"His conciousness faded in and out like the tide. He tried to refuse their drugs though for what purpose even he could not have said. Perhaps he was trying to push away the smell of disinfectant and grief that rose from his hospital bed. She was there sometimes, the one that he had followed around the world. There was almost sadness in her eyes. He felt himself begin to slip, the icy certainty of what was happening seeping through his flesh, and as he fell away for the final time he felt that all-consuming fear and his only thought was to cry out for his mother. But with the last vestiges of his stubborn will he refused. She would not claim his last moment. He was silent. And so, Gerard Keay ended."