Shirley gave them more grapefruit than they
could eat before the trip home, so they just
bagged it and put it in the cooler. Nancy
told him not to eat the grapefruit in the morn-
ing when he took his blood-pressure medicine
because it would interfere with the medicine.
He told her he knew that but thanked her for
the concern. The grapefruit survived the four-
day trip so they had some when they arrived
and several days thereafter. The last, two re-
maining grapefruit were awfully soft, so his
wife squeezed them into juice which tasted
just fine. He drank it on the deck and spit the
seeds over the railing. He sent an e-mail to
Shirley thanking her again for the grapefruit
and telling her how long they lasted. She e-
mailed back saying she missed them already
and was really glad the grapefruit lasted that
long and that she was sure it would because
the grapefruit is really hearty this time of
year. She thanked them again for lunch at
the Giant Dragon, something they do every
winter, and that she just loves the pork
noodle bowl (which she always gets), half of
which she takes back to her condo for dinner
but only because it is cooked and that, even
though she is not religious, she wouldn’t
carry raw pork into her place or put it in
the refrigerator because it would contaminate
the other food. She noted that Nancy wanted
her to remind him to be sure not to eat the
grapefruit in the morning and that she really
missed them, too and how glad they both were
that he and his wife finally had gotten to meet
their sons, daughters-in-law, who were Gentile
but that was alright, and the beautiful babies.
He thought he would wait awhile before he
responded.