He made his phone call, then bought two egg sandwiches and a Hershey bar from the drugstore luncheonette counter and walked back to Annie’s cellar. In the twenty minutes he had been gone she had managed to pull the bed together, and she was sitting up in the large chair, her face ashen but tranquil.

“Is it all right?”

She nodded.

“Did you?”

“Yes. I did. I won’t tell you about it. It’s done now. I feel very tired.”

“I’ve brought you a sandwich.”

She smiled musingly, gently, as though some delicate thought had touched her. She said, “I can’t yet. It’s that I can’t put anything in my stomach. I could eat watercress, but not real food, it’s too much like the other…I feel as if I never wanted to eat again. I’ve had a glass of water. It was so good.”

“Will you mind if I eat?”