She dropped her spoon and replied, “Will, do you want me to leave? Have I become a burden?” I quickly said, “No of course not! I was just askin...g because…well…I don’t want you to leave just yet.” She smiled and I got the feeling she knew that already. She grabbed my hand and said, “I still have a whole month left but I’m not sure I should stay here. Don’t get me wrong, I am truly grateful for all you have done and I enjoy spending time with you, but, we just met and I don’t think it is right. As we walked out the door, Mom chuckled, "Dr. Morris is ALWAYS runningbehind schedule - he tries to fit in too many patients!"On the way home we stopped at the drugstore to get the prescriptionfilled. The pharmacist read the directions out loud to us. "Applysparingly twice daily to affected areas after thorough cleansing. Keepaway from eyes and mouth." Then she looked at me and said, "You shoulduse it in the morning and before going to bed." Mom thanked her andpaid, and we drove home."Mom, I'm. I suppose you could run out of town and then ride back in. We don’t really have any big lakes around here, but there is a really nice big pond over by Culverin Hill.”“How far away is that?”“Maybe five miles.”Molly looked at her husband. “You could run over there with us following, swim around the pond - is the pond big enough to swim a few laps in?” she asked, looking at her daughter-in-law. Jessica silently nodded. “And then you could ride the bike back and go around town.”“That would work.”. My gentle lovers had been forced to enforce my cruel discipline. It had been the right thing to do, but it still hurt.As they felt the sorrow and remorse I was feeling, they, too, began to cry, helping me to grieve. We sat together, holding one another, supporting one another, loving one another. A fucking Kodak moment, if there ever was one.Finally, our tears and sobs lessened and stopped. Kleenex appeared and, to a chorus of honking that would have made a flock of geese proud, we cleaned.