Kit notices her little sister’s downtrodden demeanor showing the stress of the past few days.

“Dr. Millikan already told us what to expect Bette. Sitting here day and night is not going to change anything. Why don’t you go home? I’ll stay for a few hours.”

The concern in Kit’s tone was becoming routine as was her act of handing her sister yet another sack of take-out food.

“If I go home, all I’m going to do is think about being here.”

Bette pulls the sandwiches and soft drinks out of the bag and sets them on the small table as she takes a seat. Kit sits in the chair across from her and starts unwrapping hers. They eat in silence for a bit then they distinctly hear their father’s animated voice from the bed across the room.

“What the hell?” Kit glances at her father but he looks to be talking in his sleep. She turns her attention back to Bette who is just nibbling at the food.

“He’s definitely having a good time, whatever he’s dreaming about.” She says taking another bite of her sandwich.

Bette stopped eating when she was stressed, but stress didn’t change Kit’s appetite at all. She’d had a long day at the Planet and missed lunch. It was now 6:00pm. She had no doubt Bette hadn’t eaten either even though she knew Tina had been by with lunch and a change of clothes earlier.

“Do you think we made the right decision Kit? Maybe we should have kept him in the hospital longer.”

“No. It was my decision, I needed to get the hell out of there. That hospital was killing me.”

Melvin’s deep voice startled them. He was fully awake and sitting up. Whatever he was dreaming about forgotten.

Dr. Millikan had prescribed prednisone which was a steroid. His nurse Shelly said it could help with mental clarity when there is inflammation or swelling around the brain. That and the other drugs might account for his bouts of mood swings, confusion, and his mind struggling with reality and fantasy, flipping between past and present, but he was having a very lucid moment now.