Whitey and Sweet Marie greet their mother quiet, as if she had been gone from them for some time, and might still be a mirage. The girls pass the mashed potatoes to their Maw. They set the gravy tureen at her right side and rise up quietly to refill the salt celler. Their fingers gone soft around their water glasses, just resting there, as though a sudden move would send the familiar away again. They talk to each other softly, and whisper their replies, and let the conversation spread out and drift, letting their words trail moss-like behind their Maw as she gets up from the table and slowly leaves the room, carries herself up the stairs, down the hall, and into her bedroom. The girls say nothing now, as they hear her heavy body settle hard into the bed above.