Once again, I find myself in a hospital bed, this time having slept and eaten. Someone taps me on the wrist and I turn to see Zelda standing beside my bed, just barely visible give her height, or lack of it.

“Sleep well?

“How long?”

“A month.”

“No way.” I feel the hairs of my beard pull under a new bandage.

“No, the evening and the morning, it is the next day.”

“Since when do you quote Scripture?”

She walks around the bed and I notice Gabriel standing in the doorway.

“Who are you?”

“Watchman,” he says.

“You did good. You can be my backup anytime.”

“Or you mine?”

I try to smile, but everything feels like it’s cracking. “Did you get the coins?”

He nods.

“Answer me, you little shit.”

“I gave them to the families of the fallen. Jake helped me.”

“Jake?”

He nods again.

Zelda puts a newspaper on the sheet.

“They still make those?” I ask. “what’s it say? I don’t know where my eyes are under this hornet’s nest of gauze.”

She picks up the paper and folds it like the Sunday Times, so only one column is visible. I wait.

“United States Coast Guard reports that they have only been able to find one survivor, and no other casualties from the helicopter crash near Fire Island, New York. The young girl, about high school age, was found floating not far from where the chopper went down. She is presumed to be the only survivor, however, she has not been able to provide her identity. She is being transported to Sinai Medical Center for observation.”

Sally. The girl with the magic memory.

“You know what that means,” says Red as she enters, followed by the Old Man, Gabriel and a freshly bandaged Flag.

“Yeah,” I say. “This ain’t over.”