Part 1, Pages 19 - 23 Summary

The author begins this part of the book by discussing what she was doing when she received the phone call that her daughter was seriously ill in a hospital in Madrid. She had recently published a new novel, The Infinite Plan, and had been on a book tour in Spain when she was notified. Thus, she was able to join Paula in a matter of hours, as opposed to having to travel from San Francisco, California, her home. The initial report was that Paula had the flu, so no one was seriously concerned about her illness until she began vomiting blood. The author was glad to be close by, but disheartened that the porphyria apparently had been poisoning her body unnoticed for sometime. She felt guilty at not having noticed Paula's problem immediately. The writer related that Paula was...