“It will only take a moment. Tell me who he is, the man who … who killed you.”

“Why, I don’t know, Rose. What made you think I could tell you that?”

“But you must know, you must help. We have to stop him.”

“I saw his face but I didn’t recognize him.” Her voice is detached, unconcerned. She has changed again, now less Nancy and more of something else.

“The others. .. are they here? Helen and Carla and your friend Cyn? Maybe they can tell me?” “I don’t know if they can talk to you.”

“If you can, why not them?”

“It’s not a thing everyone can do, Rose.” She sounds solicitous, almost motherly.

“Please help me. If you don’t, he’ll just go on and on. He might kill me.”

“But you see,” she says, “it doesn’t concern me anymore.”

“It concerned you once. You came to me, Nancy. Why did you do it if you didn’t care?” There is a long silence. “Yes, it’s true. I did care. I can remember feeling that.”

“Then let me talk to them.”

“You can’t stay here, Rose.”

“I’ll stay as long as it takes to get the answer.” “Oh, I wouldn’t do that, Rose. It wouldn’t be a good idea. Changes occur here.”

“Nancy, can you please speak plainly? Am I in danger here?” It is hard to imagine this place as dangerous, with the sea gently lapping in time to the beating of the vast protective heart of sky.

“No,” she says unsurely, as if it is hard for her to speak in ordinary terms. “Nothing will harm you.”

“Then I’ll stay.”

“You will do what you will do,” she says enigmatically. “And the changes will come in their own sweet time if they come at all.”

“And the other girls? Will they talk to me?” There was no answer. “Nancy? Nancy!”

I am alone on the shore. Time loops and slides in my mind; moments pass, or perhaps it is days. The far clouds move across the kaleidoscope horizon, changing from pink to purple to blue. The sea turns to silver. The heartbeat soothes me, lulls me, protects me. I feel as if I could lie down and sleep forever.

“Don’t go to sleep, Rose,” Nancy’s voice warns.

But I am tired and so at peace. A change in the light wakes me. The shapes blur into view against the sky.

“I’ve brought them,” Nancy says. “But it’s only Carla and Cyn. The others … it’s not possible for them. They’ve already gone.”