U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [468]
"Here's Dr. Snyder right now," said the nurse in an awed whisper.
"Wel , Anderson, you surely had a narrow squeak. You probably thought you were in a plane al the time. . . . Funny, I've never known an airplane pilot yet who could drive a car. My name's Snyder. Dr. Ridgely Snyder of New York. Dr. Booth the housephysician here has cal ed me in as a consultant. It's possible we may have to patch up your inside a little. You see when they picked you up, as I understand it, a good deal of the car was lying across your middle . . . a very lucky break that it didn't finish you right there. . . . You understand me, don't you?"
-372-Dr. Snyder was a big man with flat closeshaven cheeks and square hands ending in square nails. A song old man Vogel used to sing ran across Charley's faint mind as he looked at the doctor standing there big and square and paunchy in his white clothes: he looked like Wil iam Kaiser the butcher but they don't know each other.
"I guess it's the dope but my mind don't work very good. . . . You do the best you can, doc
. . . and don't spare any expense. I just fixed up a little deal that'l make their ears ring. . . . Say, doctor, what about that little girl? Wasn't there a little girl in the car?"
"Oh, don't worry about her. She's fine. She was thrown absolutely clear. A slight concussion, a few contusions, she's coming along splendidly."
"I was scared to ask."
"We've got to do a little operating suture of the intestine, a very interesting problem. Now I don't want you to have anything on your mind, Mr. Anderson. . . . It'l just be a stitch here and a stitch there . . . we'l see what we can do. This was supposed to be my vacation but of course I'm always glad to step in in an emergency."
"Wel , thank you, doc, for whatever you can do. . . . I guess I ought not to drink so much. . .
. Say, why won't they let me drink some water? . . . It's funny, when I first came to in here I thought I was in another of them clip joints. Now Doris, she wouldn'ta liked me to talk like that, you know, bad grammar, conduct unbecoming an
officer and a gentleman. But you know, doc, when you get so you can buy 'em and sel
'em like an old bag of peanuts, a bag of stale goobers, you don't care what they think. You know, doc, it may be a great thing for me bein' laid up, give me a chance to lay off the liquor, think about things. . . . Ever thought about things, doc?"
"What I'm thinking right now, Mr. Anderson, is that I'd like you to be absolutely quiet."
"Al right, you do your stuff, doc . . . you send that
-373-pretty nurse in an' lemme talk to her. I want to talk about old Bil Cermak. . . . He was the only straight guy I ever knew, him an' Joe Askew. . . . I wonder how he felt when he died. . . . You see the last time I was, wel , cal it constitutional y damaged . . . him and me smashed up in a plane . . . the new Mosquito . . . there's mil ions in it now but the bastards got the stock away from me. . . . Say, doc, I don't suppose you ever died, did you?" There was nothing but the white ceiling above him,
brighter where the light came from the window. Charley remembered the bel by his hand. He rang and rang it. Nobody came. Then he yanked at it until he felt the cord pul out somewhere. The pretty pink nurse's face bloomed above him like a closeup in a movie. Her young rarely-kissed mouth was moving. He could see it making clucking noises, but a noise like longdistance in his ears kept him from hearing what she said. It was only when he was talk-ing he didn't feel scared. "Look here, young woman . . ." he could hear himself talking. He was enjoying hearing himself talking. "I'm payin' the bil s in this hospital and I'm goin' to have everythin' just how I want it. . . . I want you to sit here an'
listen while I talk, see. Let's see, what was I tel in' that bird about? He may be a doctor but he looks like Wil iam Kaiser the butcher to me. You're too young to know that song."
"There's somebody to see you, Mr. Anderson. Would you like me to freshen your face up a little?" Charley turned his eyes. The screen had been pushed open. In the grey oblong of the door there was Margo. She was in yel ow. She was looking at him with eyes round as a bird's.