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his wheelchair so his grandfather could pass.
    “And you are the trooper,” Roger responded, rubbing the boy’s head as he walked out the door.
    Alex moved his chair to follow him. “Don’t forget the plants out back!” he yelled as Roger made his way off the porch.
    And Roger threw up his hand to wave good-bye, picked up the hose he had left at the side of the house, and moved around the corner to finish the task of watering his ex-wife’s neglected and scattered garden.

Chapter Six
    N o red icing.” Malene spoke sharply into the receiver. “That red dye is not safe. I don’t care what the FDA approved.” She slipped the mouthpiece away from her lips. “I’ll be right there, Mrs. Henderson,” she said to the patient who was pulling on the edge of the counter at the nurses’ station where Malene was on the phone. The older woman was trying to lift herself out of her seat. As soon as she stood, the alarm on her wheelchair sounded.
    “Mrs. Henderson!” Malene called out. She dropped the phone and ran over to her patient. She got to Mrs. Henderson just as she wobbled but before she fell. Malene carefully placed her back in her seat. She turned off the small alarm clipped to the wheelchair and pulled a belt around her patient. “You cannot get up without help!” she shouted, tightening the belt. “You’re going to fall again!”
    “I just want my yellow pill,” Mrs. Henderson said. “It’s time for my yellow pill.” She waved Malene away. “You people never give me the pill at the right time.”
    Malene pulled the wheelchair away from the station and placed her patient next to the wall, facing where she had just been trying to stand. “You had your pill at lunchtime, Mrs. Henderson,” she said, her voice softer this time. “It was the yellow one, and you have it with meals. Please just sit over here for a bit while I finish my phone call,” she added, “and then I’ll take you back to your room. Your show starts in ten minutes. I’m trying to get Alex a birthday cake.”
    “Alex has a birthday?” The older woman perked up. “That sweet boy. How old is he now?” she asked, sounding clear and alert.
    “He’ll be eleven,” Malene replied, walking back to the phone. She picked up the receiver and heard a dial tone. “They hung up,” she said.
    “Alex is the son of an angel, and he brings me the evening light.”
    Malene smiled. Like everyone in Pie Town, the residents at Carebridge loved Alex. Malene often brought him to the nursing home with her when she worked the second shift. He played bingo with the patients and helped serve meals. It was his job to turn on the table lamps for every resident after dinner and say good-night. “That’s exactly right, Mrs. Henderson. Alex brings us light.” She placed the receiver back in the cradle. “Oh well, I guess I’ll have to call back.”
    “What kind of cake are you getting?” Christine, one of the other nursing assistants, had walked into the station. She was young, just out of community college, and she often worked alongside Malene. Even though she was young enough to be Malene’s daughter, they were friends.
    “It should be yellow!” Mrs. Henderson yelled out. “A yellow cake with an angel.”
    “She say that she didn’t get her pill?” Christine asked, noticing the patient next to the wall.
    Malene nodded. “What is it with her and that yellow pill?” she asked. “Why does she get so worried about not taking that one?”
    Christine shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s the one she thinks is keeping her alive.”
    “I can hear you,” Mrs. Henderson noted, glaring at the two women talking about her. “Take me back to my room. My show is starting.”
    Christine rolled her eyes in the direction of Malene and walked over to the patient. “How many times has Erica been married?” she asked, referring to a character on the soap opera her patient watched. She had become familiar with the characters and the