Of course I do, I replied, meeting Howard’s gaze. I didn’t see how he could be asking me this, after everything that Leslie, and Emily, and I had said.

Why?

Because it’s ruining my life.

Is it really, though?

Haven’t you been listening?

Or is it the people, the way people are reacting to your hearing The Hum that’s ruining your life? he asked.

No, trust me, it’s The Hum and it’s fucking up my life and I want to stop hearing it as soon as possible, I told him, punctuating the end of my sentence in the air, with my thumb and index finger together.

But you can’t, that’s the thing, Claire. Once you hear it, you can never stop hearing it.

I shook my head and told him I didn’t accept that.

I’m afraid you’re going to have to, he said.

Well I won’t.

But you can learn to live with it. And not only live with it but come to see it as something that augments your life.

Augments! Seema scoffed.

I’m not trying to upset you, he said. I’m trying to give you the facts you need to help yourself.

I told him that it needed to stop.

Well . . . it won’t.

It will, it has to.

Claire—

I need it to.

And how do headaches and nosebleeds augment my life exactly? Seema asked.

The Hum is incredibly powerful. And it can do extraordinary things, if you let it. But if you fight it, it will hurt you.

Right, Seema replied, obviously unconvinced. She shot me a look of vexed complicity.

You need to transform your relationship with it, Howard said.

What does that even mean? I asked.

Well that’s what we’re here to discover, he replied.

That’s not why I’m here, Tom said.

Seema chuckled—Yeah, sorry, me neither.

Tom rose from his perch on the sofa beside Seema, and clapped his hands—Right, well, I think I should go. I’m obviously here under the wrong pretext.

Emily told him to sit down, and Lesley seemed to want him to stay too, for some reason, but he wasn’t having it.

I sure the hell didn’t come here to be lectured to, or sit in a circle trying to make ourselves feel better, Tom said. Or ‘transform’ my goddamn relationship with something.

Just sit down, Emily said, exasperated.

If he wants to go, just let him, Jo said, gesturing towards the front door.

Tom looked at Howard—I came here today to get to the bottom of this.

And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do, Howard replied. We’re trying to access the truth of this.