touched them, ate the food that somehow stilled the ache in her belly, wore the same too-large black
sweater and worn blue shirt and gray slacks because they were all she had that seemed solid. Nightly she
washed them and dried them and put them on the next day, letting others hang in the closet. They were
the only solid ones.
She did not tell the doctors these things. A lifetime in and out of hospitals had made her wary of
confidences. She knew what to say. Her half-vision let her smile at ghost-faces, cannily manipulate their
charts and cards, sitting in the ruins that had begun to smolder by late afternoon. A blackened corpse lay
in the hall. She did not flinch when she smiled good-naturedly at the doctor.
They gave her medicines. The medicines stopped the dreams, the siren screams, the running steps in the
night past her apartment. They let her sleep in the ghostly bed, high above ruin, with the flames crackling
and the voices screaming. She did not speak of these things. Years in hospitals had taught her. She
complained only of nightmares, and restlessness, and they let her have more of the red pills.
war, the headline blazoned.
The cup rattled and trembled against the saucer as she picked it up. She swallowed the last bit of bread
and washed it down with coffee, tried not to look beyond the broken front window, where twisted metal
hulks smoked on the street. She stayed, as she did each day, and Sam grudgingly refilled her cup, which
she would nurse as far as she could and. then she would order another one. She lifted it, savoring the
feeling of it, stopping the trembling of her hands.
The bell jingled faintly. A man closed the door, settled at the counter.
Whole, clear in her eyes. She stared at him, startled, heart pounding. He ordered coffee, moved to buy a
paper from the vendor, settled again and let the coffee grow cold while he read the news. She had view
only of his back while he read—scuffed brown leather coat, brown hair a little over his collar. At last he
drank the cooled coffee all at one draught, shoved money onto the counter and left the paper lying,
headlines turned face down.
A young face, flesh and bone among the ghosts. He ignored them all and went for the door.
Alis thrust herself from her booth.
"Hey!" Sam called at her.
She rummaged in her purse as the bell jingled, flung a bill onto the counter, heedless that it was a five.
Fear was coppery in her mouth; he was gone. She fled the cafe, edged round debris without thinking of it,
saw his back disappearing among the ghosts.
She ran, shouldering them, braving the flames— cried out as debris showered painlessly on her, and kept
running.
Ghosts turned and stared, shocked—he did like wise, and she ran to him, stunned to see the same shock
on his face, regarding her.
"What is it?" he asked.
She blinked, dazed to realize he saw her no differently than the others. She could not answer. In irritation
he started walking again, and she followed. Tears slid down her face, her breath hard in her throat. People
stared. He noticed her presence and walked faster, through debris, through fires. A wall began to fall and
she cried out despite herself.
He jerked about. The dust and the soot rose up as a cloud behind him. His face was distraught and angry.
He stared at her as the others did. Mothers drew children away from the scene. A band of youths stared,
cold-eyed and laughing.
"Wait," she said. He opened his mouth as if he would curse her; she flinched, and the tears were cold in
the heatless wind of the fires. His face twisted in an embarrassed pity. He thrust a hand into his pocket
and began to pull out money, hastily, tried to give it to her. She shook her head furiously, trying to stop
the tears—stared upward, flinching, as another building fell into flames.
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