Part Twenty-Two: First Face You’ll See

They took the bed out through the double doors and down the corridor and I kept my eyes on him until the doors came between us, already picturing him with a daughter in each arm by the time I surfaced.

Here is what the ceiling of that corridor looks like, since I spent some time studying it.

Suspended panels, in a grid, with a pattern of small holes, and every third panel has a fluorescent fitting in it, and there are pipes running along above the panels on the left-hand side where the ceiling steps down, and somebody has written a number in marker pen on the metal frame at every junction.

I counted eleven light fittings.