`` it 'll be all right , '' she said , and her face now had that slack , unplugged look - that look of perplexed vacuity - and before his mind was completely consumed in a forest fire of panic he understood that when this was over , she would have only the vaguest memories of what she had done , as she had only the vaguest memories of killing the children and the old people and the terminal patients and andrew pomeroy .