She knew what Frank would have said about Holmes—that she should be careful, much more suspicious. That she should talk to someone—not in the way Clara and everyone else meant it, but in the way of checking things out, finding what you could, protecting yourself. You act like military loves you, Frank often warned her. It ain’t your daddy. Well, he once corrected, maybe in your case it is. She had to laugh. Even at that. Even with Frank in this bed in the shape he was. She recalled one of his letters. X, you have no skin sometime. Grow some. I’m not going to be around forever.

In another time, in another war, they might have called her brave. “Reckless” was the word Frank used in his missives. Yet wasn’t he the heedless one? Look at this. Ward 58. Look at how it played out.

Here was the nurse. He couldn’t hide the sack of urine. His hands in latex were splodged with some of it. “You can go in,” he said over his shoulder as he headed down the hall.

She went in. The bag on the bed bars was clear and empty. But now her cell was ringing. It was Clara.

“Mary, I have to get these kids to bed,” she said, her voice still lapping with her caring tone.

“I know. Long drive to Bel Alton.”

“You sure that condo they found you is going to be okay?”

“It’ll have to be.”

“Call me if you want—I’ll have my earpiece in so I can talk and drive.”

“Don’t do that. Really. I’m okay.”

“I’m doing it anyway.”

“Clara, thanks. And, and, sorry to be so, so—”

“You just be yourself, Mary Goodwin. That’s all you can be anyway.”

“I—I appreciate …”

“Don’t forget to tell them to put lotion on his wrists. Ever since they put those restraints on him, he’s been getting a rash from them. I tell you, it infuriates me. He barely moves. I mean, aren’t we supposed to be hoping he moves?! Oh, he could suffer a fall. Oh, he might pull out a tube. Oh, oh, oh. I tell you, Mary, it’s so wonderful to have you here; maybe you can scare some sense into them.”

“I don’t generally … scare—”

“Well, now I’ve got an ally on the scene. So, anyway, look, I gotta run.”

Mary closed her phone. She stood there watching Frank’s heartbeat barbing along on the monitor. She recalled her time in that bed. The space-age deformity of her hip socket had fed her ego. All she’d been was crazy lucky. Just the way she’d been in the snow.