On Hummingbird Wings

“But Mother is always dying,” is Gillian Ormsby’s sarcastic response when her younger, favored sister tells her that she has to go take care of their hypochondriac mother. Much against her will, since she and her mother never have gotten along, Gillian arrives in California to find the garden and yard dead, the blinds all drawn, and her mother indeed in bed — waiting to die. But when Gillian talks with the doctor, he assures her there’s no medical reason behind her mother’s state.