, in attempt to cheer him. “Sam will be home too.”

He perked up. “Ooo, anything I have to do?” If he had a tail he would’ve wagged it.

“You did what you had to do today.”

“What did I do?”

“Got your hair cut so you’ll look handsome.”

“I always look handsome,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “More handsome,” I said.

“Really? That was today?” his face, scrunched in disbelief, resembled a cabbage patch doll.

I nodded. “Afterwards, we went to Our Daily Bread for coffee.”

“We did? What did I have?”

“Your usual…”

“What’s that?”

“Apple turnover and coffee.”

“Really? That was today?”

“Yup.”

“I’m getting worse, aren’t I?”

My smile turned upside down.

“But I know what to do when I’m doing it,” he said.  “That part of my brain is OK. I can talk to the people at the…the…places where we go…I forget where…with Nobby…I just can’t remember when I did it.”

“You, Nobby and Bill go every Tuesday afternoon, and every Wednesday morning,” I said.

He shook his head and stared out the window. “But I remember you! And Nobby! That’s good isn’t it?”

“Mmm-mm,” I said.

“Any news from upstate?”

Carolynn and Robin will be here by dinnertime today. Peter will be glad to see them and will do his jolly, welcoming thing, but he’ll say I didn’t tell him they were coming.

Header photo: Family beach vacation that Peter doesn’t remember. 2011.

2016 National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ contest finalist.