Micah sat in the vinyl chair with the empty yellow cereal box balanced on his knees.

He had carried it from the house to the car to the hospital, and he wouldn’t put it down.

A nurse came in with two cups of green gelatin on a tray.

Micah took both, put one on Elsie’s table, and kept the other in his lap without opening it.

Elsie’s eyes were open.

She rubbed them with the back of her wrist and said something I had to lean close to hear.

“My socks.”