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Mute on a stretcher, with her head curiously bandaged, Alice seems to cling precariously to life. Her burns have healed remarkably in the year since the fire, but she languishes in a deep trance like dementia. It's as if the blaze consumed her senses. Deaf, dumb, and blind to all stimulation, she's a fair math for the infirmary's gloom.

In a frenzied insant, a canhered feline pounced on Alice while she was about to be carried inside. Startled by the cat's yowl, the bearers lost their grip and dropped the wretched girl to the ground. Most curious to behold, the cat stood atop Alice as if claiming territorial right, or as if defending a rodent captured in the day's hunt from other hungry predators. Only when an orderly threatened it with a stick did the creature scamper into a nearby hedge. Even then the ct crouched beneath the shrubbery. With eyes agape, it fixed on Alice as if it had some vital interest in our proceedings.