ABSTRACT
It was an unusually rainy December, cool and drenched. Aside from his view through the large plate-glass window in the main room of his flat, Patrick did not see much of the rain. He stayed mostly in the chair, wearing a path in the carpet between it and the bedroom or it and the loo. Deirdre relaxed into her caretaker role; she was doing some work, remotely, for her office back home, but otherwise sat with Patrick, tried to get him up and about, occasionally went for a run. She kept a calendar of visits, two or three a day, from friends in town. Some traveled in just to see him, worried from the updates they’d received on the massive mailing list set up by two of Patrick’s closest friends, Robin and Jan.
