Over the Rainbow

Over the Rainbow enters the story as the song Brett Bohlinger uses to comfort Sanquita Bell at her bedside. In a scene shaped by illness, fear, and hands-on care, Brett’s favorite lullaby becomes a quiet act of connection: she rocks Sanquita and sings until the other woman’s shaking subsides.

Identity and Use

The expression is attached to a lullaby Brett calls her favorite. The text presents it through a brief sung fragment, “Somewhere … over the rainbow …,” rather than through a full performance or an explanation of the song’s meaning. Its force lies in the circumstances of its use: Brett sings softly while holding Sanquita close, trying to warm and soothe her.

The Bedside Scene

Before singing, Brett carefully shifts the cords and tubes attached to Sanquita’s hands and chest, then climbs into bed beside her. Sanquita feels almost weightless, and Brett notices the ammonia-like smell of uremia, fearing that her body may be shutting down. She tightens the blankets around Sanquita’s trembling frame, rests her cheek against her head, and rocks her as she sings.

The song marks a small but consequential change in the scene. Brett has been bracing for the worst; when Sanquita’s body becomes still midway through the lullaby, the quiet first intensifies Brett’s panic. Then she hears Sanquita’s faint, hoarse voice say “Baby.” The lullaby does not resolve the medical danger, but it gives the two women a moment of tenderness in its midst, and Sanquita’s response makes that closeness audible.

Care, Memory, and Continuity

Elsewhere, Brett’s grief for her mother, Elizabeth Bohlinger, is carried through objects and remembered forms of intimacy: a journal left with a note, letters read aloud, and the stories Brett once longed to share with her. The lullaby scene offers a distinct, present-tense expression of care. Rather than recalling a lost relationship, Brett uses her own favorite song to comfort someone beside her, translating affection into touch, rocking, and voice.

That contrast gives the brief lyric its narrative weight. The song is neither presented as a cure nor as an explanation for what happens to Sanquita; it is a human gesture made under conditions Brett cannot control. Its movement from trembling to stillness, followed by Sanquita’s whispered word, lets the scene hold fear and connection together without pretending that tenderness can remove the danger.