Over the two days before picking Joey up for the ride home, Lou had twice stopped by the hospital to see him. The first time, Joey was heavily medicated and barely able to put two words together. A day later, Lou managed to engage him in a brief conversation. Even though Joey was sweet and eager to respond, there was no question that he was, as Millie had said, limited. He had almost no insight as to why he had put his hand in harm’s way for the sake of getting at a piece of carrot.

“How you doing over there, buddy?” Lou asked, wishing he had had the time to clean out his Toyota before putting a post-op patient inside it.

Joey’s smile was engaging. “I’m doing fine,” he chirped. “How are you?”

“Doin’ okay, Joey. Doin’ okay. Listen, Joey, I don’t want to upset you any, but I wonder if you’ve had any more thoughts about what happened at the restaurant.”

“You mean with my thumb?”

Lou groaned inwardly. “Exactly. I’m still trying to figure out what you were thinking.”

Lou caught Joey’s shrug out of the corner of his eye. “All I could think about was how badly I wanted that carrot.”

The vapid response was no surprise.

“You didn’t think you might get hurt?”

This time, Joey turned and gazed across at him. His expression was blank—not deep in thought, not searching for an answer to Lou’s question, but seemingly disconnected from his mind. Lou realized he had seen a similar expression before. Carolyn Meacham stared at him without comprehension moments after she had abandoned her reckless pursuit of the sedan with a broken taillight.

A parody of Dylan’s classic crossed Lou’s mind.

The answer my friend is blowin’ in Kings Ridge.…

The answer is blowin’ in Kings Ridge.

Joey pointed out the window at a roadside exit sign. “Can you get off here?” he asked.

“Sure,” Lou replied, grateful to have anything approaching a meaningful exchange. “What for?”

“I’ve got to get to the pet store before I go home.”

“I didn’t know you had any pets,” Lou said.

Joey placed his left index finger to his lips, letting Lou know it was a secret. “You won’t tell Millie, now, will you? She doesn’t really allow any animals in the Dorms.”

Lou flashed on his discussion with Emily about bending rules. He didn’t feel he had been all that convincing, but at least she had left his apartment with a promise to give Steve a sporting chance.

“No problem, pal,” he said. “So what do you have? Dog? Cat?”

“You’ll see,” Joey replied mischievously.