“ ‘I don’t know, Quinn,’ she said in her beguiling husky voice. ‘Those are hard words for a doctor to say, believe you me. But I don’t. That’s why we’re testing her. Her immune system’s compromised. She’s been running a fever for months. Somebody sneezes in the same room with her and she comes down with double pneumonia.’

“ ‘Good God,’ I responded. As usual Rowan’s brand of truth was a little too harsh for me. Yet I told myself fiercely that I wanted it. ‘Why can’t I talk with her by phone?’

“ ‘I don’t want her upset by anything now, Quinn,’ said Rowan. ‘And if she knew you were on your way home, she’d be upset that she couldn’t see you. That’s why she’s in isolation. She’s in a plastic bubble as far as the world’s concerned, with a VCR and a monitor and a stack of vintage movies. She’s eating popcorn and ice cream and chocolates and drinking milk. She knows you’re having fun in Europe, and that’s the way it has to stay for now.’

“ ‘But Rowan,’ I pleaded. ‘Surely she’s getting my E-mails!’

“ ‘No, Quinn, she’s resting. I took the computer away.’

“I was maddened. Just maddened. Here we were on our way home at last and she was beyond my reach. But the worst news was that she was sick! Too sick perhaps to even handle the computer!

“ ‘Rowan, listen, has she been sick all along? Has she been protecting me from it?’

“There was a long silence, and then she said in her characteristic straightforward fashion, ‘Yes, Quinn, I’d say that’s what she’s been doing. But I think you knew that when you left. You knew she was undergoing a continuous treatment. She’s been at various plateaus. But she’s never really rallied.’

“I gasped. I didn’t know if it was audible.

“ ‘I’ve got to see her when I come home,’ I said.

“ ‘We’ll arrange it,’ she responded, ‘as soon as it’s possible. But it can’t be right away.’

“ ‘Can you give her my love?’ I asked. ‘Can you tell her I called? Can you tell her I’ve sent her letters?’

“ ‘Yes, that I will do tonight,’ she said, ‘when I see her. And tomorrow and the day after.’

“ ‘Oh, thank you, Rowan, God love you, Rowan. Please, please tell her how much I love her.’

“ ‘Quinn, there’s something else I want to say,’ she said, surprising me. ‘I know Michael’s said it to you. Let me say it too. You really helped Mona. You got Mona to stop doing things that hurt her. You made her happy.’

“ ‘Rowan, you’re frightening me,’ I said. ‘You’re making it sound past tense.’