His sleep had hardly been peaceful, but Umasi had awoken on Monday morning with a remarkably clear head, along with some troublesome feelings. Though he couldn’t remember precisely the details of his dreams, Umasi had retained enough of the emotions to feel pity for Zen. What’s more, for some reason he felt terribly uncomfortable with himself. Umasi shook his head. While he was somewhat disappointed to return to school, he was glad that he’d have the chance to keep an eye on his brother. Umasi never did see Zen return to bed, and couldn’t know exactly how much sleep he’d had gotten—but Zen’s general inertness, the dark rings under his eyes, and his sluggish movements all indicated that the answer was “not much.” Umasi’s sympathy now outweighed his curiosity, and so during their free period Umasi had dragged Zen to a hallway bench where he could rest—or so Umasi had thought. It hadn’t taken long for a pair of security guards to accost them, rudely awaking Zen as they screeched at him for violating student boundaries.
