ABSTRACT
Lila walks like light on water, skittish as a moody ghost. She is a bird fleeing the gun. The author sense that in real life she would not reveal as much. But we are in a hospital, a laboratory setting, where such emotional experiments are encouraged. Lila is her second roommate to commit slow suicide, refusing to get better. The first was sent to intensive care. The dietician has informed her that it is imperative for me to experiment with her food selection. Another nurse wheels out a silver cart full of chocolate chip cookies, the wide flat pancake kind, and a jug of lemonade, along with paper cups and paper towels for napkins. Most of the people walk around the food but never actually touch it. Helium balloons float from the metal bedframe. One of the nurses recognizes him. The nurse says she remembers Lila's mother checking her out.
