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could take him if you’re kept in here overnight?”
    “Not really. My husband is a policeman. He can’t stay home.”
    “No relatives?”
    “Not in the city.”
    “Well, we’ll sort that out later. Screen around this bed, nurse. Let’s get you out of those clothes.”
    Two of them undressed me carefully. Even though it hurt me to raise my arms, I was relieved to find no obvious wounds. And even more relieved after the doctor came back and examined me more thoroughly.
    “I don’t think you’ve broken your ribs. You may have cracked one, but I think it’s just a bad bruise. We’ll strap you up, which will make breathing easier.”
    “I can go home then?”
    He shook his head. “We’re keeping you overnight, just in case. You’ve a bad bump on your head, so you might have experienced a concussion. You did black out in the waiting room, remember. And you’re definitely in shock. No condition to go home and take care of a baby.”
    “Where is my child?” I asked. “He’s all right, isn’t he?”
    “He’s in the infant’s ward at the moment. Bawling his head off, but I gather he’s perfectly fine. He can go home as soon as there’s someone to take care of him.”
    I let out a sigh of relief. Liam was unharmed. That was the main thing. I turned to the nurse as the doctor left. “Can someone send a message to my husband? He’ll want to know where I am and that I’m all right.”
    “I’ll find you some paper,” a young nurse said, “and we’ll have a messenger deliver it. Is he nearby?”
    “I don’t know where he is at this moment.” Suddenly I was near to tears. “But if you deliver it to police headquarters, they’ll find him.”
    “Oh, a policeman, is he?” The young nurse nodded with understanding. “There’s every chance he’s already at the scene of the accident. Half the New York police seem to be there, from what I’ve heard.” She had a gentle voice with a tinge of Irishness to it.
    “He’s a captain,” I said, “and he’s working on an important case. I hate to worry him with this, but he’ll want to know.”
    “Of course he will.” She came back with writing paper and I wrote, I’m in Roosevelt Hospital. Survived the train wreck with only a scratch or two but they won’t let me go home tonight. Liam’s fine too. In the children’s ward.
    The young nurse took it. “We’ll have a messenger take it to the nearest police station,” she said. “They’ll be able to contact your husband, I’m sure. They’ll know where to find him and he’ll be here in no time at all.” She put her hand on my arm. “Now, why don’t you get some rest?”
    “Can’t I go to my son first? He’ll want to know his mother is safe and nearby.”
    She shook her head. “You’re not going anywhere without doctor’s orders. Know that your boy is safe and being looked after for now. Now shut your eyes.”
    I tried to do as she had said, and in truth, my head was beginning to throb. I put my hand up and touched a painful lump. Why did this have to happen now? I thought angrily. Just when I was ready to move back to my own home, to get it furnished and to start life again. But then I reminded myself that I was better off than many poor wretches. I had survived the train crash with only minor injuries. I wasn’t lying still and pale on the street, waiting to be covered by a shroud, nor was I still trapped inside the mangled wreckage of a smoldering carriage. And my son was safe and well. I had a lot to be thankful for.

 
    Four
    In my dream I was in a narrow, confined space. I tried to move but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even turn my head to see what was going on behind me, although I could hear a familiar voice, cutting through the layers, demanding, “Where is she?”
    “I’m here, Daniel,” I tried to say. “Come and rescue me.”
    Then the voice, right above me now. “My God. What’s wrong with her? Is she badly hurt? Is she unconscious?”
    I forced myself back to