Molly looked at the other side of the bed. Miri, or Meg, or… She couldn't tell which one.

"Martha has gone for your breakfast," the girl said.

Miriam joined them and sat on the edge of Molly's bed. "How are you now?"

"I'm all right. I'll get up."

"No, of course you won't get up. Breakfast first, then a rubdown and a manicure, and anything else we can think of that will make you more comfortable, and then if you don't fall asleep again, and if you still want to get up, then you may." Miriam laughed gently at her as Molly started to rise and sank back down again.

"You've been sleeping for two days," said Miri, or Meg, or whoever it was. "Barry's been here four times to check on you. He said you need to sleep all you can, and eat all you can."

There were dim memories of rousing, of drinking broth, of being bathed, but the memories refused to come into sharp focus.

"Are the others all right?" she asked.

"They're all fine," Miriam said soothingly.

"Thomas?"

"He's in the hospital, but he'll be fine too."

For many days they babied her; her blistered hands healed and her back stopped aching, and she regained some of the weight she had lost.

But she had changed, she thought, studying herself in the large mirror at the end of the room. Of course, she was still thin and gaunt. She looked at Miri's smooth face, and knew the difference lay deeper than that. Miri looked empty. When the animation faded, when she was no longer laughing or talking, there was nothing there. Her face became a mask that hid nothing.

"We'll never let you out of sight again!" Martha whispered, coming up behind her. The others echoed it vehemently.

"I thought of you every day, almost every minute," Miri said.

"And we all thought of you together each evening after dinner. We just sat here in a circle on the mat and thought of you," Melissa said.

"Especially when it got so long," Miri said in a whisper. "We were so afraid. We kept calling you and calling you, silently, but all of us together. Calling you home over and over."

"I heard you," Molly said. Her voice sounded almost harsh. She saw Miriam shake her head at the sisters, and they fell silent. "We all heard you calling. You brought us home," Molly said, softening her voice with an effort.