At that time, nora had been diagnosed with "transient psychosis," a mental disorder in which a person's mental faculties are temporarily disrupted. She was determined to kill herself, and she insisted that her two teaching assistants be killed if they did not kill her. When she died, no one told her that she was to be buried with her ancestors. Instead, she was buried with someone else, who performed an "autopsy" on her. The narrator tells us that no one knew about the fake death until three years later, when he found out that it was her brother, Noah, who knew about it. Noah did not seem to know about it at the time, but he was worried that she might do some foolish thing, so he told the narrator that nora did not have a mental illness. In other words, she is "almost an insane person," even if she were to kill someone. Noah asks the narrator to go for a walk with him, and the narrator agrees.