Plain gray curtains had been drawn across a single window, a silhouette of vertical bars evident behind the thin cloth. On the left wall, a familiar color print of the bearded Jesus hung over a narrow cot on which a brown wool blanket had been made up with military precision. Beyond the bed a floor lamp emitting the only light stood next to an armchair covered in olive corduroy with matching ottoman. Directly opposite them a small desk with reading lamp and straight-back chair occupied the rear wall next to a bookcase crammed with faded, hardback spines, framed holy pictures tacked to the wall above it. The right wall contained a bathroom with no door, a bureau, clothes closet and prie dieu beneath a wooden crucifix. In the center of the room, a frail man with eyes closed and arms stretched to the ceiling was standing behind a card table covered by a white cloth with purple stains that held a paper cup, a loaf of pita bread on a paper plate, an unlit candle and a thick tome opened to a page marked by a red ribbon.
