Something has equalized you now, you and Sharon. You both have adult hands.

I closed my eyes and fell into an odd, light sleep from which I could hear Rocío’s and Nico’s voices as clearly as if I were awake. I tried to move and couldn’t. I tried to call out to them, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

But the new tunnels’ patina is wrong: dry and crisp, lacking the centuries-old drip and goo that lends the catacombs their secretive, haunted air.

An enlarged left ventricle is one of the most serious types of enlarged heart. It can result in organ failure.

I had no itinerary apart from a visit to the island with the horses, a treat for my last day.

So Nora doesn’t have the time to call home, to fly back to Maryland for Christmas.