Chapter 8
Atlanta, GA
Charles
AFTER PHILIP LEFT the room, I lay back on the pillow and thought long and hard about a lot of things. The seed of an idea had sprouted earlier, and I more or less shaped it into a full-grown or nearly full-grown plan before I punched the controls of the morphine drip and surrendered to a drug-induced euphoria. The jolt of painkillers finally wore off, and when I swam back up into full consciousness, Philip was sitting beside the bed, holding my hand, so I said, “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself,” he said. “Glad to see you’re back with us.”
He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss.
“I was in the arms of Morpheus for a while, so to speak, but it finally wore off. What time is it?”
“Nearly seven.”
“I’ve been out of it for a while.”
“Yes, you have. In fact, you didn’t e
