The bathroom led directly into the cartoon father's hospital room. The father, sitting at the round white table near the window, watched his son approach the table and then turn back around.

"Again?!" the cartoon father moaned.

"I forgot something," the cartoon boy said.

The cartoon boy went back into the bathroom. On the sink was a Coke can. He picked up the can and returned to the hospital room, and placed the can in the center of the round white table. Then he found a folded-up red chair that was leaning against the wall, near his father's bed. He brought the chair to the table and unfolded it.

The father, no longer looking at the cartoon boy, but simply staring out the window, or staring at the window, or staring at the light coming through the window, said, "Stuff's going to kill you one of these days. You know how much sugar there is in just one can?"

STOP.

"I'm not thirsty," I said.

EJECT.

I went into the kitchen and found a steak knife in the dishwasher. I uprooted the carpet bordering the kitchen floor, brushed away the silverfish slithering underneath, pried loose another two cassettes, and popped one in the VCR.

PLAY.