The Believers by Zoë Heller

sympathetically back at him. Audrey picked up a copy of American Baby and began flicking through an article on potty training, making little cracks of thunder as she turned the pages.
    At length, a young Chinese-American woman came into the lounge and asked to speak to the relatives of Joel Litvinoff.
    "I'm his colleague," Daniel said, standing up and extending his hand.
    Audrey remained seated. "I'm his wife."
    "Hi," the woman said. "I'm Dr. Wu. If you'd like to step into the hallway, I can tell you how he's doing."
    Audrey took a quick survey of the doctor: her tiny, red balloon-knot mouth, the sparkly barrettes holding her floppy hair back from her face. "Isn't there someone more senior I could talk to?" she asked.
    The doctor gave a small, unnecessary cough into her fist. "I'm afraid not. I am the most senior person dealing with this case."
    Audrey stood up and walked out of the room. In the corridor, Daniel produced a pad and pen from his breast pocket.
    "So, the situation is this," the doctor said. "Joel was brought in this morning having suffered a transient ischemic attack, or what we sometimes refer to as a 'mini-stroke.' Unfortunately, he went on to suffer another more serious stroke while we were still in the process of trying to stabilize him. He remains unconscious at this point--"
    "What?" Audrey interrupted. "Is his brain going to be all right?"
    "I'm afraid we can't say at this point exactly what deficits he has incurred. When we are satisfied that all his vital organs are functioning as they should, we can--"
    "What do you mean deficits?"
    "Impairments. As I say, we're--"
    "But you must have some idea of--"
    "Mrs. Litvinoff, we can only take this one step at a time."
    "Tell me, has he been given anticoagulants?" Daniel asked eagerly, pen and pad at the ready.
    While he and the doctor spoke about the drugs that Joel was being given and the tests that he was undergoing, Audrey gazed down the corridor to where a workman was standing on a ladder, removing one of the white panels in the ceiling. As the panel came away, a tangle of tubes and wires spilled out, looking like cartoon innards. I didn't get him his bialy , Audrey thought. All he wanted was a sodding bialy, and I sent him off to work with one egg inside him .
    "I believe they'll be bringing him up shortly," the doctor was saying. "If you could try to keep the atmosphere as calm and positive as possible, that would be a good thing."
    Audrey turned to Daniel and Kate. "You two had better be off now."
    "But, Audrey, I'd like to see Joel," Daniel said.
    Audrey shook her head. "Oh, no, I don't think that's a good idea. It should be just close family at this point, shouldn't it, Doctor?"
    Dr. Wu shrugged. "Well, strictly speaking--"
    "See?" Audrey said. "Let's not be agitating him by having a great big gang march in there."
    Daniel seemed about to protest, but then he nodded briskly and put his pad back in his jacket pocket. "Got it," he said. "I'll come back tomorrow."
    Audrey smiled sweetly, "We'll see how he's doing, first, shall we?"
    Daniel came disagreeably close to her now and patted her on her shoulder. "Okay, Audrey," he whispered. "Whatever you say."

CHAPTER
3
    The buoys in New York Harbor were flopping and bouncing like vaudevillians as the Staten Island Ferry plowed along on its approach to Manhattan. Out on the ferry's upper deck, ten girls in East Harlem GirlPower T-shirts were celebrating their recent liberation from the Staten Island Children's Museum.
    "Renee can't swim! I'm gonna throw her over!"
    "Yeah? If I go over, you going too."
    "You need to check your hair, Ren. You looking like a homeless person."
    "Chanel's spitting at the bird! Chanel, that's mean!"
    One of the girls turned to a tall white woman who was sitting on the bench behind her. "Rosa! Are we allowed to spit?"
    Rosa Litvinoff looked up from rummaging through her handbag for her cell phone. "No," she said irritably. She paused and glanced around the deck. Over by the