Invisible ropes tightened inside her. There was the blue star, the one moving toward her. Daniel. He was still too far. He had recognized the piece of her that could be teased back to bloom, that could grow from the precocious child she had once been. He had no interest in the world-famous woman whose beauty had been carved by a surgeon’s knife. This time he wielded the knife. Grow up. Uncover your other self. The last details were being etched over, not with a delicate artist’s brush, but with a machete.

Another air pocket. They plunged, then steadied. The flat, clean cold against her spine. She recoiled, but there was no room to move. The cooler! The air dive that had awakened her seconds before had thrown two of the unbuckled men off the bench, and they had fallen into a heap. One of them folded himself into a tent over Lulu, protecting her with his body. Sam. That was his name. As the other shook himself free, Sam remained on the floor and gestured to Nola to stay put until the strongest turbulence eased.

She slithered on the floor and extended her hand to touch Lulu. “Mommy’s here,” she whispered, and sank back into her fever.

There was nothing to indicate that the airstrip was in Taiwan. Two small military planes were parked at the edge of the field, but otherwise there was no one in sight. After the plane had landed, an ambulance driver took the cooler and drove away with tires screeching. The pilot supported Nola’s head as he made her drink a whole glass of clear, red liquid like diluted beet juice. The bitter, medicinal taste made her gag. There was a terrible stench in the air, like that public toilet in Beijing. And she felt sticky all over. Excrement. It was she! Stinky Nola. And where was Lulu? “Lulu!” The pilot made Nola sip more of the red liquid, and when she shook her head, he pressed on her shoulder blades, until, after her retching, she finished the last drop. He left her lying on the plane’s floor, her face toward the open door. The red, bitter drink spilled into the crevices of pain, which began to ebb.

Outside, beyond Nola's field of vision, she heard Lulu's gurgles and babbles and the men’s chuckles. Nola tried to get up, but her muscles had turned to jelly. She had no energy even to think.