Aunt Dotty had made up his bed while he was brushing his teeth, and Uncle Frank had shoved a swamp cooler from the basement into the round window at the end of the attic. Henry had never seen a swamp cooler before, but he assumed it was pretty much the same as the air conditioners that stuck out of the wall under hotel windows. Only this one was leaning a little dangerously to one side and was packed in place with old overalls.Henry’s room contained his bed, on which he sprawled, a little stand that looked like it was meant to hold a fake fern but now held a reading lamp, and a three-drawer dresser. His doors were open. Henry wanted the full benefit of the swamp cooler.Henry’s light was off. There was no reason to have it on. The only thing to look at in his little room was a poster on the ceiling, and he’d finished staring at it a long time ago. Uncle Frank said that it had been his when he was young. It was a picture of the University of Kansas basketball team. One of them, at least.
