And then, about forty minutes later, going through the itemization line by line, because I am an accountant and because that is the one thing I actually know how to do, I found the other admission.

The twenty-seventh of December.

An ambulance transfer out of the hospice and back, seven hours, an emergency department and two scans.

Six thousand two hundred and forty dollars.

The twenty-seventh of December is fifteen days after the twelfth.

Part Thirty: Thirty Days

The single most useful thing I learned in the whole of that year is printed in small type on the back of the letter that frightened me.

Under federal law — the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act — when a collection agency first contacts you about a debt, you have thirty days to dispute it in writing and to request verification.