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The cigarette tastes pretty good - I was afraid it wouldn't.

 "Some, But I don't want a sedative. If I were to go to sleep, the nightmare might come back, and

perhaps I mightn't make it a second time."

 So we stayed in the utility room until the sky above the parking lot, onto which our fortress looked, reflected the first intimations of dawn.

During that hour or two we said almost nothing. Norman lay quiet(ly) and I stirred about from time to time, to lend naturalness to our vigil, guessing that the occupying [claiming] of all faculties by the commonplace & the concrete would help the most. The morning newspaper was lying on the zinc counter beside the sterilizer, and I spread it out in my lap, in order to avoid constraint. Once in a while the door opened quietly and a nurse entered, her sweater over her shoulders, to get something out of the cupboard or the sterilizer. The dressings forceps clinked against the glass bottle as it dropped back into the alcohol. The hour came when even the night is tired.

 At first I sat there dully on the chair beside the bed, occupied only with pity for