CHAPTER 3
As he entered the room, the electric smells tickled his nose. The ticking and buzzing of the machines echoed across his mind, like mice hidden in the walls. The coolness of the air struck him as the heat had struck him that morning, and the starkness of it all felt surreal to him.
Sal entered first and Little Joe trailed behind one step. Although the windows at the far end reached the ceiling, the dense shades blocked every inkling of light to the room. Instead, small directional fixtures poked from the ceiling above the bed providing cold and purposeful luminesce onto the immediate area.
The nurse tending to their father was writing something in a small tablet she held. She glanced at the boys and gave a slight smile, her lips curving ever so slowly, it could have been
