“Clare?” Eileen whispered as she poked her head through the crack in the door. “Oh.” Eileen smiled at her. “You’re up. I wanted to check on you but not wake you if you were sleeping.”

“I’m not sleeping,” Clare said.

“Are you okay now?”

Clare hesitated. For half a second she considered tossing the blanket back and showing Eileen the pile of pills she was planning on slowly making her way through. “I’m okay.”

“Does it still hurt?”

“Yes, but not as bad.”

Eileen came all the way into the room and sat down on the edge of Clare’s bed. “Mom’s upset.”

Clare looked into her sister’s eyes. “About what?” she whispered.

“She’s worried about you. I think she’s afraid.”

Clare stared at the blanket in front of her. “Afraid?”

Eileen shrugged. “I don’t know. The migraines…other stuff too, I think. I don’t think she realizes they’re getting better.”

“Better?” Clare raised her eyebrows. “How would you know and how do you figure?”

“Well, before today, it had been two weeks since your last…episode. And before that, ten days. When you first got out of the hospital, they were every week, sometimes two or three. Mom didn’t realize that they’ve been getting less and less over time. I think she was afraid that you’d never stop having them.”

Clare looked at her sister. “They’ve been less?”

Eileen nodded.

“You’ve been keeping track?”

“Well, it’s not like it’s hard to notice when you’re shut in our shared bedroom in the dark for hours at a time.”

“I didn’t realize… I didn’t know they were getting better.”

“I imagine it doesn’t seem like it when you’re the one dealing with them. Do you think—I mean if you’re feeling better enough—that you could come lie on the couch? I think it would make Mom feel better if we were at least all together, even if we’re just watching a movie and eating doughnuts in the living room.”

“I forgot about the doughnuts,” Clare said.

“I brought them in from the car. We’re waiting for you.”

“The doughnuts are why I ended up with this stupid migraine in the first place today.”

Eileen wrinkled her brow.

Clare shook her head. “In line at the store, Greg Cummings’s mom said something to me.” Clare sighed. “I let it upset me.”

“God, that guy was always such an asshole.”

“And his mother is horrible.”

“Well, at least we know where he gets it from.” Eileen smiled. “Will you come out?”