Summary

Shelly tells Lyman his grandfather still drank in his old age. Her father, Ed would take him to see an underground mine he owned in Yuba. On the trip he would drink until he went to sleep. Shelly can tell Lyman liked his grandfather. He trusted him more than he ever trusted anyone. Shelly sees that Oliver understood human weakness and did not blame people. Lyman is keeping some of his grandmother’s letters to himself because he does not want Shelly to see them. He questions why he is trying to understand his grandparents’ lives.

Lyman thinks of his life with his ex-wife. He wonders if it was all a waste. His wife left him for the surgeon who cut off his leg. She left a note on his hospital bedside table telling him she was leaving. The doctor disappeared one day when...