Evelyn opened her eyes.

She saw the ceiling, then the departures board, then me.

I have watched a great many people receive bad news across a table and I have never in my life seen a human face do what that face did in about a second and a half.

It went through four separate things and the last one was not fear.

It was something closer to exhaustion — a kind of collapse inward, as though the last load had been added to something already fully loaded.

She pulled both girls against her.