The Supplements We Swallow

Margaret arranged the pills on the kitchen counter in neat rows—blood pressure medication, calcium supplements, and the new vitamin D3 her doctor had insisted upon. At seventy-two, the morning ritual was both prayer and penance.

"You're taking that fox supplement again?" Leonard asked, pouring coffee with hands that trembled just slightly. He'd started calling her supplements 'fox supplements' after she'd cleverly replaced his cholesterol pills with placebos last year, hiding the truth of his declining numbers from him for three months.

"It's vitamin D, Len. Just vitamin D." She swallowed the pill dry, as she did everything these days.

Their golden retriever, Barnaby, nudged her hand with his wet nose. Good old Barnaby, who loved them equally, who didn't know that Margaret had been surreptitiously checking Leonard's cognitive tests online, who couldn't understand why she'd started sleeping in the guest room during his confused nighttime wandering.

"Remember when we saw that fox in the backyard?" Leonard asked suddenly, his eyes clearing. "The one with the mange, the winter before last? You made me call animal control. Said it wasn't right to let it suffer."

Margaret's chest tightened. "I remember."

"You've always had such a soft heart, Magpie. That's why I married you. That's why you kept that old dog around when everyone said put him down. You can't bear to let things go."

He stared at her with those sharp blue eyes that still, sometimes, saw everything. For a moment she wondered if he knew about the placebos, about the specialist appointments she'd cancelled, about the assisted living facility brochures hidden beneath her sweaters.

Then he smiled, puzzled, and asked, "What were we talking about?"

Margaret wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his worn flannel shirt. "Nothing," she whispered. "Nothing at all."

Behind them, Barnaby whined softly, and Margaret rubbed his head with practiced, gentle hands. Some deceptions were crimes. Others were just love, tired and reshaped into something bearable.