It’s Lillian Keilbacher. Face white, lips cut, blond hair thrown back. It’s definitely her. Her chest—crushed. She’s dead. Dots, no doubt about it. That’s Lillian, right there. Her body.

Abe backs out of the car. He notes that the car was a new Toyota Banshee, a little sport model popular among kids. Seems he’s gone deaf; he sees the turmoil of spectators and cars around them, but can’t hear a thing. He remembers Xavier, sweating, talking in a near hysteria about the time he turned over a dead kid in a car and saw, just for a moment, his son’s face. He makes a move toward the car, thinking to check the girl’s ID. But no, it’s her. It’s her. Carefully he walks to the curb and sits on it.

“Abe! Where—Abe! What are you doing, man?” Xavier is crouched at his side, hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Abe looks at him, croaks, “I know her. The driver. Friend of the family. Lillian, Lillian Keilbacher.”

“Oh, man.…” Xavier’s face scowls with distress; Abe can’t stand to look at him. “We got to go anyway, the other one’s still alive. Come on, bro. I’ll drive, you can work in back.”

Abe is qualified to do the medic work, but when they reach the truck he can’t face it. He balks at the rear door. “No, man. I’ll drive.”

“You sure you can?”

“I’ll drive!”

“Okay. Be careful. Let’s go to Anaheim Hospital.”

Abe gets in. Seat belt on. He drives. He’s a blank; he finds himself at the freeway exit leading to Anaheim Memorial and he can’t remember a single thought from the drive, or the drive itself. Xavier pops his head through the window. “This one looks like she’ll pull through. Here, make a left here, man, ER is at the side.”

“I know.”

Xavier falls silent. Wordlessly they sit as Abe drives them to the ER ramp. He sits and listens while Xavier and the nurses get Lillian’s friend inside. Memory brings up to him the image of Lillian’s dead face rolling toward him, looking through him. His diaphragm’s all knotted, he’s not breathing well. He blanks again.

Xavier opens the driver’s door. “Come on, Abe, slide over. I’ll drive for a while.”

Abe slides over. Xavier puts them on the track to the street. He glances at Abe, starts to say something, stops.