was aware that I was in a room very unlike any room I had ever stayed in before. There was a strong, acrid odor of antiseptic in the air, and the temperature seemed unnaturally colder than I would have expected, since last I had known it was late July outside, and Cincinnati was sweltering and gasping for cool air as usual. There was a peculiar light emanating from somewhere I could not discern, seeming to come from the walls themselves instead of from a lamp or ceiling light or other direct source of light. Despite shivering with cold, I could feel that I was draped with several layers of thin blan- kets, each one white and thin but mysteriously warmed, as if they had just been taken out of an oven. I could hear soft shuffling sounds from outside the room and softer moaning noises that seemed to come from further down a long hall. From inside the room with me, I could also hear a soft, snuffling noise like my cat Leo makes when he sleeps, since he always has a stuffy nose, but this was almost drowned out by a louder gurgling roar that rose to a peak, then broke off, only to begin again moments later. What was this strange place, and what dangerous beasts was I entrapped with, and what prisoners were moaning and lamenting outside? As my head began to clear, I cautiously turned my head, wondering why just moving my head to lay the side of my somehow swollen face caused so much pain, and peered in the direction of the internal room noises. I saw my mother slumped in a chair, curled as usual over a book, with a dim headlight poised on her forehead as she usually would for night-time reading, but with her eyes closed. She was making the soft snuffling. That gave me a guess as to the source of the gurgling roar, and my next glance confirmed this sus- picion: there was my dad in another chair, head thrown back, mouth agape, making what we called his “nose music” that he emanated when falling asleep in a chair. What could they be doing here? And why was I in this bed, virtually entrapped among metal bars, feeling my miserably swollen face, and snuffling and snorting myself like a pig with emphysema? 23