Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

Getting Ready

9:30 AM

In the following few days, they helped Elner pack up the few things she wanted to take: her glass paperweight with the Empire State Building inside, a few photographs of Will and of little Apple, and her picture of the dancing mice. She had given most everything else away. A lot went to neighbors, and she gave her five bulldog doorstoppers to Louise Franks, who had always admired them.

Two days after Easter, the day they were to pick her up and drive her out to Happy Acres, Macky woke up with a pit in his stomach, and even though she knew it was for the best, Norma felt the same way. Ruby was going out with them to help get Elner settled in, but still Macky felt like a hundred-pound weight was on his chest. After Elner had agreed to go, she had surprised both of them at how she had accepted the inevitable. Macky almost wished she had fought it more; her being so accommodating and trying not to make them feel bad only made him feel worse. He was shaving and Norma was running her bath when the phone rang.

“That’s probably her, Macky, tell her we’ll be there by ten.”

He wiped off his face and walked into the bedroom and picked up the phone.

Norma turned the water off and stepped into the tub and sat down. She did not hear Macky and called out, “Honey, was that her?”

But he did not answer. “Macky?”

Macky was still sitting on the bed, and he smiled as he thought, “Well, the old gal got what she wanted after all.” He stood up and went to the bathroom to tell Norma that they would not be taking her to Happy Acres after all.

And although nobody but Elner knew it, the wish she had wished for on the first star every night for so many years had finally come true. Ruby had just informed him that when she went over to Elner’s house a few minutes ago, she had found that Elner had died peacefully in her sleep, at home in her own bed.