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