Raymonde asks Diallo whether he still has Arthur Leander’s obituary from the second-to-last edition of The New York Times, hoping it might include the name of the man who ran from the audience to perform CPR. Diallo says the paper does not identify him, and notes that in normal times there would have been follow-up reporting.

Raymonde recounts what she remembers from the night Arthur collapsed onstage during King Lear. After the medics arrived, the calm man who had performed CPR sat with Raymonde as the curtain fell, and they waited in the wings until Raymonde’s minder found them.

Raymonde cannot remember the minder’s name, only that the woman was sobbing, cleaned Raymonde’s makeup off, and gave Raymonde a glass paperweight that Raymonde still carries. Raymonde explains she kept the paperweight and took it when she later left Toronto because she found it beautiful.

Raymonde says they waited in the dressing room and the minder repeatedly tried to reach Raymonde’s parents, but no one came and she could not contact them. According to Raymonde’s brother Peter, the minder eventually called him; Peter, much older, told her to bring Raymonde home, and he would look after her.

Raymonde tells Diallo she never saw her parents again, like many others whose families vanished at the start of the Georgia Flu. She suspects her parents got sick at work and went to the emergency room, and she doubts anyone could have survived what the hospitals became. Raymonde and Peter stayed home at first, not yet understanding what was happening, because waiting still felt reasonable.