Sally's sister, Sylvia, talked with her doctor at about 1 p.m. today and reported that Sally had been in a coma for two days, but Walter (our piano player) saw her two hours later. He sent us this email:

I stopped by to visit Sally at 3 pm this afternoon. Mark was there, waiting to see her doctor, so they could do the acupuncture. I took Sally's hand and said hello to her, and she opened her eyes a bit, which really surprised Mark, who had not expected a response at all. Then as I held her hand and talked to her, and Mark did some acupressure, she opened her eyes several times, and two or three times had them wide open for quite a while. Her expression did not change, but I'm sure she was taking it in.

So things are not quite as bad as they seemed, but still not good. In a later email Sylvia said that Bebe was "in pain and disgusted with herself," I guess for being careless and hurting herself when her mother needed her. Sylvia hasn't said if Bebe is with her or still in the hospital. I'll call her after a while to find out what I can. Sylvia also said Sally is going to be moved--to another facility, but she didn't specify what it was to be. She was also going to have another spinal before she was moved.

I'm not thinking too clearly these days it seems: I placed Sam Sheppard 10 miles north of me. Oakland is, of course, south of El Cerrito.

--seed