And after about a year I started talking, in her kitchen, on my own, because nobody was waiting for me to.”

Harrison Vance was very still.

“When can you start?” he said.

Part Seven: Don’t Cry

For six weeks, Maya Sterling cleaned a house and cooked for two people and did not read a newspaper.

The room at the back was small and white and had a door to the garden, and she slept in it for four nights before she stopped waking at three in the morning with her heart going.

She healed.