I decided not to worry about it. Whatever was prodding her out of bed those nights didn’t seem to cast a shadow on Kelli’s daylight hours and that was all that mattered. She was cheerful and easygoing company lately, seeming to enjoy all our errand running, not to mention the treats I bought her afterwards for being good — and she liked seeing Jessica. Getting her off her stool and into the car wasn’t nearly the pitched battle it used to be. It occurred to me that maybe keeping Kelli busy had been the key to keeping Kelli happy and compliant this whole time. I’ll admit it. I was starting to think I had a real handle on things. Right up until the afternoon that Jessica took us condo shopping.

They were always tickled in equal measure to see one another. When I first reintroduced them, Kelli remembered Jessica at once — or not quite at once, but as soon as Jessica reminded her of a game they used to play together. “Kelli,” she had said, “Do you remember Round and Round the Garden?” And Kelli, who hadn’t yet made eye contact, but who’d been smiling to herself and rocking slightly to the sound of Jessica’s pleasing voice, had abruptly stuck out one pudgy hand, palm facing up.

Jessica took the hand in both of hers and started marching two glossy fingernails across my sister’s palm, incanting: “Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear . . . One step, two step . . . tickle under there!” At which point Jessica pretended to tickle Kelli under the armpit — remembering or perhaps intuiting that Kelli wasn’t crazy about abrupt or intimate touching.

Kelli’s smile grew big and she erupted in heh-heh-hehs. And then she spoke the words: Jenny Mad-tall. Which, I only remembered now, had been her pronunciation of Jessie’s name back when we were all children together.

So that was how the afternoon began — like all our other Jessica-rendezvous, starting with some kind of elaborate coffee confection for Kelli, one or two games of Round and Round punctuated by multiple eruptions of heh-heh-heh (especially once all that sugar and caffeine hit Kelli’s bloodstream), which always got Jessica and me chuckling too. Good feelings all around. So I had no reason to anticipate Kelli giving me any trouble during the condo hunt, and she didn’t — not for the first couple of viewings anyway. She gamely accompanied us into one generic, freshly painted living space after another, annoyed if there were too many stairs, or by the fact that there wasn’t any place to sit down once we got there, but otherwise agreeable, strolling from room to room with us and even offering opinions when they were solicited.

“Think you’d like to live here, Kelli?”

“Live here,” said Kelli.

“This would work for us ok, don’t you think?”

Kelli glanced with disapproval at the empty kitchen. “Eat,” she remarked.

“No, there’s nothing here to eat yet, is there? But we can fix that if we have to.”