The walking dead
he creaking footsteps in
one of them coming to get
er ears, but this didn’t s
then the doorknob rattled
he’d feared since she’d l
rosse Pointe. He—well, i
e had no idea how many of
including her best friend
iv
ed the nearest object, a l
would protect her. Still,
at whoever, or wha
What’s wrong? Diane, op
an
e it registered that it was
st her
can you
id, aware of her pulse po
ut sp
l day again,” Barbara Coles
get on wit
lamp above her head fo
able. She lay down again i
her
open the door?” Barbara
me
right d
Barbar
’ll be ri
out a long, frustrated b
she marched
ut at her parents since
hirty-two years old, but lat
ear-old. She’d thought mo
but if anything, being iso
ed her
s after her, it would make
avoid—but it really cou
e black Honda that had be
re, or that older blond wom
her weirdly. Or maybe it w
bbed her in front of the ap
h a foreign accent, mayb
way the guy had looked at
ut of her. Before she coul
ay, with surprising speed
ybe there were others she
hing—she wouldn’t be abl
had no idea about the
n. It would be so much easi
ine support, but she knew
ction as the police; the
up. Besides, they were ge
want to cause them any s
ery recently. So Diane had
it had been taking its toll
thoughts were so scatter
thi
Grosse Pointe, but where
d or relative, in Michiga
ing someone else, and she
In New York, she’d been
ervices firm, but with rent
better or worse, Diane was stuck
een here she hadn’t gone o
—which was probably at le
home because of a bad b
sage, and because “the whole livingin-t
ory nudged into her cons
there. Denial was her n
anism, but it had been wo
l institution. She wanted t
pened in New York, the e
r, maybe if she just stayed
llow, like she’d done whe
o to school, they wouldn’t
The flashbacks—in vivid, h
ad been only a few weeks
e, forgotten completely, a
’t wait fo
r bed, leaning over and k
never felt so out of contro
e didn’t think she was insa
? Didn’t all insane people
ne—staying in bed all day,
elf, virtually paralyzed b
ed her behavior this way,
it of sanity. While she t
way she was, if she was in
had happened to her in
it had been an actual n
she’d been under a lot of
the city. Maybe the break
ad put her o
ck back and forth, kne
d repeatedly, “New York
d, New York n
least some chance that she’dmade it all up, had had
nsanity was a good thing.
e could get through this. I
m, she could snap herself o
took over