He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer, and then dozed off for a few seconds. When he lifted his head he was astonished to see Rachel standing by the sliding-glass doors. She looked radiant, but the glare of the sun behind her made it hard to discern her features. He could recognize her face, despite it being obscured by her hair, which was gusting in the wind. She was smiling, almost laughing, and speaking, though her lips weren’t moving. “We’re all okay, Mitch, but I need you to ask Carolyn to do me a favor.” He thought he heard her trademark giggle. “Tell her she has to speak at my funeral. I know she won’t want to do it, Mitch, but tell her I will be with her all the way.” He woke with a start, thinking someone had poked him in the shoulder.

As he shook himself awake, he heard stirring upstairs and knew the day was now beginning in earnest.

Carolyn heard Mitch talking with someone downstairs and woke up. She lay in bed for a few minutes trying to remember Tuesday’s phone call with Rachel, when it dawned on her that two of Rachel’s messages were still on the answering machine. She and Rachel had spoken once but then missed each other’s calls throughout the day. What a gift, she thought. I can go downstairs and hear her voice! She pretended for a moment that if the messages were still on the machine, all this horror would be undone, just like in the movies.

Why couldn’t life be like her and Rachel’s favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz? After facing the terrifying flying monkeys, creepy munchkins, wicked witch, and intimidating wizard who turned out to be a harmless old man who couldn’t even help her get back to Kansas, all Dorothy needed to do was slip on a pair of ruby-red slippers, click them three times, and poof, there she was, back home where all was well. Whenever they watched it, by the time the final black-and-white part came on, Rachel and Carolyn would be scrunched on the couch together, handing each other tissues and bawling their eyes out. But this wasn’t a nightmare from which she could awake; it was all too real.

The boys were still sleeping on the floor, so she quietly got up, threw on her robe, and tiptoed down the steps. She ran over to the answering machine without even noticing that Mitch was sitting in the family room. He started to say something, but Carolyn interrupted, “Not now, I just realized I have Rachel’s messages on the machine!”