At six o’clock the alarm went off, a distant buzz that cut through Stacy’s restless doze easily. The thought of facing Lamar exhausted him so he stayed on the couch, listening to the incoherent grumbles coming from the bedroom as his friend woke up long enough to silence the clock. With the blanket pulled up to his chin Stacy waited, but the creak of springs told him Lamar had crawled back between the sheets and didn’t plan to stay awake.
The sofa was warm, the cushions molded to his body, and it took him another half hour to finally sit up. He kept drifting in and out, confusing dreams with his waking moments, everything unsure and cloudy, as if the living room were draped in fog. Only when his bladder demanded it did he finally throw back the blanket and physically get to his feet. But
