I didn’t think Jason was ever going to get his old life back. I was sure he wouldn’t understand, even if I spelled it out. But then I saw what was in his head in a moment of true clarity. Though Jason couldn’t verbalize these ideas, he did understand, and he was pretending, pretending hard, that everything would be the same . . . if only he could get out from under the weight of Crystal’s death.

“Or if you tell us,” he said, “we’ll take care of it, Calvin and me.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said. What else could I say? I climbed out of Jason’s head and swore to myself I wouldn’t get inside again.

After a long silence, he got up. Maybe he’d been waiting to see if I’d offer to make lunch for him. “I guess I’ll go back home, then,” he said.

“Good-bye.”

I heard his truck start up a moment later. I went back in, hanging the jacket back where I’d gotten it.

Amelia had left me a note stuck to the milk carton in the refrigerator. “Hey, roomie!” it said by way of opening. “Sounded like you had company last night. Did I smell a vampire? Heard someone shut the back door about three thirty. Listen, be sure and check the answering machine. You got messages.”

Which Amelia had already listened to, because the light wasn’t blinking anymore. I pressed the Play button.

“Sookie, this is Arlene. I’m sorry about everything. I wish you’d come by to talk. Give me a call.”

I stared at the machine, not sure how I felt about this message. It had been a few days, and Arlene had had time to reconsider stomping out of the bar. Could she possibly mean she wanted to recant her Fellowship beliefs?

There was another message, this one from Sam. “Sookie, can you come in to work a little early today or give me a call? I need to talk to you.”

I glanced at the clock. It was just one p.m., and I wasn’t due at work until five. I called the bar. Sam picked up.

“Hey, it’s Sookie,” I said. “What’s up? I just got your message.”

“Arlene wants to come back to work,” he said. “I don’t know what to tell her. You got an opinion?”

“She left a message on my answering machine. She wants to talk to me,” I said. “I don’t know what to think. She’s always on some new thing, isn’t she? Do you think she could have dropped the Fellowship?”

“If Whit dropped her,” he said, and I laughed.