That night he couldn’t sleep. He slipped out of bed and got dressed to go outside. He had intended to just go sit out on the front steps, but his feet took him down the street as his mind went over the night’s events again.

Tammy had felt like their experiment hadn’t worked. The small twitches his mother had displayed didn’t indicate to her that much was going on. But Phil read these movements differently. His mother had been so still up to that point that he knew she was “with” them in a way she hadn’t been since the accident. What he couldn’t interpret was what it meant, if anything. He was no good at reading signs.

Patty was waiting for him when he walked in the front door. She was crying.

“What is it?” he asked.

“She’s failing, honey,” Patty said. “The doctor said we should get there as soon as possible. I’ll drive.”

They arrived five minutes after Arlene Mertz had been pronounced dead.