Helena stayed with me all afternoon, until the kids got back. They were noticeably exhausted, and since they were both working such long hours I forbade them to stay for any significant period of time. They still stuck around for a couple hours though, and when Shane and Jenny brought a pizza over for dinner, we all shared it.

I think everyone was a little more at ease knowing that Alice was doing as well as could be expected. I know I was, and even the kids seemed a little less stressed out. Kallie left not long after we’d finished the pizza, apologizing about the need to get started grading term papers for one of her graduate anthropology classes. I waved it away.

“Go home, honey. There’s nothing to do here anyway; she’s just laying there. I promise you’ll be the first to know if she wakes up tonight, okay? But otherwise, please don’t worry about it if you can help it. She’s all right, and I’m fine, okay? Really.” Kallie looked like she wanted to protest, but I think she gave in to how tired and stressed out about her job when she shut her mouth and nodded a little, giving me a hug. As she left, I couldn’t help but agree with Alice’s assessment a year ago, that the girl was going to kill herself at work.

It wasn’t that we weren’t both proud of her or anything, but I had to admit that Al had been right. Kallie had been working herself to death for years now, and it was always a sore point with Alice. Not only for the fact that Al thought life should be enjoyed, but also because she still felt guilty about letting her get so sick when she was little. Kallie had never blamed her at all, but Al took all the blame for it onto herself. Knowing that big amounts of stress just aggravated Kallie’s condition, she had always hated the fact that Kallie had gone into a professorship, knowing that it would be stressful. A few years ago, when she’d decided to apply for a dean position, Alice had been really upset about it. Supportive, but she worried herself silly over Kallie stressing out too much at work.