Chapter 110: Monsters - James

JAMES

I tap on the door.

Klempner lies propped up in bed, looking much more comfortable, and certainly more genial, than when last I saw him. Papers lie in neat stacks beside an open laptop. Table and blankets are scattered with sheaves of handwritten notes, printed sheets and photographs. Some document or other lies before him, annotated jottings in the margin.

But Klempner’s not reading or apparently working. Instead, he stares into space, plucking at a lip.

“Larry?”

He startles, sliding a file to cover the photos, then relaxes as he realises it’s me. “My apologies, James. I didn’t see you there.”

“How are you feeling now?”

Klempner groans. "I'm getting bored with that question."

"I imagine you are. You going to answer it?"

“What’s the phrase they use? As well as can be expected.”

“I recall you once warning me if I got things wrong, I'd feel like I'd been hit by a rhino. From that, I rather assumed that meant you wouldn't go playing tag with twenty-wheeler trucks.”