Abandoned: MIA in Vietnam Read Free Page A

had to speak. “You’re depressed, Dad.”
    “Yeah, I suppose I am. A little. Maybe.”
    “What did you do to drive Mom away?” she asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “Really? I don’t think she has spent six months here in this so-called active adult community since you moved in, what, two years ago?”
    “About that. Well, it’s better than those inactive adult communities you compare it to,” Wolfe said.
    “It is like a cemetery, in ways. Maybe three steps prior: this, then assisted living, then nursing home, then inactive adult community,” she said. “But that’s not why Mom isn’t around, is it?”
    “Well, she’s much younger than I am,” Wolfe said.
    “She knew that when she married you. Something else?”
    Wolfe fell silent. Kayla waited. She had learned some things in her two semester-psychology course. Prime directive: wait the patient out. Silence asked better questions than most therapists did.
    “I did retire, you know,” Wolfe said.
    “Yes….”
    “I spend a lot more time at home than she was used to.”
    “And….”
    “She was much more efficient as an office nurse. You know, multitasking,” he said.
    Kayla waited, steering him away from the clubhouse and toward Inverness Drive, lengthening their walk around the block.
    “But she wasn’t interested in the best way to load the dishwasher, or the most efficient way to do laundry, or how food should be stored in the refrigerator or pantry. They are both small here and if you don’t pack them so the most used stuff is up front, then you spend all day re-arranging things to get what you need.”
    “When did you become an efficiency expert?” she asked and immediately regretted the inference.
    “I’ll have you know that as an intern and physician I learned one hell of a lot about being efficient.”
    “Sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean that,” Kayla said quickly, blushing. “I meant that’s what Mom must have thought, after years of running the household without your help. Why don’t we get you a hobby? Something you can do and stay out of her hair.”
    “I’ve tried. Thought of a lot of things,” Wolfe said. “But some are too expensive, like building or converting another internal combustion vehicle to electricity. She was really upset with that. I spent twenty grand on it over four years, but then never drove it. I guess the driving wasn’t the challenge that building it was.”
    “Was that EVie, the electric vehicle you gave to the college so the students could disassemble it and reassemble it?”
    Wolfe shrugged. He said, “Yeah. Great tax deduction. But who needs tax deductions when you’re living on social security?”
    “Don’t play poor with me, Dad. You may live on social security, but your house and automobiles are paid for. And you have some investments.”
    “Not good enough for your mother,” Wolfe said. “Remember, she’s the daughter of a very, very successful, rich radiologist. And she remembers her old life style. She thought she married another rich doctor, not a struggling one.”
    Kayla put her arm around her father. He felt thin, less substantial than the last time she had hugged him. Old age, and two families, had worn him down. Maybe he had reason to be depressed. “You’re not sick are you?” she asked.
    “Aside from the usual osteoarthritis in my knees, spinal stenosis in my back, the pernicious anemia, and Barrett’s esophagitis, I’m as healthy as a horse. Except my BUN and creatinine are climbing slowly. Too many anti-inflammatories, likely. But you aren’t interested in that, or you would be applying to medical school, right?” he asked.
    “Right,” she agreed. “But still, a hobby.”
    “I thought about electronics, too expensive. Even bought a guitar. Can’t sit still long enough to practice with my back pain. I’ll find something eventually, or it will find me.”
    “What do you mean it will find you?”
    Wolfe said, “I have a bad habit of becoming obsessed by something. Like