bunks. On one of the bunks was Westerburg, lying face up,
his arms folded across his chest, his eyes tightly closed.

"Sir," the bovine youth said, "I'm afraid I can't wake him up for you,
much as I'd like to."

"You can't? Why not?"

"Sir, Corporal Westerburg won't wake up, not after the sun sets. He just
won't. He can't be wakened."

"Cataleptic? Really?"

"But in the morning, as soon as the sun comes up, he leaps out of bed
and goes outside. Stays the whole day."

"I see," the Doctor said. "Well, thanks anyhow." He went back out into
the hall and the door shut after him. "There's more to this than I
realized," he murmured. He went on back the way he had come.

* * * * *

It was a warm sunny day. The sky was almost free of clouds and a gentle
wind moved through the cedars along the bank of the stream. There was a
path leading from the hospital building down the slope to the stream. At
the stream a small bridge led over to the other side, and a few patients
were standing on the bridge, wrapped in their bathrobes, looking
aimlessly down at the water.

It took Harris several minutes to find Westerburg. The youth was not
with the other patients, near or around the bridge. He had gone farther
down, past the cedar trees and out onto a strip of bright meadow, where
poppies and grass grew everywhere. He was sitting on the stream bank, on
a flat grey stone, leaning back and staring up, his mouth open a little.
He did not notice the Doctor until Harris was almost beside him.

"Hello," Harris said softly.

Westerburg opened his eyes, looking up. He smiled and got slowly to his
feet, a graceful, flowing motion that was rather surprising for a man of
his size. "Hello, Doctor. What brings you out here?"

"Nothing. Thought I'd get some sun."

"Here, you can share my rock." Westerburg moved over and Harris sat down
gingerly, being careful not to catch his trousers on the sharp edges of
the rock. He lit a cigarette and gazed silently down at the water.
Beside him, Westerburg had resumed his strange position, leaning back,
resting on his hands, staring up with his eyes shut tight.

"Nice day," the Doctor said.

"Yes."

"Do you come here every day?"

"Yes."

"You like it better out here than inside."

"I can't stay inside," Westerburg said.

"You can't? How do you mean, 'can't'?"

"You would die without _air_, wouldn't you?" the Corporal said.

"And you'd die without sunlight?