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we’re family.”
    Kim looked at me sideways.
    â€œGeorgia,” Egan said, “this is—”
    â€œEvening, folks.”
    Dr. Abernathy appeared in the doorway, and Georgia and the other woman swarmed him like a cloud of honeybees. Marnie and Egan joined the hive, leaving Chip to return to his wall.
    Dr. Abernathy looked over their heads at me. “This is all family?”
    â€œFriends,” one of the women said. “As good as family.”
    â€œThis okay with you?”
    I nodded.
    He picked up the story where he’d left off, and I felt the facts calming me, brutal as they were. I could understand debriding and irrigating and applying topical agents. I could get through corneal desiccation and oral commissures and neck contracture in my brain. Just as long as I didn’t have to feel them in my heart.
    â€œDoctor.”
    We looked up at Georgia who, with everyone else except Chip, hovered behind me.
    â€œCan you debrief your nurse later and use plain English with us?” she said, hands on narrow hips. “I have no idea what corneal decimation is, and I’m sure the rest of us don’t either.”
    â€œLucia’s a nurse,” Marnie piped up. “She can explain.”
    â€œLucia, her sister?” Georgia said. “Well, where is she?”
    â€œI’m so sorry!” Marnie thrust out her hands. “I thought you knew—”
    â€œYou’re Lucia?” one of the women said.
    â€œAll right, look, just—what happens now?” the other one said. They sounded exactly alike: imperious and entitled.
    Dr. Abernathy waited for my nod before he addressed them. “We’ll regulate her fluid intake, which is a delicate process. Keep an eye on her lungs—not much we can do but wait there.”
    â€œFor how long?” Egan said.
    â€œI’ll be talking with Lucia about that, and I’m sure she’ll keep you apprised. Meanwhile, Sonia’s whole support group has access to her psychiatric nurse, Kim.”
    No one said anything until Marnie chimed in with, “And God.” “Most assuredly God,” the doctor said. “That will be a huge factor in her recovery. She’s lucky to have all of you.”
    â€œI don’t think luck has anything to do with it.” Egan gave his evangelical smile and opened his arms.
    This time Chip didn’t take him up on the offer.
    â€œWhen can I see her?” I said to Dr. Abernathy.
    â€œRight now, if you want. Then we want her to rest.”
    â€œWe’ll be able to see her tomorrow, then.” Georgia nodded, willing Dr. Abernathy to nod with her.
    â€œWe’ll see how her night goes. The staff will work through Lucia.”
    I could feel their eyes on me, disappointed, doubtful that I was the appropriate person for the job when better groomed, more technologically adept, thinner people were available. I watched the doctor slip out the door.
    Kim replaced him, crooking her finger at me.
    â€œI’ll take you,” she whispered to me.
    I followed her through the doors without looking back at the stiffness we left behind. What possible difference could it make what they thought or said or assumed? I had to steel myself for what I was about to see—because once I saw it, there would be no erasing it. No matter how hard those people prayed.

CHAPTER FIVE
    W hat I saw wasn’t Sonia.
    It was a slab of flesh on a bed. A bloated face smothered in tape and bandages, orifices trailing tubes like snakes on the head of Medusa. It was a scalp stripped of its proud mane and left yellowed and naked and seeping, with no connection to the sister always at the helm of life.
    The vital functions blipping on a screen indicated she lived. The bracelet above the mitten of gauze on her hand and the name on her bed identified her as Sonia Cabot. Even with her ears swollen like red bell peppers, she had a dignified look, and admittedly only Sonia could pull that