“See you later guys,” Felix said as they left the Web Communications complex. Yvessa then gestured for Sam to lead on and they started heading towards his room.

“So…” she started, “what’s next?”

Sam shrugged. “Still don’t want to do anything. I’ll just go back to studying, I guess. Or try to. There should still be plenty of material that’s easy enough, and interesting enough, that I’ll be able to push through the haze and everything.”

“May I make a suggestion?”

“Of course.”

“Instead of reading something. Why not watch something instead?”

“What? Like a video lecture?”

“I was more thinking of a documentary.”

“Documentary of what?”

“Elven history.”

“Elven history?”

She nodded. “The one I’m thinking of covers the Wars of Unification and the Integration of Maynil in much more depth than our one textbook.”

“I don’t know… Is it any good?”

“It’s a highly acclaimed, and regarded by historians as pretty historically accurate. I assure you, it is both entertaining and insightful. And it’ll probably be easier on you than reading material.”

“But I wasn’t going to be studying just elven history. OK, maybe I didn’t have any plan for what to actually study, but I assume it wasn’t going to be just the one subject.”

“You’re ahead of the material anyway. You can allow yourself to skip studying for a single day. And it’s not like you won’t be studying at all. Take this as an opportunity to further enrich your knowledge about elven history. You’re always complaining that the textbooks aren’t comprehensive enough and that you’ll have to do some research of your own. This is it. The most significant historical period in elven history. Covered by probably one of the best elven documentaries ever made.”

“Did you watch it?”

“I did. It was great. But I’m more than happy to watch it again. It’s been a couple of years and I’m guessing that I’ll enjoy it way more now.”

Sam scratched his head. Yvessa’s suggestion did sound tempting. Sam was definitely interested in the topic, and it was probably going to be easier on him than reading through textbooks until dinner, which was the best plan he had come up with up to now. And it still counted as studying… right? Eventually, he said, “Let me think about it. I’ll also want to look up online how accurate the documentary is.”

“Alright. I’ll help you look up Sarechi sources as well.”

“Right, I haven’t thought of that. Probably for the best to give elven input more weight in determining whether a description of their own history is accurate.”

Yvessa laughed. “You’d be surprised sometimes. Every culture has its blind spots. And the kingdom isn’t always as… open with its history as the republic. But that’s not the case with the documentary. Don’t worry about it. We can even look up Imperial sources to have a third point of view of the historical accuracy of it, if you want.”

“Nah, that’s OK. Two languages is far and enough for me.”

“Oh, and speaking of, if we do end up watching it. We’re watching with the English narration. I originally watched the Sarechi, but I’ve since read that the English one is much better.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Nothing critical. The details are pretty much the same. It’s just the narrator is supposed to be better, more pleasant to the ears and so on.”

“Ah, a Lawrence Olivier sort of thing. I can understand that. Even if the lines are the same, the voice and cadence can certainly elevate or downgrade the experience. Is the narrator anyone I know?”

“Do you know anyone?”

“Fair enough.”

Sam kept silence for most of the way back, having already mostly made up his mind to go with Yvessa’s plan, but still not sure enough to stop himself from questioning that decision again and again. He was still stuck at the same mental impasse when they made it to his room, but after a couple of minutes of reading reviews, his reluctance was finally worn down and they settled to watch the documentary. Each episode was, on average, around an hour and there were thirty of them, so it was no surprise that they hadn’t even made it to the outbreak of the first war by the time they had to stop.

They still had a couple of minutes until they had to leave to meet with Sarah, but decided against starting up the next episode. “So… what did you think?” Yvessa asked him, stretching in her sit. “I’m hoping that you being quiet was a good sign.”

Sam nodded. “It’s really good, you were right.”

“I didn’t talk too much during it, right?”

“No, it was fine. I enjoyed the extra commentary.”

“I’m honestly surprised at how much better it is than I remembered. Guess it’s because I’m older now. It can’t all be because of the narration.”

“It’s probably both. Honestly, if the quality of the episodes keeps up, then this really deserves all the accolades I saw it got. Also, it’s really amazing how much historical detail they have for something that’s so far back.”

“Not that far back.”

“Pretty far. Obviously we can’t really compare between us Terrans and the elves, but it does feel like they were much better at historiography and record keeping than we were, for the comparable technological and cultural state of our civilizations or whatever.”

“You just said we can’t compare the two.”

“Not from an empirical standpoint. Just based on what my guts are telling me. Doesn’t matter, it’s not a competition. Not to say that accurate historical noting for future generations isn’t something that every society should strive for. But in this case, the difference between the societies is too vast for us to be able to judge which one is better.”

“So if the societies were similar enough, you’d have judged one to be better than the other?”

“When it comes to historiography, yes. We can debate what role history should play in our personal and social lives. But I don’t think anyone can argue that holding an accurate, comprehensive and unbiased a picture of history isn’t a good cultural ideal to strive for.”

“We can debate what role keeping an accurate account of history should play in society?”

Sam shrugged. “Well, sure. What do you think history is for?”

“To learn from the past? Avoid its mistakes? Know where we come from. We’d be here for the next hour if you forced me to list all the reasons I can think of.”

“OK, but how about for entertainment value, for example? Because it provides us with good stories? With heroes and villains that most works of fiction could never hope to depict?”

“Sure, I can see that.”

“So what if we take that reason and the reasons you gave and give them all a more… statist spin? And we’ll say that the role of history is to educate future generations to be better citizens, and, obviously, history being entraining makes our job much easier. Then, an accurate and unbiased recounting of events may not be exactly what we seek when we talk about the ideal way we teach history in our society.”

“So you’re saying that historical bias might be a good thing?”

“At the very least, it is unavoidable. Even if you do seek to recount history exactly as it transpired, warts and all, just the act of choosing what history to focus on necessitates a bias. You said it yourself, history is important so that we can know where we came from. Therefore, history that does not include our own past could be construed as less important. For us at least. Still, we’re discussing two different aspects of historiography. There is the first facet which we started with, and deals with finding out the accurate description of historical events. And I argued that whatever role we decide history needs to play, that this first aspect will be as accurate and objective as possible, is ideal. Then, the second aspect is teaching that history; here, we actually have to decide what role history should play and move on from there. But surely, we would never be negatively impacted by having the most accurate information possible…” He frowned. “Although…”

“What?”

“Well, I suppose that if we decide that history is supposed to solely entertain, and then we make a discovery that refutes something that was seen as a historical fact up to that point, thus ruining a very good ‘story.’ Then we might argue that it was better if we stayed in the dark.”

“But if history is just for entertainment, then what would it matter? We can just disregard the new discovery.”

“True, true. But the problem is that part of what makes history so entertaining is that it really happened, that it’s true. If we decided to completely disregard the facts in favor of a better story, we’re pretty much making history into fiction, which will eventually empty it of meaning and thus make it less entertaining.”

“I see your point.” Yvessa nodded, then looked at her watch. “Well, should we go?”

“Yeah.”

They left his room and started making their way downstairs. “Oh,” Yvessa said, “if it wasn’t obvious, you don’t have to wait for me to watch the next episodes. You can watch it on your own if you want to.”

“Yeah. If I want to…”

“I’ll probably watch it by myself anyway, now that I already started. But if we do watch it together again, then I’m fine with just accommodating to where you got.”

“I’ll take that into consideration… Thanks. Sarah’s meeting us here or at the mess-hall?”

“Here.”

And indeed, there she was waiting for them, early as was probably going to be the norm for the foreseeable future. “Hey guys,” she said as she joined them and they started walking towards lunch. “How are you feeling, Sam?”

Sam made a noncommittal grunt. “Unclear at this point. Not worse, at the very least.”

“That’s good to hear. Not worse is quite an achievement on its own. Trust me.”

Sam shrugged. “Yeah… I’ve heard that once or twice.”

“So what did you end up doing?”

“Me and Felix went to training as planned. Afterwards, during breakfast, Farris called, so all three of us went and talked with him. Then, me and Yvessa watched a documentary about elven history.”

“Oh, is it the one you told me about?” Sarah asked Yvessa, who nodded in response. “So was Yvessa’s glowing review accurate?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good.”

“Maybe we can pick off where you left after lunch?”

“I doubt it.”

She laughed. “Alright, so what did you guys and Farris talk about?”

“He was just checking up on me, really. Which is going to be a weekly thing for now.”

“Just you the next time?”

“Well he actually invited you to come along next week, but that’s up to you. And anyway, I hope that by next week you’ll deem me well enough to not need constant supervision.”

“Not constant. Just some companionship to help you get through this more easily. And if you’ll want to be left alone next Saturday, then you’ll be left alone. I promise.”

“I didn’t say left alone. Just not under constant care. But fine, I’m not complaining about you guys keeping me company today. Don’t want to send the wrong message.”

“No wrong message was sent. Don’t worry about it.”

The conversation lulled for a short minute, each walking in silence before Sarah came upon the brilliant idea of engaging Yvessa in conversation and pointedly ignoring Sam while making sure he felt comfortable jumping back in if he wanted to. He didn’t want to, so he just let Yvessa detail her plans for the day, and when that ran out, she switched to telling Sarah about what happened in the episodes they had just watched. Sam grit his teeth. When he complained about being kept under constant watch, this was what he was complaining about. Forcing his friends through this weird dance and play around him. At least by the time they sat down to eat, the conversation turned more natural. Sarah still stopped herself mid-sentence when she realized she was about to lecture Yvessa about patterns, but that was her usual behavior.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Once Sam finished eating, a couple of minutes after the other two, they parted with Yvessa for the time being and, without even discussing it, started walking back towards Sam’s room. He didn’t know what he was going to do there. But that’s where he wanted to be. Maybe he could just sleep until dinner. Not the healthiest thing to do, physically and mentally. But physically, he was probably never going to suffer again from any gastronomical problems, so that didn’t matter. And mentally… nothing to defend with there. He wasn’t physically tired. Even with his dreams back, his sleep was still pretty much ideal, so his want to sleep was purely fueled by his depression.

Sarah eventually brought him out of that internal back and forth. “So did you think about what you wanted to do with the rest of your day?”

“I thought about sleeping. It’s the only thing I come close to wanting. Except I don’t really want to do that. Maybe I should give studying a go anyway. Or some cultivating. I managed yesterday. Surely I can manage today.”

“I’m sure you can. But I don’t think you should. You need rest, Sam. You have to take it easy. One day, without training or studying won’t kill you or anyone else. And it will only help you get back into form faster.”

Sam sighed. “I know you’re right. And I do agree with you… somewhat. But as long as I don’t want to do anything else, what can you expect from me? If I felt like playing video games or reading or watching shit, then I would’ve probably already broke down yesterday and devoted my day to doing just that. But so far, doing any of those things, or anything else for rest or for fun, feels just as burdensome as doing what I usually would be doing. So if I’m going to suffer anyway… why not get something out of it?”

“OK, then what about sleeping? What about not doing anything? Trust me, you might think you’ll feel the same afterwards, but you won’t. Case in point, you had fun watching the documentary, right? You think you would feel the same if you spent that time reading textbooks?”

“Maybe not during it. But afterwards? I don’t know. Maybe. Nothing I do seems to make a dent in changing how I feel. So why bother trying to ‘improve’ it?”

“If you’re feeling better while doing something, doesn’t that count as improvement? Just keep doing stuff that makes you feel better.”

“Like what?”

“We can keep watching the documentary if you want.”

“I don’t.”

Sarah wrinkled her nose. “Alright, I’ll make you a deal. We’ll spend the first half of our time together helping you study and cultivate. I’ll watch over you, make sure you’re doing everything fine, and help you with anything that you’ll need. And I’ll have fun while doing it, so you don’t need to worry about me. But, in the second half, we’re going to do whatever I want to do, alright? Even if it’s just taking a nap or listening to music with eyes closed.”

“How are we going to take a nap?”

“That was just an example. Point is, I’ll be the one deciding. We have a deal?”

“And what prevents you from just helping me study and cultivate for the full duration?”

“I will if you’ll ask me to. But since you haven’t asked me, and you haven’t said once that you really want to study or cultivate, I’m assuming you’re just falling back on doing those things. So I’m solving your problem for you. You’re not deciding what you’re going to do at all, alright? I decided that first you’re going to train, and then you’re going to take it easy. You just need to do what I tell you to do.”

Sam considered her proposition for a couple of moments before releasing a sigh with a shrug. “Fine by me, then. We’ll go with your plan.”

“Good.” Sarah smiled and gave his shoulders a squeeze. She spent the remaining time until they reached his room, quizzing him on his magical subjects. Although she gave him really softball questions so as far as Sam was concerned, that didn’t count for much.

But she did put in a lot of effort to making sure his training went as smooth as possible and that he kept his focus. Sam was sure she was close to breaking at a couple of points—when she told him they could stop and do something else if he wanted—but in the end, she managed to hold up her hand of the bargain. She wasn’t high level, so she couldn’t provide much in the realm of aid during his cultivating, except keeping him company and alerting him when it was obvious he stopped cultivating. But she had a leg and more up on him on all the magical subjects that he had to study, so they dedicated the rest of the study session to finishing up his two-days-old patterns homework and mandatory reading. His pace was shit. He barely remembered anything, much less how to solve the problems, but they powered through it, nonetheless. Hopefully, he’ll actually manage to retain some of what they went over.

Now came Sarah’s moment of truth and from the look on her face, she was struggling with it. “Don’t have any idea for what we should do, then?” Sam asked.

“I have plenty of ideas. It’s choosing the right one that I’m having trouble with.”

“Just flip a coin. Or run a randomizer. What does it matter?”

“It matters…” She frowned in concentration.

Sam shrugged and settled down on his bed. “Tell me when you’ve reached a decision.” He couldn’t fall asleep, of course. Not that he wanted to, he just wanted the comfort of having his eyes closed and soft matters to his back. Eventually, he started thinking that Sarah was actually planning to just have him rest with how long it took her to come to a decision.

“Alright, Sam, I’ve got it. You’re still awake, right?”

“Yeah.” Sam struggled to an upright position with a grunt. “So what’s the verdict?”

“I thought a lot about what we could both do together. I didn’t want to impose and force you to do something that you might enjoy doing alone, but with me here it—”

“Just tell me.”

“Trivia.”

“Trivia?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty much like Yvessa’s documentary idea. We can just choose topics like Terran history, basic magic, elven history. Stuff that you’re studying about or should know about. And that way, you’ll both have fun and feel like you’re making good use of your time.”

“And I assume you’ll be my competition.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve added a bunch of other categories to make this a fairer game.”

“Fine. Just don’t intentionally get questions wrong to let me win.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

In the end, it was a tie. Four games to Sam and four to Sarah. Sam wasn’t sure how much he actually learned, and how much of that he will manage to retain, but he didn’t have an awful time, and wasn’t that the whole point? With the little time they had left until dinner, Sarah strong armed him into starting the anime he earmarked yesterday for his recent development. Which was nice. It was long established as one of his go-to shows to watch when he wasn’t feeling great, but he couldn’t force himself to start it yesterday because he found it weird to watch without subtitles. Which was a very weird thing to be concerned about in hindsight, as it obviously didn’t bother him at all while watching. He didn’t laugh during the episode—which was pretty normal for him, all things considered—but he had a good time. Maybe he’ll be able to watch it alone later in the day. Maybe just listen to it while doing something else. He just hoped that his mandated full group time wasn’t going to carry on too long. He had wasted enough of his friends’ time today.

Their walk back to the mess-hall was mostly silent, Sam lost in melancholy and Sarah lost in thought, planning, presumably, the rest of the evening. “You don’t have to keep me company until my bedtime, just so you know,” Sam said.

“I know that. And I wasn’t planning to. I just want for us to spend some time together. Like we usually do on Saturdays.”

“Only on some Saturdays, though.”

“Well, I want today to fall under those some.”

“Then you can stop thinking about it and just decide that we’ll do something that we’ve already done before. Since I don’t care either way, it doesn’t matter to me what you choose.”

“Hmm… I’ll consult Felix and Yvessa, then. See what they want to do.”

Which turned out to be unnecessary, because when Felix, the last one to arrive, sat down to join them, he had apparently already come up with his own plan for the evening’s proceedings. “I got a great plan for what we can do, guys,” he said. “I promise. It’s just perfect.”

“This ought to be good.” Yvessa bade him to continue.

“No need for the sarcasm. It’s a good plan. So, do you remember how Farris suggested Sam get a pet?”

“Sure,” she said, and Sam nodded.

“That got me thinking. Because I know you two love cats.”

“And dogs,” Sam said. “All animals that can empathize with their owner, really.”

“Well that’s even better. Because I went online and I was looking for a cat cafe in town. And it turns out that there is one. But it’s got really bad reviews.”

“How can a cat cafe have bad reviews?” Yvessa asked. “There’s nothing wrong with the cats, is there?”

“No. Apparently it’s just that the staff, being the people, aren’t good at their job and that the food and drinks are ass. But, there’s a much better reviewed spot in town. That has both cats, dogs, and even two rabbits. They require a reservation and you usually can’t call in on the day, but luck was on our side and they had a spot open for us. All I had to do was say that it’s one of my friends’ birthday and also the anniversary of her mother’s death.”

“Jesus Christ.” Yvessa shook her head while Sarah looked at Felix with a frown.

“What?! What else was I going to say? That my Taken friend was incredibly depressed and really needed something to lift his mood?”

“You sort of did,” Sam said. “But just for Sarah, presumably, as I don’t think we can allow Yvessa to lie about her mom being dead.”

“Yeah, alright. But the point is that I didn’t tell them about you. Sarah can allow herself the little white lie, and she can make the staff’s day even better by acting all happy, make them feel like they did a great deed.”

“How is that a white lie?” Sarah asked.

“Because it doesn’t hurt anyone? I’m sure that if I gave them the full story about Sam, they would’ve agreed to give us a sit as well. But this way, he gets to keep his privacy, and he doesn’t feel self-conscious. Don’t worry, I asked them not to do a show or anything for you, so they’re going to treat you like any other customer. In fact, they don’t even know which one of you is celebrating her birthday, so…”

“So you’re saying the staff is going to be gossiping, trying to guess which one of us has to celebrate her birthday on the anniversary of her mother’s death?” Yvessa crossed her hands.

“What?! Of course not. That might’ve happened at that other place, but not where we’re going to. They’re way too professional there. Look, if you two are really this uncomfortable with this, and Sam is willing, I don’t have a problem with taking one of the waiters aside and revealing the truth. Like I said, our real circumstance is even more deserving of an emergency reservation than our fake one.”

“Why are you even sure we’re going? Just because you’ve made reservations?”

“Oh, so you’re saying you don’t want to go?”

“No. But I’m not the one you have to ask.”

All eyes turned to Sam, who just shrugged. “Fine by me. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get anything else done anyway.”

“So should I also tell them the truth once we get there?” Felix asked.

“No.” Sarah waved him off. “Just leave it.”

“Excellent. So make sure to leave room for dessert. You driving, Yvessa?”

“I might as well.”

Barely half an hour later, Sam found himself sitting on a couple of pillows, a milkshake on the low table in front of him, and two cats sharing his lap. Barely sharing that is, as by most laws of physics, there shouldn’t have been enough space for the both of them. The first cat to claim his lap was a large-sized brown tabby with an all-white neck and extremely furry ears. His collar denoted him as Belgi and his purrs denoted him as content. The second cat found his way to Sam a couple of minutes after Belgi, and with no pomp or ceremony, stretched his much fuller length over Sam’s lower body, with his butt resting squarely on Belgi’s back. His name was Rufus, and he was a wizened old white cat, his slightly yellowed tail a sign of his many years. Unlike Belgi, he didn’t deign to purr up a storm in order to show that he found his present resting place adequate.

“That’s unfair,” Felix said with a sour face. “How come he gets two to sit on him, and I don’t even get one to come to me?”

“Cats can smell your desperation. They don’t want to go over to people who show them a lot of attention.” Yvessa smirked while rubbing the neck of the barely adult tuxedo on her lap.

“Don’t try that bullshit on me. You were pspspsing all over the place until that guy finally came over to you.”

“Come here Felix, you can pet Elsa.” Sarah tapped on the grinning head of the tail-wagging Golden Retriever.

“Ugh, fine,” he muttered. “Might as well get something out of this. Hey you… Who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl?” A minute later, and he was forced to bid Elsa goodbye as she slowly inched her way to Yvessa and Sam. After soliciting some pets and head-scratches from them as well, she apparently decided her job was completed, and another table required her services, so she elegantly strolled away to continue her rounds. Felix sat back down with a wistful sigh. “Left along once again. Always the same story.”

“Stop complaining and drink your cocktail,” Yvessa said.

“I’m going to go say hello to the bunnies,” Sarah told Felix while getting up. “You want to come with?”

“Agh! I just sat down. Oh, alright, fine. I need to get my money’s worth.”

“How’s your milkshake, Sam?” Yvessa asked.

“I don’t know. I hadn’t had a chance to taste it before and now I’ll have to shift in order to grab it.”

“Well we can’t have that. Want me to call a waiter to hold the drink up for you?”

“Please don’t.”

Yvessa giggled before stretching back with only her upper half and releasing a relaxed sigh. “Ah… It’s so great being surrounded by cats again. Even if they’re all super friendly and clean.”

“The street cats in Maynil are more rugged?”

“Most of them are still just as friendly, although obviously not as clean. But it’s the way they interact with the people and the city which gives them so much character. No offense to the cats here, but they don’t have as much personality as the cats back home.”

“Bet you don’t think that of your house cats.”

“Hm… fair enough. But these cats are public cats. They provide a service. I’m allowed to compare between the two. Although… if one wants this sort of experience back in Maynil, it’s going to be a lot harder to get. I don’t even know if there are any animal restaurant back home. Almost every restaurant has a cat or two, but nothing like this. So I suppose that these cats are more hardworking than the restaurant cats back home, even if they are more spoiled in comparison.”

Sam scratched Rufus at the back of his tail, which finally forced the elder cat to relent a small burst of purring. “They are hardworking cats here. I’ll definitely give them that.” He was forced to stop his scratching of Rufus by another cat joining the fray and butting her gray head at his shoulder, seeking attention.

“Oh, come on!” Felix said as he returned to the table. “You’ve got three now?!”

“She’s not sitting on my lap.”

“She’s resting against your thigh. That’s even cuter!”

“How were the rabbits?” Yvessa asked.

“Really cute.” Sarah sat back down. “We got to feed them a treat.”

“You mean you got to feed them a treat,” Felix said. “The other one had already been fed by someone else. And God forbid we let one of them eat more than they are allowed.”

“They are on a tightly controlled diet. If everyone we came here fed them a treat, they would die of obesity in a month.”

“Hmph!”

“Drink your cocktail.” Yvessa pointed her fork at him. “And help Sam drink his milkshake. He can’t reach.”

“This is ridiculous!” Felix complained as he raised the glass close enough for Sam to grab at the straw. It was tasty. “I’m just gonna move the table closer, so grab it yourself next time you want a drink. Oh look, another one comes for him.” But this Siamese seemed content with monopolizing the attention given from him by the two people who had no cats occupying their space. Switching between Sarah and Felix whenever he deemed he wasn’t getting enough attention. Eventually, shortly before they left, he also found his way to Sam and loudly demanded attention. “This is a scam,” Felix concluded.

They stayed until the restaurant was about to close and were the last to leave. It took Sam a whole minute to get up, trying to rouse the sleeping felines gently. They did not seem impressed by his efforts, but all but Rufus eventually obliged with his request. Rufus required being physically picked up and restored to the floor, as no amount of prodding elicited anything more than a tail or ears flick. Once put down, he slowly blinked his eyes open before observing Sam narrowly. Sam hoped he managed to conceal his choked breath and hurriedly got up before bending back down to give the white fur a one last comb-over.

Outside, the cool night air felt like a perfect counterbalance to his heated face, and he silently joined his friends on the way back to the car. The drive back mostly consisted of Felix and Yvessa carrying on with the useless argument of cats versus dogs, and Sam certainly hoped they were only arguing for argument’s sake. He kept his opinion to himself and, once back in the academy, bid Felix and Yvessa goodbye. The walk back to his and Sarah’s dorms was silent, Sam caught up in his own thoughts. Before parting for the night, Sarah gave him a hug and wished him good luck tomorrow.

With more than an hour still left of his day, Sam was at a loss of what to do next. He decided to take a shower first, get himself completely ready for bed. After a shower that lasted much longer than usual, he surprised himself by sitting down for a meditation. He coaxed himself into the act by meditating for shorter than usual. The meditation wasn’t good, but it also wasn’t particularly bad. His thoughts kept slipping, yes, but they didn’t go to anywhere too dark, and he didn’t finish the session feeling worse than before.

He still didn’t feel like he wanted to do anything, besides maybe going back to the restaurant and petting cats until he felt asleep. Which is probably why he decided to finally call in the big guns. He kept the five books in reserve until now, but there was probably no better day than today to start rereading them. The evening spent with the company of animals was surely a sign. He planned to stop one chapter after the first sad chapter of the book, but decided to go with one more, just in case. He was still early to his usual bedtime anyway.

He fell asleep while crying and thinking of his cats.