“So am I. But I’m not going to have anything to do with that woman, not as one of the principals of Nurses International. Whereas you could without arousing any suspicion. If you are so concerned, why don’t you come up with a reason to meet her again and find out the source of her suspicions. I’m sure you’d find Durell is right, that it’s her own paranoia, and it will be a relief for you and for us to know there isn’t some clue we’re missing.”

“I couldn’t,” Veena said, with a shake of her head as if shivering off a touch of nausea.

“Why not?”

“Even just thinking of her gives me flashes of her grandmother’s face, contorting as she was dying, and even worse, I hear the grandmother thanking me all over again.”

“Then by all means don’t meet with her,” Cal said, with an edge to his voice. “I’m just trying to suggest how you can deal with your anxieties.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this at all,” Veena said suddenly.

“Now, let’s not go off the deep end. Remember, you don’t have to ‘do’ any more patients. You’re done. You were to start the ball rolling, that’s all. You’re in a supporting role now.”

“I mean, maybe none of us should be doing this.”

“It’s not your role to decide,” Cal stated. “Just consider it your dharmic duty to support the others. And remember, this activity has freed you from your father, and it is going to bring you and your colleagues, including Samira here, to a completely new freedom in America.”

Veena stood for a moment, nodding as if agreeing, then turned and left the room without saying anything additional.

“Is she going to be alright?” Durell asked, looking back at the others after watching Veena silently exit.

“She’s going to be fine,” Samira said. “It’s just going to take a while. She suffers more than the rest of us. Her problem is that she hasn’t had nearly the Westernizing Internet experience we’ve had, and as such she’s still way more an acculturated Indian than we are. As an example, when she finally started talking to me today after being mad at me for revealing her deep, dark secret to you guys, one of the first comments she made was not to rejoice at finally being free at last of her father and able to follow her dreams but that her family had been shamed.”

“I think I’m beginning to understand,” Cal said. “What worries me, though, is the suicide thing. Is there any chance she’ll try that again?”