Anne was part of a rotation of St. Rita’s mothers who were helping the McDermott family care for their daughter. Courtney should have started college that fall, but in her senior year at Ursuline she had gone to Padre Island for spring break with her girlfriends. How much drinking or drugs were involved was unclear, but on the ride back to Dallas Courtney was at the wheel. Highway 77 out of Harlingen. No one wearing seat belts. The two other girls in the car—one in the passenger seat and one in the back—were killed on impact when the car swerved into the guardrail. Courtney was thrown from the car and hit her head on the ground. The paramedics brought her back, but she had already lain on the road losing blood and oxygen to her brain for seventeen minutes. That was over six months ago. She was now in a coma, and everyone was hoping against hope for Courtney to wake up.

Anne mouthed a quick Hail Mary and returned to Father Ralph de Bricassart talking Meggie through her first period.

“You’re only doing what all women do, Meggie. Once a month for several days you’ll pass blood . . . Do you know what ‘mature’ means?”

“Of course, Father! I read! It means grown up.”

Meggie is no Jane Eyre, Anne thought, but with these men in her life . . .

“The bleeding is a part of the cycle of procreation. In the days before the Fall, it is said Eve didn’t menstruate . . . But when Adam and Eve fell, God punished the woman more than He did the man, because it was really her fault they fell.”

Anne spat a muted “bleh.” She liked the wry humor of Andrew Greeley better. Anne looked up from the book and watched the Saturday afternoon light ease across the far wall and dapple down the girl’s vanity. The mockingbird had left the brown pods of the mimosa, and the room was silent. Anne stood and moved closer toward Courtney’s bed. Anne closed her eyes and listened to the girl breathe. Wake up, dear. I’m praying for you. When she opened her eyes, she half expected Courtney to open hers; it almost felt as if the poor girl had heard her. That there was an answer to her prayers.