Fackelmann's scam, the wraith returns
He lies there pinwheel-eyed from pain and efforts to Abide via memory. One eye has some sort of blurry sleep-goop film in it that won’t blink or rub away. The room is filled with mournful gunmetal winter-P.M. light.
Context
The frame of the book's longest hospital section, stated in one line: Gately, shot, post-op, tube-mouthed and refusing narcotics, is getting through lived time by Abiding — and his instrument for Abiding is memory, the whole Fackelmann flashback that follows. The gunmetal winter-P.M. light is the scene's clock; the entire section runs on the gray afternoon deepening toward the dread hour. "Abiding at the dread hour," named at its source.