Page 33 of Deja Who
“My sister saw an Insighter every month for years, and it sure as shit didn’t save her. But I never translated that to ‘my sister died anyway, ergo Insighters are useless.’ It’s like telling a cancer patient that because chemo didn’t work for so-and-so, it won’t work for them, either.”
Leah said nothing. Cat never talked about her family. Ever.
“I’m sorry,” Archer said after the awkward pause. “How did she die?”
“Drowned.”
Another pause while Leah watched Archer scan the olderwoman’s face. Cat seemed almost preternaturally calm, but then, she oftenwasalmost preternaturally calm. “If you don’t mind my asking, how’d it happen?”
“She was underwater too long.”
Ohhhhh, boy.
Archer went from concerned to annoyed back to concerned, shaking his head at the grinning Cat. “I figuredthat. God, my heart. I feel like I’m tiptoeing across land mines here. I assumed she was a little kid at the time—”
“Nope. Seventeen.”
“And?”
“Drunk.”
“Ah.”
“Also high.”
“Okay.”
“My point is, sometimes something shitty happens and it doesn’t have anything to do with what happened before.”
“Correct,” Leah said, “but sometimes it does.”
