The mattress was too firm; she wasn’t in her own bed. And there was a strange pinching sensation in her left arm.Joanna yawned and stretched then op...ned her eyes. She was in a hospital, in a private room, wearing a hospital gown and hooked up to a drip. Her mother was sitting in a chair pulled right up to the side of the bed, her face looking tired and shrouded in worry.“Welcome back, darling,” said her mother, breaking into a broad smile that seemed to wipe ten years off her in an instant.. ’ ‘Sounds good to me Mary. Why don’t you have a glass with me? She pours two glasses of white wine, re-corks the bottle, and sticks it back in the fridge. I pull a paper plate off the stack and load it up with chicken, potato salad, and slaw. She leads me out to the pool where the boys are splashing about.. ‘Have a seat at the table. It’s shady here and I can watch the kids swim.’ I have just taken a bite out of a chicken leg when Tom walks through the door. He looks like death warmed over. He. Ihave very mixed emotions as I go through the final moves, positions,responses. As I leave after my last class, where the students areunderstanding but still a little depressed that I won?t be continuingmy instruction, I come by Avery who is also now a little gloomy in hisway.He has only a hint of his normal smile as he says quietly, ?Hey, Chris,I know you?ll be around, but the time you?ve been teaching here hasbeen great. It?s helped the gym grow and lots of students have reallyappreciated. My eyes flickered and blinked open. I found myself looking out through my two eyes like they were portholes in my skull. I felt disconnected – watching from a great distance and peering through those two small circles way out there in front of me.I could see Tara sitting at the other end of the bath. She had thrown her clothes into a pile and climbed in with me. There was plenty of room for her since I was occupying such a small space with my legs drawn up against my chest.Tara’s mouth was.