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

, New York nev

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