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not sure if that’s what he wanted.
    â€œI’m Joe, by the way,” the Italian guy said.
    â€œI have to sleep now,” I said.

    A wriggling in my pants woke me. Joe was fishing around in my pocket.
    â€œDon’t worry, I ain’t ripping you off,” Joe said when he saw I was awake. He withdrew his hand. “I was trying to see if there were phone numbers in your wallet, but your wallet’s all wet and it’s stuck to your pants. Is there someone I can call? We’re not sure what to do with you. We gotta be somewhere.”
    My first thought was Annie. My second was that I should call my mom to let her know I was all right. She was probably frantic, out in Arizona with no information, calling my phone and getting no answer. Later. Right now I needed someone to come and help me. There was my friend Dave. He had a family to worry about, but if he could, he’d come.
    â€œCall my friend, David Bash.”
    I couldn’t remember the number, and my phone was in my car. Joe looked it up, dialed, and handed me the phone.
    All circuits were busy.
    I shut the phone, handed it back to Joe. “You can just drop me at my house.” I gave Toby directions.
    Joe clicked on the radio. The roads out of Atlanta were closed. The National Guard was setting up auxiliary hospitals in armories and schools. The office of Homeland Security had released a statement saying the outbreak had tentatively been traced back to the subway, and was assumed to be a terrorist attack.
    â€œHow did you bring me back?” I asked Toby.

    â€œI pushed on your chest. That didn’t work, so I punched your chest like they do in the movies.”
    â€œYou never took CPR?”
    Toby made a face. “ Hell , no.”
    We slowed to pass a police cruiser parked half in the road. The police officer was nowhere in sight.
    â€œHow long was I in the water?” I asked.
    They glanced at each other. “What would you say?” Toby asked Joe.
    Joe shrugged. “What? Ten, fifteen minutes?”
    â€œRight in there, yeah,” Toby said.
    I tried to wrap my mind around it. I’d been dead. Not unconscious, dead. I had that vision, of being Lyndsay watching the news. A lot of people who had near-death experiences reported vivid hallucinations, and now that my head was clearer it seemed likely that that’s what happened.
    It had been remarkably vivid, though. It hadn’t felt like a hallucination at all.
    The radio was describing the symptoms of anthrax, but I already knew them from my conversation with Annie.
    â€œWait a minute,” I said aloud without meaning to. Both men looked at me. “Did they say it started in the subways?” I thought I’d heard that, but that couldn’t be right, because I’d heard the same thing during my hallucination that I was Lyndsay.
    â€œThat’s what they’re saying,” Joe said.
    I wrapped my arms around myself and trembled harder. “Jesus,” I whimpered.
    â€œWhat?” Joe asked.
    â€œNothing.” I was so tired.
    We pulled through the gates into the remnants of Toy Shop Village, with its empty bumper-boats pool, rusting rides, rotting streamers, and Toby and Joe were sure I was delirious. Who lives in a defunct amusement center? I directed them toward the drive-in theater toward the back of the Village, assuring them I lived there.

    I thanked both men from the bottom of my heart. Joe’s eyes filled with tears and he nodded; Toby waved me off, insisting it was no big deal. I got Toby’s business card, intending to come up with a truly awesome thank you gift to send once I could think straight. Quivering in front of my locked front door, it took me a moment to remember the spare key over the door frame.
    As soon as I got inside I tried to call Annie on my land line, but got no answer. I stripped, pulled every blanket and towel out of the linen closet, threw them on my bed, and passed out underneath