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out of fuel, they burn heliurow even hotter, and explode in a supernova Supernovas, they're brighter than the brightest galaxies They die, but everyone watches theo

Earlier, after we ate, I helped Sara clean up in the kitchen "You think so the ketchup back into the fridge

"Because she took off her necklace?"

"No" I shrugged "Just in general"

"Compared to Kate's kidneys and Jesse's sociopathy, I'd say she's doing fine"

"She wanted dinner over before it started"

Sara turned around at the sink "What do you think it is?"

"Uha guy?"

Sara glanced atanyone"

Thank God "Maybe one of her friends said so s of thirteen-year-old girls?

Sara wiped her hands on a towel and turned on the dishwasher "Maybe she's just being a teenager"

I tried to think back to what Kate was like when she was thirteen, but all I could remember was the relapse and the stem cell transplant she had Kate's ordinary life had a way of fading into the background, overshadowed by the times she was sick

"I have to take Kate to dialysis toet home?"

"By eight But I'm on call, and I wouldn't be surprised if our arsonist struck again"

"Brian?" she asked "How did Kate look to you?"

Better than Anna did, I thought, but this was not what she was asking She wanted ainst yesterday; she wanted me to read into the way she leaned her elbows on the table, too tired to hold her body upright

"Kate looks great," I lied, because this is e do for each other

"Don't forget to say good night to theather the pills Kate takes at bedtime

It's quiet, tonight Weeks have rhythms all their own, and the craziness of a Friday or Saturday night shift stands in direct contrast to a dull Sunday or Monday I can already tell: this will be one of those nights where I bunk down and actually get to sleep

"Daddy?" The hatch to the roof opens, and Anna crawls out "Red told me you were up here"

Iht "What's wrong?"

"Nothing I justwanted to visit"

When the kids were small, Sara would stop by with theiant engines; they'd fall asleep upstairs in my bunk So along an old blanket and ould spread it here on the roof, lie doith the kids between us, and watch the night rise

"Mom knohere you are?"

"She dropped me off" Anna tiptoes across the roof She's never been all that great with heights, and there is only a three-inch lip around the concrete Squinting, she bends to the telescope "What can you see?"

"Vega," I tell her I take a good look at Anna, soht anys of curves Even herinto the telescope--have a sort of grace I associate with full-groo you want to talk about?"

Her teeth snag on her bottom lip, and she looks down at her sneakers "Maybe instead you could talk to ests

So I sit her down on a is a part of Lyra, the lyre that belonged to Orpheus I am not one for stories, but I remember the ones that match up with the constellations I tell her about this son of the sun god, whose music charmed animals and softened boulders A man who loved his wife, Eurydice, so much that he wouldn't let Death take her away

By the ti flat on our backs "Can I stay here with you?" Anna asks

I kiss the top of her head "You bet"

"Daddy," Anna whispers, when I think for sure she has fallen asleep, "did it work?"

It takesabout Orpheus and Eurydice

"No," I admit

She lets loose a sigh "Figures," she says

TUESDAY

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--

It gives a lovely light!

--EDNA ST VINCENT MILLAY, "First Fig," A Few Figs from Thistles

ANNA

I USED TO PRETEND that I was just passing through this family on my way to my real one It isn't too e of e of enes that ca rubberized French fries and red Jell-O, I'd glance around froht be just a tray away They'd sob with sheer joy to find ive me a maid that s, and a private phone line The thing is, the first person I'd have called to crow over my new fortune would be Kate

Kate's dialysis sessions run three times a week, for two hours at a time She has a Mahhukar catheter, which looks just like her central line used to look and protrudes froets hooked up to aKate's blood (well, it's et technical about it) leaves her body through one needle, gets cleaned, and then goes into her body again through a second needle She says it doesn't hurt Mostly, it's just boring Kate usually brings a book or her CD player and headphones Soaeous guy you find," Kate'll instruct, or, "Sneak up on the janitor who surfs the Net and see whose naked pictures he's downloading" When she is tied to the bed, I am her eyes and her ears

Today, she is reading Allure azine I wonder if she even knows that every V-necked model she comes across she touches at the breastbone, in the same place where she has a catheter and they don't "Well," " She waves a pamphlet she's taken from the bulletin board outside Kate's room: You and Your New Kidney "Did you know that they don't take out the old kidney? They just transplant the new one into you and hook it up"

"That creeps ine the coroner who cuts you open and sees you've got three instead of two"

"I think the point of a transplant is so that the coroner won't be cutting you open anytime soon,"resides right now in my own body

I've read that pamphlet, too

Kidney donation is considered relatively safe surgery, but if you asklike a heart-lung transplant, or soery is the kind where you go into the doctor's office and you're awake the whole time and the procedure is finished in five minutes--like when you have a wart removed or a cavity drilled On the other hand, when you donate a kidney, you spend the night before the operation fasting and taking laxatives You're given anesthesia, the risks of which can include stroke, heart attack, and lung probleery isn't a walk in the park, either--you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of dying on the operating table If you don't, you are hospitalized for four to seven days, although it takes four to six weeks to fully recover And that doesn't even include the long-terh blood pressure, a risk of conancy, a recom kidney ed

Then again, when you get a wart removed or a cavity drilled, the only person who benefits in the long run is yourself

There is a knock on the door, and a familiar face peeks in Vern Stackhouse is a sheriff, and therefore a member of the same public servant community as my father He used to come over to our house every now and then to say hi or leave off Christmas presents for us;hi the justice syste daughter, people cut you slack

Vern's face is like a souffle, caving in at the most unexpected places He doesn't seeht for him to enter the room "Uh," he says "Hi, Sara"

"Vern!" Myat the hospital? Everything all right?"

"Oh yeah, fine I'm just here on business"

"Serving papers, I suppose"

"Um-hmm" Vern shuffles his feet and stuffs his hand inside his jacket, like Napoleon "I'm real sorry about this, Sara," he says, and then he holds out a document