"She's in one of these places?" Chad asked.
"Yes, so now you see why she couldn't visit Jordan."
The residence came into view just to the right up a long drive. It was a very large three-story building with a wide portico and stucco made to look like stone. The Grounds were pretty and well manicured with concrete pathways, upon which we saw two people in wheelchairs, each wrapped in blankets, as if it had been very cold outside. Two nuns talked to each other while the residents sat staring at us as we drove up to the parking area. The nuns stopped talking and turned our way. too.
"Now what?" Chad asked after he parked.
"Wait here." Alanis told him.
"Wait here? And do what?"
"Twiddle your thumbs." she said. "C'mon, Jordan," she told me and opened the door. She pulled the seat forward for me to get out.
"You better not be long," Chad threatened.
"Tell you what," Alanis told him. "I'll stay with you as long as I'm in there."
He smiled.
"Okay, deal," he said.
"Why did you say that?" I asked her as we walked toward the entrance.
"It's what he wanted to hear," she said. "Always tell boys what they want to hear."
She opened the big door, and we stepped into the residence lobby. A half dozen or so elderly people were sitting in the lounge watching television. Two were playing cards off to the right. We could hear some soft music piped in over speakers in the walls.
As soon as we entered, a nun started toward us. She didn't look much younger than the residents at the home.
"Can I help you?" she asked us. She smiled. "I'm Sister Andrea." she added.
"Oh, thank you, Sister." Alanis said in the sweetest voice I'd heard her use. "My friend and I took a ride with my boyfriend, who just got his driving license. It's exciting when you first get your license."
"Oh. I'm sure it is." Sister Andrea said, looking more at me now. I thought I would just keep quiet.
"Anyway, there we were trying to figure out where we would go on our first big ride and Jordan here remembered her great- aunt Toby DeMarco was in this residence so we thought we'd stop by and say hello if we could."
"Really? Why, that's very nice of you, a very kind and loving thing to do. Unfortunately, our residents don't get that many visitors."
"Yes. ma'am. She, Jordan, hasn't seen her for a very long time. She was afraid her aunt might not remember her.."
"Oh. Mrs. DeMarco has a very good memory."
"That's good. Our prayers worked," Alanis said.
What prayers? I wondered,
Sister Andrea smiled. "Come this way. She's in her room at the moment, but she's doing fine," she said.
We followed her through a door to a stairway and walked up one flight. As we walked, she asked us where we were from. Alanis mixed the truth with some fabrication, but she did it so smoothly that I almost believed her myself. At the second door on the right, she paused and nodded at it. The door was open. A slim woman with black strains still prominent in her mostly gray, short hair sat with her back to us, looking out her window. There was a large cross over the headboard of the bed and some pictures of family on the dresser and on the small round table to the right. A settee that could sit only two or three at most was just to the right of the table.
"Mrs. DeMarco," Sister Andrea called.
Slowly. Toby DeMarco turned around. Her face was narrow, her nose pointed and her lips thin. Her skin looked pasty and spotted here and there with brown age spots. She wore a dark green housecoat and a pair of fluffy white slippers.
"You have some visitors,'" Sister Andrea told her.
I held my breath. Would she come right out and demand to 'mow who we were? She didn't move. Sister Andrea reached back to put her arm around my shoulder and bring me forward.