“I’m sorry. It’s never easy, whether you’re the doctor, the nurse, or even the medical student, and I’m certainly not angry with you. The fates, maybe, but not you. I don’t know if you are religious, but if you are, doesn’t your religion provide a source of comfort? I mean, apparently, it was my grandmother’s karma to leave this life, and maybe in her next life she won’t have to work quite so hard. She really worked hard all her life, and not for herself. She was truly a generous person. The best.”

When Jennifer saw Veena’s eyes glaze over with tears, she felt she had figured out the source of the nurse’s distress. Granny had been her first death as a real nurse, a difficult milestone, which Jennifer could certainly relate to. “You are a dear for caring so much,” Jennifer added. “I don’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. But I do have a few more questions. Do you know much about my grandmother’s actual death? I mean, like, who found her and what were the circumstances? Even what time it was?”

“It was Theru Wadhwa who found her when he went in to see if she wanted sleep medication,” Veena said, wiping the corners of her eyes with a knuckle. “He thought she was asleep until he noticed her eyes were open. I asked him about it last night when he came to work, since she was my patient and all.”

“What time was it, do you know?” Jennifer asked. Having uncovered the young woman’s secret and broached the issue, Jennifer expected she’d relax. But such was not the case. If anything, she seemed even more anxious. Her hands were working at each other in her lap as if in a wrestling match.

“Around ten-thirty.”

“Since you talked directly with the nurse, did he describe her in any particular way? I mean, did she look calm, like it was an easy death? Did he say anything like that?”

“He said she looked blue when he turned the lights on and called a code.”

“So they tried to revive her?”

“Only briefly. He said it was apparent she was dead. There was no cardiac activity at all, and she was cool and already a little stiff.”

“That’s dead, alright. What about the blueness? Do you know if he meant more gray or really blue?”

Veena looked off as if thinking. Her hands detached from each other gripped the arms of the chair. “I think he meant blue.”

“Cyanosis-like blue?”

“I think so. That’s what I assumed.”

“That’s curious for a heart attack.”

“It is?” Veena asked, somewhat surprised.

“Did he say allover blue or just, like, blue lips and blue fingertips.”

“I don’t know. I think allover blue.”