By September, Owen and I hadn’t gone anywhere alone together in seven months.
Not dinner.
Not shopping.
Not even a short walk.
We tried.
In February, Lisa promised to visit so we could go to an Italian restaurant.
She canceled the day before.
In April, our neighbor offered to stay with Frank while we attended a concert.
That afternoon, Frank became frightened because he didn’t recognize her.
We stayed home.
In June, we hired a caregiver so we could spend an afternoon at the beach.
We barely reached the parking lot before the caregiver called.
Frank had locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out.
After that, we mostly stopped trying.
One night in bed, I asked Owen,
“
If you could do one completely normal thing right now, what would it be?”
He thought about it.
“Go to a movie.”
“That’s all?”
“Sit in the dark. Eat overpriced popcorn. Forget everything for two hours.”
