“Hey, hey. You with me? What’s going on?” He shook her shoulders and thought he saw her nod. “Alright, easy now. Who’s the president? Who’s the president?” She muttered a few gnarled words, eyes wild in her sockets. He spoke into her opened mouth as if into a well, each syllable a knot on a rope sent down for her to grab. But her brain, like his grandmother’s, had ejected her far away from where they were sitting.
