Rachel heard murmuring; she thought it was part of a dream. In it she was carrying Adam, who was amazingly small and light, to a canoe, like the one they’d rented when they went through the wilderness park in Minnesota. She carried him easily at first, then as the woods got deeper, and the sun started to go, his body got heavier, and soon she was staggering along the trail, toward the canoe that waited at the edge of one of the lakes. He was alive and awake, his eyes were bright, and he talked to her, to make the trip go faster. She didn’t listen to what he said, but the sound of his voice was a comfort, and before long she reached the canoe, laid him in the bottom, careful not to bang his head on the slats. Then she got into the stern, and with a sweet movement that no one who hadn’t portaged could appreciate, they slid across the shallow end of the water and out into the lake. He couldn’t move, but he talked as she paddled, the murmuring of his voice spread over the flat water.

She woke up and opened her eyes, but the murmuring went on. She had a pain between her legs, her back hurt, and she knew she’d had the baby, and that it was Jacob sitting next to her bed, praying or just talking to himself. She was glad to be alive, not on the lonely lake with her paralyzed husband. She turned her head to smile at her father-­in-­law, and saw Isaac Luria sitting on a chair next to her bed, his lips moving, his fingers rubbing something flat and silver in his hand. He saw she was awake, and he stopped talking and put the silver whatever in his pocket.

“The baby?” she asked.

“A little girl,” he said. “But perfect. Seven pounds four ounces.” He looked at her like he always did, with the same flat look he’d give a chair or piece of meat. Yet, she thought, he’d been praying for her, or over her, or something, and she smiled at him. He didn’t smile back, just regarded her without any expression on his face.

Suddenly she wanted him out of her room.

“Jacob . . .” she cried.

“He’s eating,” Luria said. “He’s exhausted and needs to eat.”