London, February 2020
Roger's fever subsided but his cough got worse. He got some cough medicine and stayed in bed with a heat pad. His joints were sore. He did not feel like getting up from the bed and the medicine made him drowsy. Pari called several times, and got worried when he did not pick up the phone. She had now been shifted to a general ward. She still felt extremely weak. She asked Kajol to call up Roger.
As he lay on the hospital bed, drawing his breath in feeble gasps, Roger found his thoughts clouding. Was it the previous day, or was it night before, he did not know, but he remembered being carried on a stretcher and the sound of a siren. There were voices, muffled ones; he tried to say that they had to call Pari's number. Between drifting in an out of consciousness and comprehension, he felt the lead in his voice.
