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help her to have you drop out of school?”
    “But what about those expenses? Can we do it?”
    Mike had disappeared into himself. He was usually affectionate and outgoing, the first person in the house to notice another’s unhappiness. But since his wife’s illness had taken over family life, he had begun to withdraw quietly. Cory would see him standing at a window or sitting hand in hand with her mother, and she could tell he was off on some silent, personal journey.
    He had withdrawn now, and Cory gently nudged him back. “Mike,” she said a bit louder, “all that money—do we have it? Can we do it?”
    He looked at her as if the question made no sense. “Of course, Cory. We’ll do it.”
    *
    The town would do it. Within three days of Margaret Knutson’s return home, a community-sponsored fund in her name was opened at the bank, and a committee to plan and coordinate fund-raising events was formed.
    Within ten days, a rummage sale and craft fair were held. Timed to coincide with an influx of visitors to a winter sports festival at a nearby resort, they raised six hundred dollars. Change buckets were placed by every cash register in town, and a series of community events—pancake breakfast, spaghetti supper, covered-basket auction, and dance—was scheduled.
    “The next time I need a new heart,” Margaret said to Cory and Roxanne, “I will arrange to have it happen in the summer. Look at that snow coming down. Only fools would drive through this to eat spaghetti.”
    “Fools,” said Roxanne, “or people who love Margaret Knutson. Good grief, woman, is that husband of yours always so slow getting ready?”
    “Always.”
    “It’s one of the reasons they quit going to church,” said Cory. “They could never get there on time.” She sat on one of the several chairs that had been arranged around her mother’s bed. Roxanne was sitting in for the evening to keep Margaret company while Mike and Cory went to the fund-raiser. She was one of many friends who had organized a loose system of support so Mike and Cory could have time off from the intense caretaking. But even when a good friend was there to keep her mother company, Cory hated leaving. It was usually fun to hang around and listen while her mother joked or reminisced with friends. But because tonight’s dinner was a fund-raiser for the family, she and Mike felt obligated to go.
    “How do I look?” Mike stood behind them, tucking in the tail of his shirt.
    Roxanne and Cory whistled, and Margaret shook her head. “A tie? Since when a tie?”
    He walked over and kissed her. “The husband of the invalid should look his best. Let’s go, Cory. You’re holding us up.” He wagged a finger at his wife and then looked sternly at Roxanne. “Be good, both of you.”
    “We’ll have a great time,” Roxanne said. “After we watch Alien, we plan to call some nine-hundred numbers and talk to young men.”
    Cory and her mother laughed while Mike chewed on his lip. “Aren’t you a grandmother?” he asked.
    “Three times over,” Roxanne said. “Now get out of here.”
    “I know the phone-calling is a joke, but you aren’t really going to watch Alien, are you? It’s pretty scary. She almost didn’t make it through the first time she saw it and she had a good heart then.”
    “Mike, please go,” said Margaret. “I’m not going to do anything more exciting than get up and shuffle to the bathroom.”
    Roxanne followed them to the door and waited with Cory while Mike went ahead to warm up the car. “You be nice to Mac. He volunteered to help in the kitchen tonight.”
    “I’m always nice to him.”
    “Too bad things didn’t work out differently.”
    “There was nothing to work out, Roxanne. I explained to him that I just don’t feel like dating these days.”
    “I know, but Barb said she could tell he was disappointed. I think it would be good—”
    Cory pressed her finger against Roxanne’s lips and shushed her. “I sure can tell that