“Wait, Nancy,” I say, but she pushes and I fall, like Alice down the rabbit hole. I feel myself yanked down a long, slick, dark tunnel, headlong toward the opposite end of the kaleidoscope lens. There is a moment of terror and the smell and taste of blood, before I am pulled into air and blinding light.

I hear screaming: a wail, half angry, half joyous, like a baby at birth. I feel a terrible regret. In that split second change from dark to light I remembered it all. And now, in the hour of my birth, I have again forgotten.

Miss Mackey was rubbing Rose’s hands. Jerram was sticking a glass of brandy under her nose. She coughed and spat and pushed it aside.

“Oh, thank God,” Miss Mackey said. “I thought we’d lost you.”

Jerram said nothing. He was looking at Miss Mackey in an oddly hostile way.

“We must ask, you understand,” Miss Mackey said. “I know it’s a shock, but it’s in these first crucial moments that you’ll remember most. What happened? What did you find out?”

Rose opened her mouth but no words came. Jerram was solicitous. “Take it easy. We’ll get you home,” he said, but Miss Mackey kept shooting questions at her.

“You did contact someone, didn’t you? You were there, on the other side? Is there life after death? What was it like? Did they say anything? Did they say who the killer was? Was it Wallace?” Miss Mackey’s face crumpled with dread. “Oh, they didn’t say it was Wallace, did they?” she keened.

Jerram exploded. “Is that all you wanted? To make sure your precious crackpot was innocent? It’s unconscionable. Rose might have died.”

“Oh, no, oh, no,” Miss Mackey said. “You have it all wrong.”

“I don’t think so. I heard you asking when Rose was in that trance, begging her to find out about Wallace.”

“But it wasn’t just for that,” Miss Mackey cried as Jerram helped Rose to the door. “It wasn’t that at all.”

“Can you walk?” he asked Rose. “Should I phone a cab?”

She felt weak and exhausted but just wanted to get into the open air.

“You have misunderstood,” Miss Mackey said, becoming dignified. “I helped Rose, regardless of what you think. No one else could have helped her. No one else has the power.”

“Rose is the only one with the power,” Jerram said.

“No, don’t,” Rose said. She pressed Miss Mackey’s hand. “It’s all right.”

“Thank you, dear,” she said. “Don’t blame me for asking about Wallace. I have known and cared for him since he was a child. His family has always treated him like an outcast. You go home and rest now, and when you feel better perhaps you’ll come back and tell me all about it.”