.

pronounce them. Several other drugs were currently in development to help improve memory and alleviate or postpone symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. More pharmacological treatment options were expected with the next eighteen months.

      What were these words saying? They were sunflowers with heads too heavy to hold up. Had she seen a picture of sunflowers? In the travel section of the Sunday paper? Not that she remembered.

      She returned to the pamphlet. One of the communication systems in the brain, the cholinergic system, is defective in individuals with Alzheimer’s. In the brain, acetylcholine, one type of neurotransmitter involved in nerve cell communication, delivers messages from one nerve cell to another. An enzyme called, acetylcholi-nesterase, breaks down acetylcholine after it is used. Otherwise it accumulates between nerve cells.

      These words are monkeys, she thought. Chattering to no one. Solome felt her throat close momentarily as the lump brought up the tears.

      Research has shown that there is not enough acetylcholine in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s. By inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, scientists hope to keep higher concentrations of acetylcholine intact.

      Tracine and donepezil hydrochloride function as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, and decrease the breakdown of acetylcholine.

      Solome turned to the first of the article. Were Tracine and donepezil hydrochloride the two drugs mentioned at the beginning? She’d forgotten, but found that they were.

      Could she hand out Alzheimer’s pamphlets with the wedding programs? The beginning and the end.

      Late in May, Gretchen faxed the program for the wedding. Solome had to find the printer and then fax Gretchen the choice of fonts. She sat in the print shop proof reading while she waited for Gretchen’s response.

      Prelude

      Seating of the Parents

      Processional

      “Canon in D,” Pachelbel

      “Trumpet Voluntary,” Clarke

      Call to Worship

      Scripture Reading

      I Corinthians 13:1–8

      Prayer

      Appreciation

      Questions of Intent

      Meditation

      The Prophet, “On Marriage,” Kahlil Gibran

      Vows of Marriage

      Exchange of Rings

      Lighting of the Unity Candle

      “Concerto for 2 Violins & Orchestra in D Minor,” Bach

      Scripture Reading

      Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

      Prayer

      “The Lord’s Prayer,” Malotte

      Pronouncement

      Benediction

      Introduction

      Recessional

      “Hornpipe,” Handel

      “The Rejoicing,” Handel

      Solome proof-read the names of the Maid of Honor, Bridesmaids, Best Man, Groomsmen, Ring Bearer, Reader, Parents, Minister, Greeters and Ushers.

      Solome tried to pick up the programs from the printers on Wednesday after work, but the store was closed by the time she got there in traffic. On Thursday, she called the Minnesota Historical Society and told them she couldn’t come to work on Friday. She might have to miss more days because of the wedding. She didn’t even have time to read the newspaper. Why was her voice shaky? Why did she nearly cry?

      How inconvenient it was to have Gretchen out of town. How many phone calls? How many questions would Solome have to answer by herself? She decided to clear a place in Soos’ room. She couldn’t return with the baby before the wedding. The yard man moved a picnic table upstairs for the wedding gifts.

      Mark couldn’t return to his room because Dennis was there. He was angry that he was moved out of his own room. But he suggested they help him pay for an apartment he found near the college, which he was going to ask them for anyway, which they already had anticipated.

      “Dennis is only here for the weekend,” Solome told Mark. “You can stay with a friend for a day or two.”

      “They’re all moving. No one has a place. They want to stay with me.”

      “Stay in the new apartment then.”

      “There’s no bed.”

      “Use your sleeping bag.”

      “On a hardwood floor?”

      “Go buy a bed this afternoon.”

      “I want my own bed.”

      “You can have it after the wedding.”

      “I just finished my finals. You didn’t even ask.”

      “Mark, I have more on my mind than I can handle at the moment,” Solome said. “Why can’t you see that? I’m sorry I didn’t ask about your finals. How were they?”

      “Nothing you would care to ask.”

      Stephen Savard

      How had we become disrespectful to one another? Had it always been there under the surface? Where had the nastiness come from? How many of my own outbursts did I have to quiet? How long would I know to quiet them?

      I heard the vacuum cleaner running upstairs. I felt like I was listening to the buzz inside my head. I felt I was at Crane Lake with my children in water wings that were slowly losing air.

      I knew I would last a while longer. Maybe even through the wedding. I could live many years. The medicine I was taking seemed to help. I was physically healthy, but inside my head, I was full of holes. No, it wasn’t holes. It was clutter. Little filings that stuck to open circuits, clogging them. My face was as it always was. It was my brain that would deteriorate, no, was deteriorating. There would be lesions, open spaces. I thought of the doctor’s words. How long would Solome have to live with my body after my mind had gone? No, it was going to be harder than that.

      The day would come I would call out for death, and it would not come.

      What was this disease? Where did it come from? How did I get it? How fast would it come? What was ahead? How could a man forget how to sit down? Would I eventually stand at my chair and not know to bend my legs and sit? Would Solome push me behind the knees to let me know to bend my legs? It hadn’t happened yet. Why was I rushing ahead? No, it was not here yet. But it would come. I would lose words, the basis of our relationship.