I've been, [ Ada replies, the words spoken on a sigh. A moment passes (they slip away from her as easily as fall leaves) as she settles herself against the door, half standing and half not, one finger running lines around the number plaque. ]

You weren't there, [ she adds momentarily, in a tone of voice that suggests mild surprise. (She wasn't surprised, of course, not when she knows exactly what it is that the witch gave him for a power. Why things turned out the way they did, she doesn't know, but, she figures, it'd be rude to ask.) ] I think they're playing the countdown on the radio. Or the television.

[ Another pause. (For each of J. Hadley's stammers, there's a pause or a drawn-out vowel in Ada's speech.) ]

Aren't you hungry?