“I don’t have any plan at all,” said Pat. “But you’re right. Because you came to me here and we had this conversation, I’m now looking for a different kind of action. Not the action of Juliet, stabbing herself to death because she thinks Romeo is dead. That’s just melodrama and self-indulgence. Just emotion. I’ll find something rational, or I won’t do anything at all.”

“Rational?” asked Veevee. “Who does anything rational?”

“Me,” said Pat. “If I can think of something.”

“Well, if you refrain from action until you have a rational plan, then both you and Danny will be safe from any screw-ups you might otherwise perpetrate.”

“At least I’ll be thinking instead of just walking around crying and wanting to scream,” said Pat. “So … thank you for coming to me.”

“And thank you for talking to me. Aren’t we a pair of shopkeepers? Thank you. No, thank you.”

Pat laughed.

Veevee came to her, raised her up from the ground, and gave her a hug. “You’re a dear,” said Veevee. “Danny could have chosen so much worse.”

“Oh, I know,” said Pat. “But I do aspire to be something better than not-the-worst.”

“You’re doing very well so far,” said Veevee. “And if you do take a trip to the underworld, do come back and tell me about it.”

“You’ll get a full account. Though I might have to tell it to you through a weejee board.”

“Never,” said Veevee. “I hate those things. I think it’s Set’s buddies who run those things, and not the dead people that you think you’re talking to.”

“I think it’s just some jerk in the group, deliberately guiding the pointer to some outrageous message.”

“Well, you know your friends, and I know mine,” said Veevee. “Good luck, dear girl. I’d say God bless you, only then I’d have to specify which god, and I’m just not in the mood for metaphysics.”

Veevee walked to the tree that held their emergency escape gate.

“That leads to Stone’s house,” Pat warned her.

“I know where all gates start and where they end,” said Veevee. “But Stone is my husband, and there’s a gate from his house leading to my place in Naples. Loki put them all back, right where Danny had them. So this is my fastest route home. Goodbye, Pat.”

So at the last she rated a name rather than “darling” or “dear girl.”