I know you like books [Mood]

Back in room 203.  Everything mostly the same from the previous visit.  Kalen has been moved slightly – bed sores are not good things, the blanket a washed-out green rather than the well-washed white it was before, the blinds pulled up to let what little light remains of the day into the room, the TV left on as quiet background noise set to a different channel.  The water jug next to the bed remains untouched.  Kalen’s eyes remain closed, although his breathing stays at the slow, deep rate that it has been for the past… days?  Weeks now? 

The same chair is pulled up to the side of the bed and Alexander settles down in it.  Where Sid was given a plant, Kalen is given something else.  Time, and the contents of a book.  It’s pulled out of a messenger bag that has been set on the floor next to the chair and appears to be new, judging by the lack of creasing along the spine.

“I don’t know what I can do to help you.  But I know you like books, so…”  the sentence trails off as he flicks through the first few pages of contents, imprints, titles, getting to the actual text.  He starts reading, on the off-chance that there’s anything of Kalen in his body to hear.

“One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it:-- it was the black kitten’s fault entirely…” 

And so, Alice travels through the looking-glass.