“No,” she said, after a moment’s thought, “I don’t believe I am. I’ve enjoyed my life and I’ve tried to do good, for the most part. I never took money from anyone who couldn’t afford it, and I loved my son and grandson. I believe my soul will enter another body. That’s very comforting, knowing the essential part of me won’t die.”

“Yes, it must be,” I said, pretty much at a loss as to how to carry my end of the conversation.

“Your questions will all be answered,” she said. “My sight is clearer the closer I come to the end.”

Then I said something that surprised even myself. “Will I find my sister, Xylda? Will I find Cameron? She’s dead, right?”

“You’ll find Cameron,” Xylda said.

I bowed my head.

“I don’t know,” Xylda said after a lengthy pause, and I raised my face to stare at her, trying to figure out what she meant. Manfred was coming back to the table to leave a tip. Tolliver was in line at the cash register. We were in a cone of strangeness together. “But there are more important things for you to think about first,” Xylda continued.

I hardly understood how anything could be more important than finding my sister’s body. I slid out of the booth and started struggling into my coat, while Xylda began scooting to the outside. Manfred helped me get my right arm into its coat sleeve and draped the coat over my left shoulder. He bent slightly and gave me a kiss on the neck as he did so. He did this so casually that it seemed churlish to make a big deal out of it. In fact, it wasn’t until I saw Tolliver’s face that the light kiss really registered on me. Tolliver was absolutely inclined to make a big deal out of it, and I gripped his arm with my good hand and began marching toward the door, forcing him to come along.

“It was nothing,” I said. “I wasn’t even thinking about it. He’s just a very young man with a sick grandmother.” I’m not sure what sense that made, but at the moment it just slid right out of my brain and then my mouth. “We’re just going to this meeting now. Come on, or we’ll be late.”

Somehow we both ended up in the right car and Tolliver turned on the motor to get the blessed heater started. He pulled my seat belt across me with unnecessary force, and I squeaked because my arm hurt.

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding very sorry at all. “He rubs me the wrong way. He just crawls around you. All that stuff in his face and God knows where else! Just waiting to touch you.”