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Show Moon -102 to the promenade. She ran the circuit like a sprinter, elated to find she still had the speed. As she came near the swimming pool she heard a faint splashing. In the deck floodlights she saw Caleb floating on his back, naked, his legs and arms fanned out like an angel in the snow. "I wanted to be alone," he said. "I wanted to know what it's like when you die." She'd believed she was the only one in the family who wondered about death. This is the closest, she thought, I will ever feel to Caleb; for this moment, we are the same person in our hearts. She held out her hand as he climbed out of the pool, wrapped his shivering body in her arms, then helped him into his pajamas. She took his cold hand and said, "Hey, I want you around for a long time. Okay, little brother?" Joy didn't go to Alec that night. The connection wasn't clear, but her romance seemed dangerous now. It could lose her a brother. Love could bring a person too close to death. But the thought was too hard to hold onto, and she couldn't help herself: The next night, she was back waiting in the deserted cabin. There was a storm at sea that lasted for days. The dining room was almost empty at mealtimes. Little rims had been levered up around the edges of the tables to keep the plates from sliding off. Ropes were put up on the decks so the passengers could hold on as they walked, though few of them were walking much, and every day brought another story: Mrs. Johnson's vanity tray had crashed to the floor in the dead of night, perfumes, lotions all over everything. Old Mr. Powell had been knocked off his feet at the foot of a stairwell. The ballroom was closed. Almost everyone was sick. James and Anne were sick. Even the boys struggled against a queasiness. Not Joy. She was lifted, carried |