[ And she gives her answer, and they have their silent accord of his knowing otherwise, and that were it not anything she could cope with, she might feel safe enough in his detachment from her world order, her crew, to place her confidence once more in him.

So he smiles, and returns to his former position, leading her into a pivot turn so that they could avoid dancing their way into the fire. ]

I don't sleep well, and waking up is a thousand times more abhorrent. I occasionally get headaches so bad they make my teeth ache--did you know that could happen? I didn't. I miss knowing, but most of all I miss my son. But...

[ But he hadn't given up the ghost, and the world wasn't such an awful place. Even the curses he'd come to live with, in a manner of speaking, but then nothing transcendentally awful had happened to him yet. ]

I'm fine too. As fine as I could be. And I suspect I owe a great deal of that to you.