The surgery went well. When the bandages came off in January, Danny could turn his head all the way to the left for the first time in three years.
He called us from the hospital. On a video call. He turned his head back and forth, back and forth, grinning like an idiot.
“Look, Ellie!” he said. “Look! I can see over my shoulder!”
“You look like an owl,” Ellie said.
“Owls can turn their heads almost all the way around,” Danny said. “I’m almost an owl.”
Ellie laughed so hard she fell off the couch.
We fixed the roof.
A man named Earl from Earl’s Roofing came out in November with his two sons and a truck full of shingles. It took them three days. They found rot in the rafters over Ellie’s room. They replaced all of it.
When they were done, Ellie made me take Gerald out to the backyard. She wanted to say goodbye.
