I dumped out a palmful of the vitamin B-12 tabs I had just brought in and uncapped the water bottle I had also summoned.

“What medicine?” he asked as I passed them to him.

“Doctor’s orders,” I said. “Get you back on your feet faster.”

“Well, okay.”

He threw all of them into his mouth and downed them with a single big drink.

“Now these.”

I opened the bottle of Thorazine. They were 200 milligrams each and I didn’t know how many to give him, so I decided on three. I gave him some tryptophan, too, and some phenylalanine.

He stared at the pills. The walls faded again, the music returned. A cloud of blue smoke drifted past us. Suddenly the bar came into view, back to whatever passed for normal in that place. The upset tables had been righted, Humpty still teetered, the mural went on.

“Hey, the club!” Luke exclaimed. “We ought to head back. Looks like the party’s just getting going.”

“First, you take your medicine.”

“What’s it for?”

“You got some bad shit somewhere. This is to let you down easy.”

“I don’t feel bad. In fact, I feel real good — ”

“Take it!”

“Okay! Okay!”

He tossed off the whole fistful.

The Jabberwock and the Fire Angel seemed to be fading now — and my latest exasperated gesture in the vicinity of the bartop had encountered some resistance, though the thing was not fully solid to me yet. Suddenly, then, I noticed the Cat, whose games with substantiality somehow at this point made it seem more real than anything else in the place.

“You coming or going?” if asked.

Luke began to rise. The light grew brighter, though more diffuse.

“Uh, Luke, look over there,” I said, pointing.

“Where?” he asked, turning his head.

I slugged him again.

As he collapsed, the bar began to fade. The walls of the cave phased back into focus. I heard the Cat’s voice. “Going…” it said.