“Oh, yes, it had to be you. Don’t you understand? I do now. You went wherever it is we go when we die. You’ve been there, and you’ve come back. That’s why Nancy can talk to you, and you can get messages from the dead. Because, in a way, you’re one of them.”

“Mom, I’m alive. How can I be one of them?”

“You died, Rose. You’re alive now, but you’ve been dead. Now you can tell Miss Mackey you found out who you are. A person who knows what’s there, on the other side. You spent time there, Rose! I’m frightened for you.”

“You’re not supposed to be frightened! You’re supposed to be my mother, tell me what to do, make it all right again!”

Mom just looked at her tearfully. Mom didn’t have all the answers. Loneliness fell over Rose like a shroud. She felt as if she were moving fast through blank space, a black place pinpricked by stars, moving toward a nothingness she knew well. She saw herself alone in the vast sea of the cosmos. And at the same time, it was as if the universe were contained within her.

She went, halfheartedly now, to phone Muriel. Life had to go on, and there was still a future. Maybe this man from New York would offer her an instant scholarship and she could leave Bethboro, leave everybody and just go her own way.

The phone rang as she reached for it.

“The time will come,” said the hollow voice, “to talk of many things: Of limbs and hearts and sealing wax, of ravages and kings. And why the blood is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.”

11 Alice in WonderlandRose said.

“You’re wrong!” the voice replied viciously. “Through the Looking Glass, little blossom. Think about it. You’ll get it.”

He slammed the phone down before she could.

Rose pushed down for a dial tone and punched in the number of the Bethboro police. They could trace calls, couldn’t they? They could get him if he called again.

Detective O’Hara and Chief Henning were not available, but Sergeant Blake was glad to help.

“On a crank call,” he said, “the best thing to do is hang up.”

“Crank call?” Rose said slowly. “You think it’s just that?”

“What can you do? People are sick,” Sergeant Blake commiserated. “Try not to let it get you down; they’ll get bored before long and pick on someone else.”

“But will you give the message to Detective O’Hara, anyway?”

“Will do. She’ll look into it, don’t worry your head.”

Rose went to take the bath she had promised herself. She sat in the tub for a long time, thinking crazy thoughts. She wondered how it was to float in a prenatal fluid, to die and be reborn again.