He reached out a small finger and almost touched his sister's hand with it. «Promise to always sing her the Mouse song, Mom.»

«I will.»

He pointed toward the window. New York City was gone and Mr. Tracy's face filled the window instead. He smiled like old times.

«Always sing that one to her, Mom. And the one about the Spider Club too. That's a good one.»

The light grew in the room. It climbed from a swimming-pool blue, to orange, to yellow, higher yellow, white. It was too bright then and I had to close my eyes. When I opened them again, both Pepsi and Mr. Tracy were gone.

When the police arrived, I had Mae in my arms and the crowbar across my wet lap. All of the blood had soaked through my cotton nightgown and on to my thighs. It didn't feel bad.

Alvin Williams had escaped two hours before. Doctor Lavery had completely forgotten about me in the initial confusion. When he did remember, he called the police right away. But they took a while to arrive.

Williams had hailed a cab, strangled the driver, stolen the man's money and the tire iron from the trunk of the car.

Tire iron. That's what the policeman called the thing. A tire iron. Alvin still had the key to the front door of our building in his pocket. They said it had been his prized possession at the Institute, so they'd allowed him to keep it.

I wouldn't let the police take Mae or the tire iron away from me. They took Eliot. Then they took Alvin. But I wouldn't let them take Mae or the tire iron.

When they asked how I had gotten it away from Alvin, I shrugged and said _I_ hadn't – Pepsi had.

They left me alone.

Danny buried Eliot, then moved us out of that apartment within nine days after it happened. We live on Riverside Drive now, and there is a little bit of a view of the Hudson River. Danny laughed and said he had to pay off three people to get that view, but he wanted me to have it.

In bed last night he held me again and said he wanted to talk to me for the rest of our lives. He wanted to wake up talking to me and go to bed talking. He said we would help each other grow old.

Do you know what I've been thinking about? Thinking about a lot? Whether Eliot is with Pepsi now. Even if he first had to go to Ophir Zik, I know Pepsi would get Eliot out of there in a flash. That would be great. They would have so much fun together.

There's no way to express how much i miss them.

It's hard convincing yourself that where you are at the moment is your home, and it's not always where your heart is. Sometimes I win and sometimes not.