“I understand that your aunt has been in ill health of late.”

I wheeled around and hurled the bar of soap at his face. It landed against his forehead with a wet smack before bouncing out into the bedroom and sliding to a halt against the wall. “You shut your mouth.”

“Call her, then,” he insisted, wiping bubbles out of his eyebrow.

“Maybe I will!” I stomped past him towards the hallway in search of a telephone, but I’d barely left the room when Harry called out.

“Eliza doesn’t have long distance. Use my cell phone.” He withdrew a small black phone from his trouser pocket and held it out to me. “Take it. Call.”

I snatched it away and began to dial, my fingers slipping on the rubberized buttons. I should’ve rinsed better.

No one was answering at home.

My fingers started shaking. Small slivers of white were stuck beneath my nails, rendering anything I touched a bit soapy. I messed up Dave’s cell phone number twice, then managed to dial it correctly. I wrapped both hands around the receiver and pressed it against my aching head.

“Dave?”

“Eden, where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for hours!”

“I’m—I’m sorry. Something came up and I left the hotel, but I’m all right,” I couldn’t help but notice Dave’s voice was half an octave higher than it ought to have been. “What’s the matter?” I asked, even though I surely wouldn’t like the answer. My chest, throat, and ears began to congeal into one solid lump.

“Lu dropped tonight when we were out to eat. She’s in the hospital. They don’t know what’s wrong with her. We were just eating at that Italian place, and she ordered a glass of wine, and I went to the restroom, and when I came back the waiter was trying to bring her around. She just fell over in the booth, and I don’t know what’s wrong with her. No one will tell me anything—”

Dave rambled some repetitive combination of the same phrases while I sank against the wall, clutching the slippery phone. Slowly I dropped to my haunches and put my head on my knees while I listened. I concentrated on a worn spot on the carpet. I focused on it hard.

“Dave, what was it? They must have told you something.” I was talking into my own lap, refusing to look at Harry, who had come to lean against the doorframe beside me.

“They don’t know. They’re saying it was just fatigue, or exhaustion, or whatever, and they’re running some tests and keeping her overnight. That’s just their expensive way of saying they don’t know.”

“Did she come around at all?”

“For a few minutes. Long enough to argue with the doctors that she was fine, then say something completely nonsensical and pass out again.”

I stared down at my feet on either side of the worn spot, rubbing and shuffling on the carpet, playing idly with the edge of the rug. “What’d she say?” I whispered.