He wanted to answer her stare. To say, I want to! I want to save you! But I can't! I tried, I swear to God I tried, only I can't! But he didn't open his mouth. He was silent, too. He understood that words were of no use. Nothing was of any use…

His mother never said another word. She just stared at Jack, who could see the love and forgiveness, the desperation and then, finally, the sadness on her face as the man swung his arms forward and threw Joan Keller out the shattered window on the seventeenth floor.

– "-"-"REGGIE IVERS WONDERED where he was. He couldn't figure out why he was standing in front of this broken window and why there was this small, terrified boy cowering next to him. He knew he would never do anything to scare such a small boy, so what was going on?

His confusion deepened when he took a step toward the boy and the kid tried to run. The boy was fast but Reggie was faster and he grabbed him, held him by the wrist so he couldn't move. Reggie shook his head so the boy could see there was nothing to be frightened of but the boy wouldn't stop shivering. And now he was crying. And not just regular crying, long, choking sobs. It sounded like the noise an animal would make. An animal in the woods, in a trap, crying to be let out. Crying because it knew it was dying.

Reggie tried to will the boy to stop. The noise was horrible. Going on and on, cutting into Reggie's brain until he couldn't stand it anymore. Until he had to make it stop. It was driving him crazy. So he had no choice but to stop it.

He wondered what had happened to the woman. He remembered seeing her when he stepped out of the elevator.