At the hospital, time crawled for Fern. I took two cups from the triage desk and poured warm water for her and Auntie Sutton.

Fern accepted it, took a small sip, then sat in the chair, staring blankly into space.

Auntie Sutton was worried about Brendan and kept going over to his bed to check on him.

After the sedative shot, Brendan stayed asleep through the entire examination. There was still no sign of him waking up.

When he’d been ...