He set the penlight on the tray and looked at me over his glasses.

“That squeeze was not a reflex, Valerie.

She’s responding directly to your voice.”

I put my free hand over my mouth.

I didn’t say anything, because my voice would have broken.

“I’m ordering a high-resolution scan this morning,” he said.

“If she can follow a command, we need to know what else is waking up.”

He wrote on the chart in tight, quick strokes.