the last phrase turned him somewhere in his spirit and he saw , again , allison the very last time he saw her alive , the slight form in the bed , the long sunlit afternoon against the drawn blinds , the dust on the nightstand , the commode in the corner , the constant , eroding hum of the oxygen-humifier , the plastic tubes in both nostrils with their tendrils winding up around her auburn hair and about her ears , her worn eyes .