Cramer listens. They’re up there. Just above the darkness. Mimi is nearer; Jackson is a little way off. Her voice is clearer, though Cramer can’t always tell what she’s saying. Then Jackson comes near, too, and they don’t say anything now, but Cramer can feel them hovering above him, just hanging there. It’s as if they’re waiting for him to say something, as if they could actually see him. Then they go away and he’s alone again, and he tries to put things back together, tries to think how it all happened. There are so many beginnings, so he chooses just one: the summer day he first saw Mimi. The day she arrived at the house on the snye.