Most of his time was spent watching TV or going to the bathroom. Occasionally, just to fill the empty hours before she got home, he would take naps on the couch in front of the TV. His life had come to a standstill while he waited for his peculiar condition to stabilize.
Two mothers with their children entered the playground and sat on the benches on the periphery of the sanded area while their boys ran amok on the sand. Two young boys ran up to the merry-go-round and politely asked if they might play on the machine. Howard and Anita stepped off the slowly revolving platform and gave its use over to the boys. The two boys promptly got on either side of the platform and grasped the rails, running to spin the merry-go-round in the opposite direction before they hopped on themselves. Anita and Howard watched the boys playing for a few minutes, then walked back to the Suburban. The terrifying aspects of Howard’s nightmare had ameliorated with the walk in the park, leaving him introspective and brooding. He didn’t say much the rest of the day.