Rachel woke in the pre-dawn light shivering slightly. She pulled the duvet around herself. The satiny cover was cool against her naked skin. She knew Tom was not there and her heart went to her throat. For an instant she thought something terrible had taken him from her. Then her thinking clarified and she realized that he had two days before the seven days were up. The bed next to her still had some residual warmth. She got up, put on a dressing gown, and went to look for Tom still with some trepidation. This, she told herself, was silly. He had probably gone to the bathroom or to get a glass of water. But in the dim corridors of the house, transformed by the unfamiliar pale light, she still feared what she might find.

There was the sound of a television turning on. Rachel was so startled she nearly stumbled on the stairs. She could hear an eerie hum. Her heart was racing although she told herself that this was perfectly normal; the television must be tuned to a channel that wasn't broadcasting at this time in the morning. She cautiously stepped into the living room. The multi-colored glow from the test pattern on the screen fell gaudily across the room. She found Tom on the couch, shivering violently.

He looked up at her. "Just bad dreams." She said she would get a blanket.

"I can see water," he said in a voice that seemed to float in from a distance, "pools of water. I can hear it too. It's not only flowing over the floors, it's climbing up the walls." His body was white and rigid. She flung a blanket over him and he pulled it close. He was shivering. She flung her arms around him and held him tightly.

"Please don't ask me to change my mind. You could do it. Easily."

She smiled and leaned forward, pressing her forehead against his back. She understood that, living his long downward spiral, he needed this achievement. To deny it to him would be terribly cruel.

He turned and kissed her. He had stopped shivering. "It comes and goes," he said, as if answering her unspoken question. "I think I can go back to sleep now."

In the morning when they were sitting at the kitchen table, Tom said that they should leave town for the weekend. He wanted to spare Rachel agonizing over what to do over his last days.

Rachel jumped at the suggestion. "I can leave Aidan with Yvonne. She's a reporter with the paper."

"He won't mind?"

"He probably thinks I'm overprotective. He'll be happy to get a break from me." She added, "I probably need a break from him, too."

Rachel drove south down the coast. There were long sandy beaches with crashing white surf. Tom found a place he liked. It was a small, older motel a few blocks from the beach. He preferred it to one of the modern luxury resorts. The motel looked empty. That was not surprising in the off-season. A couple in their fifties was behind the front desk when Tom entered. The woman scrutinized him sharply. For a moment Tom felt the self-consciousness of those used to being singled out and stared at. He wasn't sure if he could hold his hand steady enough to fill out the motel registration form.

"It's a lovely sunny day," he said, in a hearty voice. He looked out the window hoping to distract them. He scribbled out the form entries as quickly as he could.

"It's cold and it's windy," the man said gloomily.

"Still, it's a good weekend to spend on the coast."

"Nobody sensible comes to the beach with winter approaching."

"Yes, well, have a nice day, you two."

Tom pulled two bottles of liquor from the suitcase. He looked at Rachel, waiting for her to say something.

She said, "If you're worried I'm going to ask you to stop drinking, I'm not."

Tom looked away. "You won't have to put up with it for long." Rachel looked wistful but said nothing. He continued. "Not like Amy. She put up with me for years. Years of torment, it's fair to say. It was bad and sometimes it would get better for a while. She was a very patient woman. She always thought I would hit rock bottom and I would decide I had to change. I never did, though. I kept bobbing back to the surface without ever hitting bottom. I thought I could start all over again. I guess one day she found she couldn't."

Rachel shook her head in disbelief. "I wish I had some of that patience. I didn't have much tolerance for Noah's faults when we were living together. We were so different temperamentally. He would leap from one project to another. He would be wildly enthusiastic about one thing, then get frustrated and give up. Everything he tried seemed to get shot down in flames. I guess I wasn't the most supportive partner he could have hoped for."

"You realize that I'm not usually as good as this. I usually feel sicker and I'm not very good in company."

"Yes, I'd figured. You know I'll stay with you no matter what you decide or however things turn out."

Tom did not think he was being heroic about it but it never occurred to him to accept his fate with anything but stoicism. He had once made the mistake of acting pitiable around Amy. This did not work on her. She accepted with resignation his sicknesses, his accidents, the times he went missing, but she only had contempt for his effort to elicit pity. He understood instantly that it was the wrong step and he was mortified at his weakness.

They walked on the lonely beach wearing jackets and sweaters. They held hands. Tom resisted at first, thinking it made them look like teenagers, but he enjoyed the cool touch of Rachel's hands.

Tom looked at the sunlight sparkling on the water and thought that only here on this beach would the light look precisely like this. Anywhere else and the angle of the sun in the sky would be different, the water would be different. For this day he would bask in the glow of his uniquely privileged state.

Rachel knew that neither of them was much of a talker. Their relationship was mainly a physical one. That was fine with her. She knew they could always talk when they needed to. She did not feel that hunger some women had to absorb the entire biography of a man. She did not need to know the name of the dog he was given when he was eight or whether he was on the debating team in high school. She knew there wasn't much time.

At night Rachel awoke to find Tom slumped on the couch in the dark.

"What's wrong?"

"I couldn't sleep. It's normal for me," he said in a hoarse whisper. "I'm sorry you woke."

Tom muttered something indistinct.

"What?"

"I said, 'Do you think this place rents videos?'"

Rachel emitted a laugh that was almost a gasp. "How can you joke at a time like this?" She shoved him playfully.