“But then I saw one of the firefighters coming out of the window, and he had this person over his shoulder. He’s carrying this guy all the way down the ladder, and I stopped walking and I just stood there, staring. But I got what was coming to me, because when they finally brought this guy down to the bottom, I was close enough to see his face—and he was all covered with ashy smoke, so I couldn’t be sure, but I swear I knew this guy. Then I realized that he was one of the clerks in this store where I buy my groceries. A really young guy—it was probably his after-school job. I think he was even at the counter when I went in there a few days ago. And then the next thing I see is that they’re putting him on this stretcher, but suddenly all the people who had been running around before by the ambulance aren’t running anymore, and everyone sort of steps back, and then they’re just really slowly loading him into the ambulance, and—it makes me sick to think I actually did this, but I even took a few steps forward so that I could be sure that he was dead.”

Leora watched as his wandering gaze finally landed on her face. She reached around him, propping a pillow behind his back. “That’s not sick, Jake, that’s normal. Everybody stops to look at accidents. Haven’t you ever been stuck in traffic because of people slowing down to watch?”