Lindsay tried not to let the last comment get beneath her skin. In her experience, prefacing a statement with “To be honest” or “To tell you the truth” is a sure sign you’re telling someone else what to believe—such as what was “good” for her, in this instance. Honestly, Lindsay wondered why Scott could never seem to understand that she and Hope were more like family than friends. The doctors said Hope probably would have died if Lindsay hadn’t happened to take the scenic route through the preserve as she was heading home from NYU that rainy night. Lindsay assumed that the taillights off the side of the road belonged to a driver who had pulled over to wait for the storm to pass. When her own car began to hydroplane, she swerved into the opposite lane to avoid crashing into the parked vehicle. Only when she regained control of the wheel did she realize she was looking at an overturned SUV.

Running toward the scene in the pouring rain, she was certain the person splayed on the road in that awkward position had to be dead. She checked for signs of breathing and found none, but the emergency first aid training her father insisted on in high school kicked in. If a person’s unconscious, you check the ABCs—airway, breathing, circulation. She tried a jaw thrust, tilting the head back and pulling the sides of the jaw forward to clear the airway. When she suddenly felt the warmth of shallow breathing, she quickly called her father, who sent out the alert to police and paramedics. As the EMTs loaded the young woman onto the gurney, her arm moved, as if reaching for Lindsay. On impulse, Lindsay jumped into the ambulance, holding the woman’s hand until they got to the hospital.

When her father offered to drive her back to the preserve to get her car, Lindsay decided to wait until the next day. She needed to know if the woman was going to survive. At three in the morning, the doctors told her that the car’s occupant was alert and able to communicate but had no recollection of the events preceding the accident and was unable to tell them her name, date of birth, or address. Lindsay would learn the next afternoon when she returned to the hospital that memory loss was relatively routine after a head injury, and that patients typically recovered nearly all of their memories over days and weeks. Lindsay’s visits continued. With the summer off at home until law school began in the fall, she had enough time to spend nearly all of it with the girl whose life she had saved. And when the memories didn’t return after days, weeks, or even months, Lindsay was still there for her.