All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren [230]
The Boss liked his lower lip, but he controlled the question.
Adam shut the door behind him, and took a few steps forward. “Dr. Burnham has examined the patient,” he said, “and studied the X-ray plated. His diagnosis and my own check absolutely. You know what that is.” He paused as though expecting some reply.
But there was no reply, not even a sign, and the gaze on him did not relinquish its clutch.
“There are two lines of action possible.” he resumed. “One is conservative, the other radical. The conservative line would be to put the patient in traction, in a heavy cast, and wait for some resolution of the situation. The radical line would be to resort to surgical procedure immediately. I want to emphasize that this is a difficult decision, a very technical decision. Therefore I want you to understand the situation as fully as possible.” He paused again, but there was no sign, and the gaze did not relax.
“As you know,” he began again, and now his tone carried a hint of the lecture room, of academic precision, “the plate showed in lateral view a fracture and dislocation of the fifth and six cervical vertebrae. But the X-ray cannot show the condition of the soft tissue. Therefore we cannot know at this moment the condition of the spinal cord itself. We can learn that only by surgical action. If upon operating we discover that the cord is crushed, the patient will remain paralyzed for the rest of his life, for the cord has nor regenerative power. But it is possible that a displaced segment of bone is merely pressing upon the cord. In that case we can, by performing a laminectomy, relieve the pressure. We cannot predict the degree of benefit from such procedure. We might restore some or we might restore almost all function. Of course, we should not expect too much. Some muscle groups might remain paralyzed. You understand?”
This time, Adam scarcely seemed to expect any response, and this pause was only momentary. “I must emphasize one consideration. This operation is very near the brain. It may be fatal. And the chances of infection are greater with the operation. Dr. Burnham and I have discussed the matter at length and are in agreement. I myself take full responsibility for advising the operation. But I want you to know that it is radical. That it is the outside chance. It is the gambler’s chance.”
He stopped, and in the silence, the Boss’s breath rasped two or three times, in and out. Then he said, gratingly, “Do it.”
He had taken the outside chance, the gambler’s chance. But that was no surprise to me.
Adam was looking inquiringly at Lucy Stark, as though he wished corroboration from her. She turned her eyes from him and looked at her husband, who had walked over to the window to look out over the black lawn. For a moment, she studied the hunched shoulders, then returned to Adam Stanton. She nodded her head slowly, while her hands worked together on her lap. Then she whispered, “Yes–yes.”
“We shall operate immediately,” Adam said. “I had ordered arrangements made. It does not have to be done immediately, but in my judgment it is better so.”
“Do it,” the grating voice over the window said. But the Boss did not turn around, not even when the door closed behind Adam Stanton.
I went back to my picture magazines, but I turned the pages over with the greatest care as though I couldn’t afford to make a sound in the special kind of devouring stillness there was in the room. The stillness lasted a long time, while I kept on looking at the pictures of girls in bathing suits and race horses and scenes of natural beauty and long files of erect, clean-faced youths in some kind of shirt or other lifting their arms in a salute and detective stories acted out in six photographs with the answer on the next page. But I wasn’t paying much attention to the pictures, and they were always alike anyway.
Then Lucy Stark got up from her chair. She walked over to the window, where the Boss stood and stared out. She laid her hand on his right arm. He drew away, without even looking at her. But she took him by the forearm and drew him, and after a momentary resistance he followed her. She led him back to the big chintz-covered chair.