For once, the instructions attached to my name had come from me.

PART 4 — Clara’s Whole Account

I agreed to a brief visit from Clara after the doctor said I could manage it.

She came in wearing a cardigan too large for her shoulders.

She was twenty-seven, but that morning she looked younger when she stood beside the chair and waited to be told whether to sit.

I did not invite her closer to the bed.

“They told me the baby is being monitored,” she said.