Bear, Kavita thinks to him now. I’m sorry I just sat there. I should’ve said something reassuring. I was about to, but I pulled back. I’m not sure why. You were always so private about these sorts of things. I knew how hard it must have been for you to let us in. I didn’t want to make you feel even more uncomfortable. But that seems stupid now. How could knowing I was there for you make you feel worse? That’s what I wanted to tell you. That I was there for you, no matter what, no matter how long. I felt every word you said, and I believed you.

“He probably thought I was ashamed of him,” she says.

“He would never think that.”

“He might have. There’s so much we didn’t know.” An awful thought occurs to her. Maybe she never really knew Sunil at all. The closeness she felt between them was all in her head. One-sided. Can it be true? And if so, what can she do about it now? Sunil, she wants to yell at the sky. Tell me it isn’t true.

“Who knows what to say in these situations? You didn’t want to push him farther away, that’s all.”

“I should’ve risked it.” Kavita lifts her gaze to the night sky, to the gaps between the strobe light stars. “He couldn’t be farther away from me than he is now.”

After a while, their mother said, “We should go to the hospital.”

“There’s no way. I’m not going to emerg. It’s too fucking humiliating.”

“But beta—”

“Mom, I’m serious. No hospital.” There was a panicked look in his eye, and it spread through them all, as they sensed his unspoken threat to flee.

“Okay, okay. No hospital. Just settle down, beta, please?”

No one spoke for half a minute. “Can we at least call your doctor?” their mother asked, gently. “It’s not too late. They might still be able to see us.”

“Can we go tomorrow? I’m exhausted.”

“I think we should go now,” Kavita blurted. They needed to keep him safe, and they needed help, fast.

“I’m not going to do anything.”

“We should at least get your doctor on the phone,” Kavita pressed. “He needs to know about this.” Maybe the doctor would have better luck convincing Sunil to go to the hospital.

“It took everything I have just to tell you guys. I can’t do it all over again.”

“Sunil—”

“Kavita, I just want to go to bed.”

She reached for her parents for support but both looked as bewildered as she was.

“Okay,” their mother said. “Tonight, you rest. Tomorrow we’ll call.”

Kavita shook her head. Her gut was telling her waiting was the wrong move. But what could she do? She couldn’t force him. And she didn’t want to scare him into doing something reckless.