Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Emily had great difficulty falling asleep. Maybe it was the icy cold she couldn’t shake. She brought the heavy spread up around her neck for warmth and wound her fingers into the plush fleece blanket as she normally did on cold nights at home—a silly superstitious belief that if your hands were warm so went the rest of your body. Another Aunt Livie-ism, and one she thought she’d outgrown. But whatever she did, however she positioned her body, nothing worked. Somehow the chill of the place had become a part of her, penetrated her being, and had taken up residence, as if she were one with the vibrating air molecules wafting through the halls and corridors.

She thought ofthe strange, unexplainable things she’d taken note of since her arrival: the pervading odor of disinfectant just under the surface but seemingly present in the drapes, ground into the carpets, permeating the furniture; the library book changing titles in her hand; and the man sitting alone at the back of the launch.