“May I?” George asked as he switched it off without waiting for her reply. Rebecca got up from her perch in the chair beside the bed and stretched. She hugged George briefly, and then he sat in the chair Rebecca had just vacated. With George here, the air in the room suddenly seemed stale, and she opened the window and peered out to see the little portion of blue sky visible from Esther’s window on the inner courtyard of the Jewish Home.

George moved from the chair to sit carefully on the foot of the bed, where Esther’s tiny legs didn’t reach, and Rebecca sat on the side of the bed and took her grandmother’s cold hand in hers. They both watched Esther’s labored breathing for a while, and then George took Rebecca’s free hand and held it tightly. She held his hand tightly too. She had to be careful not to reflexively squeeze her grandmother’s little hand too tightly with the other.

“I think time stands still in this room,” George said after another long while had passed.

“The hands on my watch are actually going backward, I think,” Rebecca agreed.

Esther turned her head from side to side restlessly on the pillow.

“Esther, look, George is here,” Rebecca said, squeezing the tiny hand that now gripped hers.

Esther opened her eyes briefly and searched the room blankly until she found Rebecca, and then she looked again until she saw George.

“That’s nice,” she said weakly, and closed her eyes. “I don’t want to be such a bother, but it’s nice you’re here to sit by me.” The skin of her neck and jaw looked like parchment stretched thin over ancient bones, the burn scar standing out in ropy relief. As if they had agreed in advance to do this, each of them reached out with a free hand to hold one of Esther’s thin blanket-covered shins, as if to hold her in place, to keep her from floating away.

Clara came by, checked Esther’s pulse briefly. She checked the catheter bag, which Rebecca saw for the first time, as it had been hidden under the edge of her grandmother’s bedclothes. The negligible contents were very dark. Clara made notes on Esther’s chart and then stood by the bed watching them for a few minutes. She looked closely at Esther, whose eyes were closed, her mouth a hard line. When Rebecca looked up again, Clara had gone silently out of the room.

“At least they were together at the end,” Esther murmured restlessly, her eyes closed. “They had each other. I know my sister would understand. It was so terrible. Everyone had to make a choice, everyone had to choose so quick. There was no time. The heat was so terrible, the screaming was so bad. It was so terrible, all of it, it was like hell, like hell on earth.”

George looked at Rebecca, an eyebrow raised.

“Esther,” Rebecca said gently, touching her grandmother’s cheek. “What are you saying?”