“But, Charley, you said you’d open an account for me.”
“Gimme a chance to get out of the hospital.”
“Charley, you poor unfortunate Mr. A… you don’t think it’s any fun for me to worry you at a timelike this… but I’ve got to eat like other people… an’ if I had some jack I could fix that county attorney up… and keep the stuff out of the papers and everything. You know the kind of story they’ll make out of it… but I got to have money quick.”
“All right, make out a check for five thousand… Damn lucky for you I didn’t break my arm.”
The pretty pink nurse had come back. Her voice was cold and sharp and icy. “I’m afraid it’s time,” she said.
Margo leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. Charley felt like he was in a glass case. There was the touch of her lips, the smell of her dress, her hair, the perfume she used, but he couldn’t feel them. Like a scene in a movie he watched her walk out, the sway of her hips under the tight dress, the little nervous way she was fluttering the check under her chin to dry the ink on it.
“Say, nurse, it’s like a run on a bank… I guess they think the old institution’s not so sound as it might be… I’m givin’ orders now, see, tell ’em down at the desk, no more visitors, see? You and me an’ Dr. Kaiser William there, that’s enough, see.”
“Anyway now it’s time for a little trip across the hall,” said the pretty pink nurse, in a cheerful voice like it was a show or a baseballgame they were going to.
An orderly came in. The room started moving away from the cot, a grey corridor was moving along, but the moving made blind spasms of pain rush up through his legs. He sank into sour puking blackness again. When it was light again it was very far away. His tongue was dry in his mouth he was so thirsty. Reddish mist was over everything. He was talking but way off somewhere. He could feel the talk coming out of his throat but he couldn’t hear it. What he heard was the doctor’s voice saying peritonitis like it was the finest party in the world, like you’d say Merry Christmas. There were other voices. His eyes were open, there were other voices. He must be delirious. There was Jim sitting there with a puzzled sour gloomy look on his face like he used to see him when he was a kid on Sunday afternoons going over his books.
“That you, Jim? How did you get here?”
“We flew,” answered Jim. It was a surprise to Charley that people could hear him, his voice was so far away. “Everything’s all right, Charley… you mustn’t exert yourself in the least way. I’ll attend to everything.”
“Can you hear me, Jim? It’s like a bum longdistance phone connection.”
“That’s all right, Charley… We’ll take charge of everything. You just rest quiet. Say, Charley, just as a precaution I want to ask you, did you make a will?”
“Say, was it peritonitis I heard somebody say? That’s bad, ain’t it?”
Jim’s face was white and long. “It’s… it’s just a little operation. I thought maybe you’d better give me power of attorney superseding all others, so that you won’t have anything on your mind, see. I have it all made out, and I have Judge Grey here as a witness and Hedwig’ll come in a minute… Tell me, are you married to this woman?”
“Me married? Never again… Good old Jim, always wantin’ people to sign things. Too bad I didn’t break my arm. Well, what do you think about planes now, Jim? Not practical yet… eh? But practical enough to make more money than you ever made sellin’ tin lizzies… Don’t get sore, Jim… Say, Jim, be sure to get plenty of good doctors… I’m pretty sick, do you know it?… It makes you so hoarse… make ’em let me have some water to drink, Jim. Don’t do to save on the doctors… I want to talk like we used to when, you know, up the Red River fishin’ when there wasn’t any. We’ll try the fishin’ out here… swell fishin’ right outside of Miami here… I feel like I was passin’ out again. Make that doctor give me somethin’. That was a shot. Thank you, nurse, made me feel fine, clears everythin’ up. I tell you, Jim, things are hummin’ in the air… mail subsidies… airports… all these new airlines… we’ll be the foundin’ fathers on all that… They thought they had me out on my ass but I fooled ’em… Jesus, Jim, I wish I could stop talkin’ and go to sleep. But this passin’ out’s not like sleep, it’s like a… somethin’ phony.”
He had to keep on talking but it wasn’t any use. He was too hoarse. His voice was a faint croak, he was so thirsty. They couldn’t hear him. He had to make them hear him. He was too weak. He was dropping spinning being sucked down into
Newsreel LXII
STARS PORTEND EVIL FOR COOLIDGE
If you can’t tell the world
She’s a good little girl
Then just say nothing at all
the elder Way had been attempting for several years to get a certain kind of celery spray on the market. The investigation of the charges that he had been beaten revealed that Way had been warned to cease writing letters, but it also brought to light the statement that the leading celery growers were using a spray containing deadly poison
As long as she’s sorree
She needs sympathee
MINERS RETAIL HORRORS OF DEATH PIT
inasmuch as banks are having trouble in Florida at this time, checks are not going through as fast as they should. To prevent delay please send us express money order instead of certified check
Just like a butterfly that’s caught in the rain
Longing for flowers
Dreaming of hours
Back in that sun-kissed lane
TOURISTS ROB GAS STATION
PROFIT TAKING FAILS TO CHECK STOCK RISE
the climate breeds optimism and it is hard for pessimism to survive the bright sunshine and balmy breezes that blow from the Gulf and the Atlantic
Oh it ain’t gonna rain no more
HURRICANE SWEEPS SOUTH FLORIDA
SOUTH FLORIDA DEVASTATED 1000 DEAD, 38,000 DESTITUTE
BROADWAY BEAUTY BEATEN
Fox he got a bushy tail
Possum’s tail is bare
Rabbit got no tail at all
But only a tuft o’ hair
FLORIDA RELIEF FUND FAR SHORT
MARTIAL LAW LOOMS
It ain’t gonna rain no more
according to the police the group spent Saturday evening at Hillside Park, a Belleville amusement resort and about midnight went to the bungalow. The Bagley girls retired, they told the police, and when the men entered their room one of the girls jumped from a window
But how in hell kin the old folks tell
It ain’t gonna rain no more?
Margo Dowling
Agnes got off the sleeper dressed from head to foot in black crape. She had put on weight and her face had a grey rumpled look Margo hadn’t noticed on it before. Margo put her head on Agnes’s shoulder and burst out crying right there in the sunny crowded Miami station. They got into the Buick to go out to the beach. Agnes didn’t even notice the car or the uniformed chauffeur or anything. She took Margo’s hand and they sat looking away from each other out into the sunny streets full of slowlymoving people in light clothes. Margo was patting her eyes with her lace handkerchief. “Oughtn’t you to wear black?” Agnes said. “Wouldn’t you feel better if you were wearing black?”