The boat tipped hard to one side, and Alice gripped the edge as the bodybuilding weight slid off the middle seat and into the water. Her mind was rapidly flipping between shock at what was happening and a calculation of her odds. She wrenched at the cuff around her left hand, but it wouldn’t come off. She scanned the boat for anything that would help her float.

“Maybe she was, but that’s not why she died,” Mrs. Bergeron said.

“She was lucky to die when she did,” Alice said.

“That’s it, honey, tell the truth.” Mrs. Bergeron gripped the side of the boat as well. Her eyes were huge in her head. “There’s no way out.”

“I couldn’t have saved her. That’s the truth.”

“You were swimming with her, though, right?”

“There was nothing I could do. This isn’t fair.” The boat tipped, and Alice leaned hard the other way. “How did you . . .” she began. “How am I here?”

Mrs. Bergeron laughed. “I have less than a month to live, and I could have died in a hospital bed in pain, or I could take you with me. It was an easy choice, and I have a husband who was willing to help me.”

Alice started to lunge toward Mrs. Bergeron, but the boat turned over, and the two women went into the cold, salty water, the splintered boat drifting out of reach. Alice felt the pull of the weight on her left wrist. She desperately pawed at the water with her free right hand, then grabbed out at Mrs. Bergeron as though she could help her stay afloat. Together, they went under the surface, holding on to each other, almost hugging, as they sank.

I’m dying, Alice thought, and the thought was scary, but it was also so unfair. She had never hurt anyone in her life. Her mother’s face flashed through her mind, not as she was toward the end, but the way she once looked, back when she’d been pretty. She was on a beach, sun and the scratchy sand and a swarm of scary gulls. Alice held on to the air in her lungs as long as she could, the black water roaring in her ears.

And when she could hold out no longer, she opened her mouth and tried to breathe. It was seawater, cold and final, that filled her lungs.

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