The oncology wing always smelled the same, bleach and cold metal and plastic IV tubing, and today the scent settled into Adrian's skin the moment they stepped off the elevator and did not leave. He walked his mother down the corridor with his hand at her elbow, adjusting his pace each time her breath stuttered without drawing attention to it. She tried to wave him off twice. He ignored her both times.
She moved slowly. Slower than last week. The steadiness she had always carried through the world, the particular way she had of walking into a room as though she had already decided how it would go, was harder to find in her now. He watched for it anyway, because watching for it was something he could do.
He settled her into the chair in the waiting alcove and draped the blanket she had bro
