The walk back from the doctor's office seemed to take a long time. Armand felt mostly lost inside himself. Talking to the doctor hadn't damaged his sense of himself, but he felt very unconnected to the outside. His nurse took advantage of his distraction to indulge in her personal delusion that her patient was too thin and piled his plate with an extra piece of battered fish and another handful of "chips."

On the way to the table, Armand could smell the fish and picked up a few lemons from the salad bar. He didn't argue with the glass of apple juice either. He was so busy not arguing that she led him to a table and set the tray down. Her smile at Armand's surprise was cheerfully vicious, as if she was teasing him, which he knew she wasn't. He shrugged and took his seat.

Over the mound of fried food, he could see gray hair and large brown eyes behind glasses. Something made him think this was a youth. Armand made himself smile. "I'm sorry for her; she doesn't realize that I'm quite friendly enough to meet people on my own." Of course, when he didn't have specific meetings planned, he tended to visit his particular friends. Perhaps the nurse was working against that.

"I'm Armand."