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Three weeks she’s been lying here like a zombie. THREE WEEKS.”
    A nurse rushed in. “Mrs Hoshi,” she said reproachfully, “this kind of behaviour will not help your daughter’s recovery.”
    “The only thing that can help her is a miracle!” Tsubomi’s mum snapped.
    “Miracles happen. I have witnessed several here in this room,” the nurse insisted.
    Mrs Hoshi looked contemptuous. “This is life, not TV. My daughter is not going to be ‘touched by an angel’. She’s probably going to be a vegetable for the rest of her days.”
    The nurse looked shocked. She took a deep breath. “I’m sure the doctor told you that when someone is in a deep coma, their hearing is unusually acute. Please don’t let your daughter hear you saying these negative things. Tell her you love her, that you want her to get better. Play her favourite songs.”
    “You just don’t get it!” Mrs Hoshi raged. “This stupid girl had the world at her feet, but she was weak just like her father, and she just threw it all away!”
    “Mrs Hoshi, you are speaking about your child!” The nurse made an effort to control her temper. “Why don’t you go and get some coffee.”
    She slid a disk into the CD player on Tsubomi’s bedside table. A sunny, boppy, totally forgettable pop song filled the room.
    “Play something else,” a voice pleaded. For the first time I noticed the man slumped in the corner. His eyes were red from weeping. He looked like he hadn’t slept for weeks.
    “That must be her dad,” I murmured to Reuben. “So who’s Cat Woman, do you reckon?”
    “Miss Kinsho is Tsubomi’s agent,” Michael’s assistant murmured.
    I was gobsmacked. “Her agent! That’s Tsubomi singing?”
    “It’s the first track she ever recorded. It topped the charts for weeks.”
    “She called it ‘Bubble-gum Music’,” Tsubomi’s father was saying on-screen. “She told me once she wished every last copy could be melted down.” He fumbled in his jacket and brought out a disk. “I brought this. I thought it might bring back happy memories.”
    “Of you?” jeered Mrs Hoshi. “You were never there! You were always shut away in your stupid workshop.”
    Tsubomi’s father looked ashamed. “I run a small business, making traditional musical instruments,” he explained humbly to the nurse. “When Mi-chan was small, she liked to hear me play the koto.”
    “She doesn’t care about that! Do you always have to make such a fool of yourself?” Mrs Hoshi hissed at her husband.
    He gave her a pained smile, “You were a fool once yourself, Mariko, before you let this new love affair destroy our lives.”
    “Love affair!” She was outraged. “What are you babbling about?”
    Mr Hoshi’s voice was only just audible. “Your love affair with money.”
    “I’m not staying here to be insulted!” Mrs Hoshi stormed out and Miss Kinsho rushed after her. We could hear them yelling at each other in the corridor. The nurse shot out to calm things down.
    Mr Hoshi looked down at the beautiful empty face of his daughter.
    “Mi-chan, what have we done to you?” he asked in a broken voice. “I didn’t mean to let so much distance grow between us. I was just so busy and your mother seemed to - well, she gave me the impression you were both managing fine without me. But I should have realised…” Tsubomi’s dad was weeping openly now. He took his daughter’s limp hand and stroked it. “Come back, Mi-chan,” he whispered. “Give me a second chance.”
    I was stealthily blowing my nose, so it took me longer than it should have done to register the music drifting from the speakers.
    “I just bought this CD!” I gasped. “I was listening to it like, an hour ago!”
    “I don’t get it. Why would a beautiful, talented, fourteen year old try to kill herself?” Reuben sounded choked up.
    Sam slid a disk into the DVD. “Technically speaking, this is classified cosmic material. But we thought you needed to see it.”
    He clicked a key