extra half pill added hereââhe pointed to the chartââand here.â
âSo basically he still gets a dose every three hours,â Zee repeated, to be certain she was correct. âThough two of those doses will increase.â
âThatâs right,â the doctor said. âEvery three hours except when heâs asleep. Thereâs no need to give him a pill if heâs sleeping.â
âHe nods off all the time. If I donât wake him to give him his pills, heâll only get one every six hours.â
âWake him during the day, but donât give him anything at night,â he instructed. âYou have any trouble sleeping at night, Professor Finch?â
âSome,â Finch said.
The doctor reached for his prescription pad and wrote a prescription for trazodone. âThis is to help you sleep,â he said to Finch. To Zee he said, âIt should help with the sundowning as well, which should stop his wandering. And give him his first dose of Sinemet about an hour before he rises. Heâll want to move, but heâll be too stiff. We see some nasty falls in the mornings.â
Zee looked at Finch.
âYour daughter will have to keep a close eye on you in the morning,â the doctor kidded.
She wanted to tell the doctor that she didnât live with her father, that it was Melville he should be telling all this to, but Melville hadnâtcome home last night, and she had no idea where he was. When she had asked Finch where he was, all he would say was that Melville was gone.
The doctor started to the door and turned back. âDo you have ramps and grab bars?â
âHe has one grab bar,â she said. âIn the shower.â
âIâm going to send over an occupational therapist to check the house. The OT can tell you what youâre missing.â
The doctor extended his hand for Finch to shake. âNice to see you again, Professor,â he said too loudly, as if he were talking to a deaf person and not someone with what Zee had just now come to realize was advanced Parkinsonâs. She wasnât certain how Finch and Melville had kept that fact from her.
âIâm sorry the meds didnât work out,â the doctor said. âNot so bad to be Nathaniel Hawthorne for a day or two, though, all things considered.â
Finch didnât smile back. He took Zeeâs arm as they left the office together.
âYou lied to the doctor about the freezing thing,â Zee said. âIâve seen you freeze.â She remembered the last time Finch had come to Boston for one of his checkups. As they were leaving the restaurant, heâd frozen on his way out the front door. He couldnât move forward and he couldnât move back. They had all stood helplessly waiting for the freeze to break, freeing Finch to step out the door.
âNot for a while,â he lied. âI havenât frozen once since the last time he asked me that damned question.â
8
F RIDAY-AFTERNOON TRAFFIC NORTH FROM Boston was brutally slow. Zee dialed the house again from her cell, hoping that Melville would answer. She was really starting to worry about him.
âDid he go to see his family?â she asked. Melville had family somewhere in Maine, a sister and two nieces. They werenât close, but heâd been known to make occasional visits.
âNo,â Finch said.
âWell, where the heck is he?â Zee was frustrated. She had asked Finch where Melville was at least ten times and was tiring of his one-syllable answers.
Melville had seldom left Finchâs side for the better part of twenty years now, a fact that Zee found difficult to comprehend in these times of trial marriages and soaring divorce rates. The two had become a couple long before her motherâs suicide, though Zee had been too young to realize it at the time. When theyâd first gotten together, Zee had believed her father when he told her
Pierre V. Comtois, Charlie Krank, Nick Nacario