“It will be a lot of work, caring for both of you at once,” she said. “But you know me, I like to stay busy.”

All I could do was stare, and that fact seemed to please her.

“Hang on,” she said. “Wait right here. I’ll be back with a pair of socks.”

I was alone. The door was open. Could I run? Yes. But where would I go?

Somewhere else. Anywhere else, obviously. But . . . nah.

I SAW MOTION out of the corner of my eye. But it wasn’t enough to make me turn my head and look.

Then a new face appeared in front of me.

A new-old face, that is.

Agatha? Yes. Agatha.

Her hands touched my cheeks, my hair, as her eyes searched my expression.

It’s okay, I wanted to tell her. It’s okay.

I wondered what she had wanted to tell me all those times. Now I knew what it was like to be her.

If you wanted something badly enough, you could push through this fog. But it was the wanting I just couldn’t wrap my head around.

Her hands gripped mine, and I felt her slip something smooth and cool into my palm.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the door.

“What are you doing in here? Bad girl!” Laura yanked Agatha out by the arm. “Bad, bad.”

I saw Agatha wince under her mother’s severe touch, and something inside me stirred.

“Back to your room,” Laura was saying, and she dragged her roughly away.

When Laura returned, she was carrying a short stack of clothes for me to put on. After that, she seemed distracted. She ordered me to lie down and then closed the door to the room.

I closed my eyes and tightened my fist around the object Agatha had given me. This would be a good time to rest.

Except there was an image I couldn’t get out of my head. It was Laura grabbing Agatha, shaking her. Agatha closing her eyes and pulling back slightly, like a young child afraid of being hit.

I cared a little about that. Just a little. But enough, it turned out, for me to make the halting walk over to the desk and put Kiley’s phone in my pocket.

Then I lay down and fell asleep.

Caring was so exhausting.

A LITTLE WHILE later, Laura came in with another pill. She watched me swallow it, then patted my pillow and told me to lie down, that she’d be back in a while.

I lay back obediently. But then I felt something in my hand. Something small and smooth. I’d been holding it the whole time, and Laura hadn’t noticed.

It was a tiny container of colorless liquid, and the scent was lemony, but less “mmm, lemons in bloom” and more “lemon-fresh bathroom scent.”

I stared at it.

Agatha had risked getting herself in trouble to give it to me.