I stumbled through the veil and into Mom's office, into her arms. She wept on my shoulder while my friends piled in after me. Maybe I should have been crying, too, but I just couldn't past the numbness. Being lost in the gray place seemed to have given me a buffer against Quaid's predicament, I suppose.

From the worry and sorrow on Sass's face, he knew exactly what was going on. "Miriam," he said, taking Mom from me, hugging her. "You did ...