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idiot even then.”
    Gregor went around to the side of the chair and took a look at the screen of the laptop. Old George was on Facebook.
    â€œWhat’s ‘Mafia Wars’?” Gregor said.
    â€œ Tcha, ” old George said. “You really have to keep up with the times. It’s a game. I can go all day on games, lately. That’s what happens when you get old. You drift.”
    â€œYou’re been drifting lately?”
    â€œI think I’ve been bored,” old George said. “It’s all well and good for people to tell you you ought to keep busy, but the fact is you get to where your knees don’t really work right. Then what do you do? I’m not going into one of those nursing homes Angela keeps talking about.”
    Angela was old George’s nephew Martin’s wife.
    â€œI didn’t know you and Angela were still fighting about nursing homes.”
    â€œShe doesn’t call them nursing homes,” old George said. “She calls them ‘assisted living facilities.’ That’s really what she calls them. Can you believe that?”
    â€œI think she’s only worried about your being here on your own.”
    â€œI’ve been here on my own since Maria died. Well, all right, Gregor, not in this apartment. I appreciate the apartment. I tell Martin that all the time. I appreciate all the things. I don’t know what I did with myself before I got on the Internet.”
    â€œYou balled socks in the mechanical sock baller and shot them across the room,” Gregor said. “You broke lamps. I was here.”
    â€œI’ve got better aim now,” old George said. “I wish everybody would just stop worrying about me. I can’t see myself moving out to live with Martin and Angela, either. They’re very nice, Gregor, but they’ve got small children. Family is a wonderful thing. But it ought to live in its own house.”
    â€œThere was all that about Sophie Mgrdchian,” Gregor said. “That wasn’t even that long ago. She’d been living on her own, too.”
    Old George did something decisive on the keyboard and then began to shut the computer down. “Sophie Mgrdchian,” he said, “was a damned fool. And I knew her since she was a child, too. We were children together. Well, no, all right, she was a child and I was, what do you call it these days. I was a teenager. But you know what I mean. She was always a damned fool. I’m not about to let somebody I don’t even recognize come in here and stay in my house.”
    â€œThat isn’t what she did,” Gregor said, but he could see it was time to give it up. “Tibor is going to meet us there this morning. He’s got something or the other to do, I don’t remember what. He’s probably on Facebook.”
    â€œI’m on Facebook, Father Tibor is on Facebook, Bennis is on Facebook. You’re not on Facebook, Gregor. You should do something about it. Social networking is a very good thing. At least it keeps you from being bored.”
    â€œI’m too busy trying to launch the space shuttle from my phone,” Gregor said. “Do you want a coat? I know it’s only the beginning of September, but it gets chilly in the mornings sometimes.”
    â€œStop fussing about me,” old George said. “Everybody fusses about me. It’s Labor Day. It isn’t raining. I’ll be fine. Give me a minute to put this away.”
    Gregor gave him a minute. Martin and Angela had bought old George this apartment. They paid for a maid service to come in and clean twice a week. The place was spotless, but it looked oddly blank and impersonal. There was something different.
    Old George came out from the back, carrying his wallet.
    â€œI know what it is,” Gregor said. “I know what’s wrong with this room. You moved all the pictures.”
    â€œI didn’t move them, Gregor. I put them