The Good Girl

James comes home without Mia. Eve panics, packs a suitcase, and rushes into the city. She finds her daughter at her old apartment. Mia explains that in the waiting room she fell in love with a little boy who was playing with Matchbox cars. She watched James ignore him, refusing to take his nose out of a law journal. The boy’s name was Owen. She “stroke[d] that curly hair” (262) on Owen’s head and refused to see the nurse. James threatened her, but she persisted.

Mia wakes Colin up with a hallucination. He puts her in a lukewarm bath to stop the fever. He knows he loves her as he washes her back with a cloth. He resolves to bring her to the doctor first thing. They choose a doctor without any cars in the parking lot. They pay cash, and Mia gives a fake name. The doctor diagnoses her with pneumonia and suggests a chest x-ray. Colin tells her they don’t have the money to pay for an x-ray. She gives them a prescription, and as they leave, she asks again if she’s seen them around before: “You just look so darn familiar” (270). They pick up the prescription and head back to the cabin.