I extended the Airbnb rental to six months and made the walk back and forth to York Avenue every day. The regular exercise and eating hospital caf food left no mystery as to why I lost weight. Not so Ellie’s burns, however. The mystery of how they healed without scars was never solved. No one could explain it, just as no one could explain her extended coma either. She had no brain damage, her brain waves were perfectly normal, yet none of the hotshot neurologists could bring her out of it.

Nor could they explain the strange proclamations she’d occasionally shout out at the top of her lungs.

Twilight has come…night will follow…

That was a favorite of hers. We heard it over and over.

It will begin in the heavens and end in the Earth was another fave, sometimes—but not always—followed by, But before that, the rules will be broken.

Winter passed and spring arrived without her knowledge, and then, on May 14, nineteen weeks after falling into a coma, Ellie opened her eyes and spoke.

I called Bess and she cried when she heard the news. She said she’d be up right after a seminar.

When the initial hubbub attendant to Ellie’s awakening passed, they let me back in to see her. I took her hand and she stared at me with those not-Ellie eyes.

“I have to get home,” she said in a perfectly clear voice. “I have something I must do.”

“I hope you don’t mean home to Missouri,” I said. “You’re not finished here. You need lots of rehab to tone up your muscles. You haven’t used them in months and they’re weak.”

She gave my hand a painful squeeze. “Does that feel weak? I don’t need rehab; I need out of here. I don’t need our home home, the apartment will do fine, but I need to build.”

“Build what?”

“A shelter.”

“I don’t understand.” And I didn’t. Truly.

“You will,” she said with a disturbing finality.

I tried to talk about what had gone on in the world while she was out of it, but she didn’t care.

“It doesn’t matter, Mother,” she said. Mother…the unfamiliar word from Ellie’s lips gave me the creeps. “None of it matters. Twilight has come. Night will follow. That’s all we need to know.”

“You’ve been saying that for months. What does it mean? I don’t understand.”

“You will.”

The bed was needed for a fireman recovering from burns, so they came to move Ellie to a semi-private room. I took the opportunity to step out for a bite to eat. I’d been making an occasional stop at this sushi place on First Avenue, so I walked there, hoping it was open on a Sunday. It was. I ordered a nigiri platter and had a second glass of wine to celebrate Ellie’s recovery. I felt as if I should be celebrating. I figured I was supposed to. After all, my daughter was back from a coma, wasn’t she?