"The doctor said she's all right."
She said it the way people repeat a phrase they have been given to hold on to, and James heard that in it, so he did not let go of anything yet.
He looked past her at the closed door and the privacy screen behind the glass.
"All right meaning what?" he said. "Tell me what he actually said to you."
His mother pressed the heel of her hand under one eye.
"She woke up. Only for a minute, but she knew me, and she said my name." Her voice went thinner. "And her temperature's coming down. It's been coming down since about an hour before you rang. He said she's not in danger anymore."
"And what caused it?"
"That's the part." She looked at the door too. "They don't know."
The treatment-room door opened.
The doctor who came out into the corridor had his sleeves pushed to the elbow and a tablet held against his side, and he did not begin with reassurance, which James decided he liked.
