“Well,” Semelee said, “we’ll try for that drink some other time.”

Jack tore his eyes away from the blue truck. “We sure will. When?”

“Whenever you want.”

“How do I reach you?”

“Don’t worry.” Her smile broadened as she opened the passenger door of the pickup and climbed in. “Just say the word and I’ll know.”

Something in her tone sent an icy trickle down Jack’s spine.

6

Jack walked into the hospital room and froze just inside the door. His father, dressed in an open-back hospital gown with little booties on his feet, was sitting up on the edge of the bed eating a plate of green Jell-O.

“Christ! Dad…you’re awake!”

His father looked up. He looked fresh and rested. He might have been sitting on his front porch having a gimlet.

“Jack? You’re here? You?”

His blue eyes were clear and bright through his steel-rimmed glasses. His hair was damp and combed, his face looked freshly scrubbed. If not for the facial bruises and the bandage on the side of his head, there was no evidence that he’d been seriously hurt.

“Yeah. Me.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe this. Last night you were still level-seven coma and today…”

“They told me one of my sons had been visiting. I assumed it was Tom. But come to think of it, I seem to remember hearing your voice.”

“I was talking to you a lot.”

“You were? Maybe that’s what brought me out. I couldn’t believe you were here so I had to see for myself.” He sighed and looked at Jack. “Is this what I have to do to get you to visit?”

“Such a thing to say!” Anya said, bustling around Jack and heading for the bed. She’d hung back at the doorway, making Oyv comfortable, she’d said, and had waved Jack ahead. “Be nice, Thomas.”

“Anya!” his father said, eyes lighting at the sight of her. “What are you doing here?”

“Jack brought me. We’ve become fast friends.” She took his right hand in both of hers. “How are you?”

“I’m fine. Better every minute, especially since they took that catheter out of me.” He shuddered. “That’s not something—”

“There she is!” said a heavily accented woman’s voice. Jack turned and saw a thin little Hispanic woman, dressed like a nurse’s aide, standing next to the hulking form of Nurse Schoch, pointing at Anya. “She’s the one I told you about.”

Nurse Schoch, looking as stern as ever, glanced down at the aide and spoke in a rumbling voice. “You want to tell me again what you saw?”

“I was in the bathroom, washing the sink, when she come in and hold his hand and say, ‘Okay, Tom. You’ve been asleep long enough. Today’s the day you get up.’ That’s what she say.”