“You going to take me sac-a-lait fishing?”

“Dr. Bonin thinks you can go home next week. He’s cutting down your meds today.”

“Which meds?” I said, trying to hold my smile in place.

“All of them.”

She saw me blink. “You think you still need them?” she said.

“Not really.”

She held her eyes on mine, not letting me see her thoughts. “Clete called,” she said.

“What about?”

“He says you told him Tee Jolie Melton came to see you at two in the morning.”

“He told you right. She left me this iPod.”

“Dave, some people think Tee Jolie is dead.”

“Based on what?”

“Nobody has seen her in months. She had a way of going off with men who told her they knew movie or recording people. She believed anything anyone told her.”

I picked up the iPod off the nightstand and handed it to Alafair. “This doesn’t belong to the nurses or the attendant or any of the physicians here. Tee Jolie bought it for me and downloaded music that I like and gave it to me as a present. She put three of her songs on there. Put the headphones on and listen.”

Alafair turned on the iPod and tapped on its face when it lit up. “What are the names of the songs?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What are they categorized as?”

“I’m not up on that stuff. The songs are in there. I listened to them,” I said.

The headphones were askew on her ears so she could listen to the iPod and talk to me at the same time. “I can’t find them, Dave.”

“Don’t worry about it. Maybe I messed up the iPod.”

She set it back on the nightstand and placed the headphones carefully on top of it, her hands moving slowly, her eyes veiled. “It’ll be good having you home again.”