“Oh, Sarah, it’s not what you think. I know it sounds a little crazy, but it’s not like when insane people hear voices that tell them to do things . . . My voice—there’s only one—She more like invites me to do things, and when I please Her . . . when I please Her . . .” Soft strains of the music played through my ears and the soft pain in my arm vanished. I listened for a moment, entranced. I’d forgotten how beautiful . . .

“Yes?” Sarah’s voice was a harsh interruption. The music stopped. The pain returned, doubled.

“What?”

“Do you see her?”

“Oh, yes. She comes to me in two ways. One way She’s like mist, floating and wispy, but with substance. The other way I see only Her mouth, Her lips and tongue. Teeth.” Sarah’s face faded into the dusk of the room and I closed my eyes for a moment. They were there, the lips, moist and perfect, quivering ever so delicately, a question poised there so eloquently I could have plucked it like a flower. Open, I thought. Show me the deft edge of tooth, the wet pink tip of perfect tongue. Show me. Show me.

“What does she say to you?” Sarah’s voice rasped through me like a rusty handsaw.

“What?” I said, irritated with her questions that brought back the light, the pain, the hopelessness.

“What does she say to you?”

And then I remembered, Sarah was to save me. I could not succumb to Her seduction. I had to stay with Sarah, stay conscious.

“What?” I asked again. “I’m sorry. What?” Sarah sighed with exasperation. “I’m trying to help you, Angelina. But I can’t do anything without your cooperation. Now concentrate. What does this voice say to you?”

I tried to remember some of the things She had said to me. There wasn’t anything I could repeat; we had shared feelings, experiences, excitement, peace. We had loved each other and said and done all those things that lovers do in their private world, and there was nothing really that I could share . . .

And the lips parted and She spoke to me, loudly and clearly in the voice that was melodic and familiar to each cell in my body, each spark of my soul. The voice said, “I speak to you of love,” and my whole being thrilled.

“She speaks to me of love,” I said.

“And together we serve.”

“ ‘And together we serve.’ ”

“Together we embody the highest aspirations of mankind’s search for justice . . .”

Was this our wedding vow? “ ‘Together we embody the highest aspirations of mankind’s search for justice . . .’ ”

“And together we shall be . . .”

I caught my breath. “ ‘And together we shall be . . .’ ”

“United in love and duty. Forever.”