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Heavenly looked more closely at her.
    “What?” Paula pulled back. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Paula returned the look. “No, I didn’t get a name.” She gestured with her head for Heavenly to follow her out into the hall.
    She dialed Eleni and put her on speaker.
    “Hi, Ma.”
    “Oh, Paula, it’s you.” Her mother sounded surprised. “You never call on Wednesday.”
    “Ma, remember the old man with the dog who used to walk around the neighborhood when I was a kid?” She waited.
    “Ma—the one in the long black wool coat?” she went on. “The one I called ‘Theo’?”
    There was a long silence before her mother answered.
    “I’m busy taking up a hem,” Eleni said.
    At first Paula thought her mother was giving her the bum’s rush except for the edge of impatience in Eleni’s voice.
    Heavenly leaned against the wall and made a face. What a pain in the ass Eleni could be. Despite the gravity of the moment, it made Paula laugh.
    “Ma, I know you remember—”
    “What theo ?” Eleni blurted out. “Everyone was ‘Theo.’”
    “The one you said not to call ‘Theo’ because he wasn’t my theo. And when I asked you what to call him, you said, ‘Call him tipota, ’ meaning ‘nothing.’”
    Eleni was silent.
    “He’s dying, Ma.”
    Celeste took the phone. “Mrs. Makaikis, we need to contact a relative,” Celeste spoke in her official-capacity voice.
    Paula’s mother was silent, which was odd. Ordinarily Eleni would have made accusations about selfish children who move off to places like Arizona and California, leaving their parents behind to languish.
    Celeste handed back the phone. Paula tipped it up to check the bars; she looked up and shrugged.
    “Mitera?” Paula asked in Greek. “Eleni,” she called her mother by name, which she’d never done, hoping to snap her out of whatever had silenced her.
    “Ti?” Eleni’s “What?” sounded curt in Greek.
    “Remember the man who wore the black topcoat even in summer, who always carried a tote with him and had a dog on a rope?” Paula asked.
    “Dthen ksero tipota.”
    They only spoke Greek when there was something they didn’t want others to hear.
    “That’s not true,” Paula answered. “Speak English, Ma—I know you remember him.”
    An uncomfortable shuffling came through the line. Eleni was never known to falter; it was always the other party who sat on tacks.
    Paula broke first. “Ma, you used to scold me, telling me his dog was filthy and had disease.”
    Celeste’s eyes narrowed.
    “He’d sneak into the back of the church at Easter,” Paula said. “Everyone would whisper. He’d tie his dog to the outside railing. I’d sneak out to sit with the dog and you’d scold me.”
    Celeste grinned, slowly shaking her head.
    “Did he have any kids, Ma?”
    “Only a nephew. Peter Fanourakis from Staten Island,” Eleni said in a quiet voice. “Probably lives in Jersey now—I’ll call Rania; maybe she knows.”
    “Weren’t we from the same village—”
    “This village, that village!” Eleni hollered. “What’s the hell’s the difference at this point?”
    Paula’s mouth fell open. Heavenly’s eyes widened, her eyebrows arching so high they almost touched her hairline.
    “Crazy young man, crazy old man, so what?” Eleni’s voice sounded about to break.
    “I’m handing you back to Celeste.”
    “Thanks, Mrs. Makaikis.” Celeste took the phone and began scribbling notes.
    Paula stepped back into the room to sit with Theo. She touched his relaxed hand as the nurse checked in, monitoring his vitals. After a brief conversation with Heavenly, the nurse looked at Paula and smiled. Heavenly then sat back in a La-Z-Boy chair in the corner of the room.
    Within the hour Theo could no longer respond. The room fell silent. It was a different kind of stillness, a quiet Paula had never heard. Heavenly stood and walked over to take his pulse. She looked at Paula and then reached to press the call button.
    Paula