The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [407]
And Sister Bertha halted and shrieked like a drunken hag.
Don’t throw erasers in my classroom.
And President Wilson tripped before him like a fairy, with rings on his fingers, green earrings, and said, pursing his lips:
Join the colors now.
And his mother stepped in front of President Wilson and said, in tears:
The home is the most sacred thing on earth.
And Father Gilhooley in gold vestments thumbed his nose at Studs and said:
Contribute to the support of your pastor.
And Red Kelly and his father, Sergeant Kelly, staggered drunkenly before him with gin bottles held aloft like torches and shouted:
Obey the law.
And his father stepped up, took off a clown’s mask, and said:
Drink is the curse of mankind.
And Dr. O’Donnell, carrying a syringe and a hypodermic needle, came to him, and said:
If you jazz, you’ll get the clap.
And Mrs. George Jackson wriggled her tattooed belly, and sneered:
You can’t jazz.
And the wife of Mr. Dennis P. Gorman in the red robes of the master of ceremonies of the Order of Christopher came forward and said:
Join the boy scouts.
And Father Shannon, on the arm of Lucy Scanlan who was naked and bleeding from her young breasts, stopped before him and said:
Be a man.
And his father reappeared and said:
Come home early tonight.
And his sister Frances in a transparent nightgown said: Wash your face.. .
And again they danced around and around him like drunken Indians in a war dance, and colors fell like sparks raining upon them, and Studs knew they were dancing the dance of his own death, and he wanted them to go away, and he arose and ran shouting.
Save me. Save me. Save me.
And they chased him and he ran, still screaming, and they shouted:
Stop thief.
Save me! Save me! Save me!
“He’s dying,” Mrs. Lonigan screamed, and the nurse rushed into the sick room. Mrs. Lonigan soaked her fingers in the holy water fount, and stood over the bed, sprinkling her tossing, squirming, delirious son with holy water in the sign of the cross. She dropped to her knees and prayed, her body shaken with sobs.
IV
“Well, Mary, how is Bill now?” Dr. O’Donnell asked, stepping into the house.
He was a short, thick-faced man with a clipped gray mustache, gray hair, ruddy complexion and a large head. “Oh, Doctor, he’s very bad. I’m so worried.”
“Well, we’ll take a look at him. Maybe you’re more worried than you should be. You know, sometimes in these pneumonia cases the patient will look to be much worse than he is,” Dr. O’Donnell said, hanging his hat on the hall tree and setting down his bag.
“Doctor, I do hope so,” she said.
“Mary, don’t you worry. What you want to do is to take care of yourself, and let us watch Bill. How are the girls?”
“Fine, Doctor. Both Frances and Loretta are happy. They both married such fine, decent boys.”
“Ha, I remember them when they were tots. And Paddy, how is he?”
“He’s not so well, Doctor. You know these worries he has on his mind.”
“Mary, check the worries now, and you’ll be better off.”
“Doctor, it’s just what I hope Paddy will do.”
“You’ll tell him I prescribed it. And now I better take a look at Bill.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
He walked to the sick room, followed by Mrs. Lonigan. “Mary, I think you had just better let me look at him, and I’ll come out and tell you.”
“Yes, Doctor. And Doctor, would you like a cup of tea?”
“No thanks, Mary. I have another call right after this one.”
“Well, how is he?” Dr. O’Donnell asked the nurse.
“He’s been in a restless coma, and here is his fever chart, Doctor. He doesn’t look very good, so I advised Mrs. Lonigan to call you.”
“Yes. It was lucky she caught me,” the doctor said, wrinkling his brows as he read the fever chart. He opened his bag and, with the nurse’s assistance, turned Studs over on his back. Sitting on a chair beside the bed, he felt Studs’ pulse and found it feeble, one hundred and ten a minute. He noticed the flushed and fevered face, and, opening the mouth, perceived a thick and ugly coating on the tongue.
“It doesn’t look so good, does it?” he said meditatively.
He found that the respirations were shallow, forty a minute, and that the patient, in his coma, was very weak.