Loud (loud enough) music, a chance to close his eyes, and a plan for the evening had S.T. in a decent mood. When he got back to his room, he was humming. It would take a great musical detective to identify the fragments of notes as Kickstart My Heart. At least he wasn't humming loudly.

When he reached his room, he shut the door firmly in the nurse's face, ignored his food, and went straight for the closet. Everything was still there. He started pulling items from the closet, stacking them in sorted clumps. A half-dozen plastic containers of varying sizes filled with tap water sat to one side. The other side had an industrial-kitchen packet of bread yeast, three loaves of bread, and a bag of sugar. S.T opened the first bag of bread, pulled out a slice, and then put it back in.

He stood up straight and started looking around the room.