Pin was there, fussing around her daughter, quizzing the doctor as if he were on her staff at her Chiang Rai hospital. They learnt that the rider of the other bike had recovered and was in another ward. He was expected to be released later that morning. Cavalier relieved the doctor from Pin’s intense questioning by asking about the crash.

‘Did the police do a blood test on the other rider?’

‘You’d have to ask them about it. But from all accounts he was drunk.’

The doctor examined the vital signs monitor next to the bed.

‘She was saved even though she was not wearing a helmet,’ he said.

‘You said her recovery was a miracle,’ Cavalier prompted in Thai.

The doctor, a well-groomed, bespectacled man in his mid-forties, shook his head.

‘I’ve seen a lot of inexplicable things in more than twenty years of medicine. This was mysterious.’

‘The bleeding just stopped?’

‘She was haemorrhaging from the mouth mainly, but also the nose and ears. It seemed like serious brain damage. Then it stopped. I am speaking about less than ten seconds. Never seen anything like that. Ever. It was as if …’

‘What?’

‘It was … I really don’t know. It went against all my medical knowledge, and that of any other medico in this hospital, for that matter.’

‘Had you given her any medication?’

‘No. We were still assessing her when she recovered.’

‘Could there still be brain damage?’

‘She will be incoherent in speech, to start with, and may need therapy. But going on her current signs, I expect her to be back to normal in a few weeks.’

*

The doctor’s analysis was accurate. Pon came out of a coma on day three. Her sentences were tangled yet she recovered well enough to be taken home five days after the accident. After ten days her speech and thoughts were coherent.

‘Mummy,’ Pon said from her bed early one morning, ‘I saw Serena and Grandpa.’

‘What?’ Pin replied.

‘What did you see, darling,’ Cavalier asked, ‘in your dreams, yes?’

‘No, this was real,’ Pon said, eyes wide. ‘I was walking towards a house. Grandpa was at the big wooden doors to a beautiful home. So was Serena. They waved me away. They wouldn’t let me come in.’

Pin and Cavalier glanced at each other.

‘How old was Serena?’ Pin asked, her voice shaky.

‘She looked … I don’t know; older than me. Mummy, she was really beautiful; long hair …’

Pin went white. She looked at her forearms, where she felt a sensation.

‘That’s wonderful, darling,’ Pin said, holding back tears. She left the room with Cavalier.

‘Oh my God!’ Pin said. ‘She saw Serena! She would be mid-thirties, if she had lived.’

‘And her grandpa; he died three years ago.’

*

Pin began asking questions about Al Haut again. Cavalier promised to discover more. The next day, they were surprised when Haut rang to find out how Pon was faring.