Henry exchanged a brief, astonished glance with Amala before they both watched Kat shift her eyes and turn her head ever so slightly, as if she could see movement that they could not see. A faint smile touched her lips, enhancing the peacefulness of her countenance. “Mata,” she whispered, and Amala gasped. “Pita,” Kat said, and Amala gasped again.

Henry knew Kat had just uttered the Indian words for mother and father that Amala had used in reference to her blood parents. Could it be possible that she was seeing them? Looking at her face and the fixed intensity of her eyes, he found it impossible to believe any other explanation. Kat’s eyes closed as if a deep sleep had overcome her instantly. She drew a long, rattling breath. There was silence for several seconds, and she drew another. And then she became silent and still as death settled over her with absolute finality.

For more than a minute, Henry felt stunned, frozen, in shock over the loss as much as the evidence of the miracle he’d just witnessed. He was aware of Amala sobbing, her face buried in the pillow at Kat’s side. When he finally felt jolted to the present reality, Henry sat up and did what he’d been wanting to do for months, but Kat had been in too much pain for him to hardly touch her. She was now free of that pain, and he lifted her frail, lifeless body onto his lap and into his arms, holding her like a child while he wept into her hair, desperately wanting these final moments of closeness before she began to turn cold. Amala held Kat’s hand that had fallen limply to the bed at her side and wept just as intensely. The doctor discreetly left the room. There was no need for him to tell them it was over.

* * * *

Once Kat’s body had been taken way, and after Henry had spent some time with his son, he slept until it was dark again, then he ate just enough to sustain him and slept through the remainder of the night. He felt certain that his deep exhaustion was not just from being up all through the night of Kat’s death, but from all the weeks and months leading up to it when his sleep had been sporadic and he’d been in continuous emotional turmoil.