Samedi the Deafness (7 page)

The note read:

Expect more of your belongings when you return from supper.

—
D. Graham, H.S.

He looked at his watch. Supper, had he missed it? He went for the book.

It read:

The appropriate attire for dinner is this: wear something you will not embarrass yourself in. Certainly, the qualifications for wearing one garment are different from those for another. One man may look good in a smock, another in an evening gown, while a third cannot go about save in full evening dress. To each one, then, his fate.

Supper will be had alone or in arranged company, in one of the various chambers near the kitchen. In summer, or when weather permits, food may be eaten upon the veranda or on the lawn, or even, depending on the individual involved, upon the roof, as has been done at least once in my own experience. The hour for supper is nine. A nightcap will follow at either eleven or one, depending upon your habits.

James wandered about aimlessly for a while, his bell dampened by a flat cloth. Surely he could find the dining room.

In the vicinity of the kitchen there were many small rooms, and other larger rooms. He wandered through. Some of them were occupied.

A man was standing leaning against a window. His eyes met James's. They looked at each other carefully. The man's face clouded over. He stood up straight and was at least a foot taller than he had been before. He had only one leg, and it was made of curved ivory. No, that wasn't true. But he was
very
tall, and holding some kind of stick.

The man was glaring at him. Maybe he did have one leg. One or three? Did he?

James averted his eyes and hurried away, not looking where he was going. He passed through first one room, then another. He looked over his shoulder. The man was still there, following after. James ducked into a hall and crossed over an enclosed bridge. Certainly he had lost the man.

He was in another series of dining rooms. One of these would do.

James sat at a table by himself. Several others entered immediately. A girl in a hospital gown, an orderly, a well-dressed man, perhaps her husband.

They sat at the next table.

—I won't dispute it, she said quietly.

—There's nothing to dispute, said the man.

The orderly looked apprehensive.

—And what if I was in love with someone else? asked the girl. Suddenly, I mean. Suddenly in love with someone else. You there, she cried out to James.

James looked behind him. There was no one else.

He looked back.

The girl stood up. The orderly stood up too. The wealthy man

had a pained expression on his face.

—Grieve, he said, don't.

This Grieve untied the back of her hospital gown and slid it off. She winked at James.

—What do
you
think?

James coughed and looked away.

The orderly pulled her gown back up and forced her to a sitting position. She began to cry and hid her face in her hands.

The wealthy man stood.

—I'm going, he said.

—Same time tomorrow? asked the orderly.

—Same time, he said. God damn it. She isn't any better, is she? It's a damned trick.

The orderly began to explain very patiently how she was very much improved, in fact, and this was a setback but he needn't worry himself because all that could be done was being done.

The man left.

No one had come to James's table. He saw that there were waiters serving the other tables in the room. He thought of the manual. Had there been a section on ordering supper?

When he looked back at the near table, the girl was looking at him.

—They won't come serve you, you know, she said. That's not your table.

James looked at her sharply.

—It's not your table at all, she repeated.

The orderly nodded in a very professional manner.

—It's their table, he said, and pointed to a group of men, some of whom were wearing hospital gowns, some of whom were wearing moustaches and three-piece suits, smoking cigars. All stood at the entrance to the room. They were scowling and looking over at him.

How long have they been standing there? he thought. He got up and started towards the door. As he did, the men moved past him towards their table. One bumped him rather rudely with his shoulder as they passed.

James turned to look. The man spat on the floor. James blushed and looked away.

—You'd better go, said the orderly, who had come over.

He put his hand on James's arm.

—Don't you know where your table is?

A woman dressed up like a nurse came over.

—Is there a problem? she asked the orderly.

—Yes, he said. This man doesn't know where his table is.

—I just arrived, explained James. I'm only staying a few days.

The nurse and orderly exchanged a look.

—Why don't we take you over here, said the nurse, and find out where you should be.

—I don't have anywhere I should be, said James. I can be anywhere I want to be. Nobody tells me where I can be.

—Of course not, said the nurse.

The orderly hesitated.

—Do you want me to stay? he asked the nurse.

—No, she said, it will be quite all right.

—Come with me, she said to James.

—Where are we going? James asked.

—This way, she said, and bobbed neatly away across the floor. James stood a moment, and then followed after.

The room opened into a series of other dining rooms. Each opened into the next. She proceeded through two, and then took a right through a small door. James caught the door as it was closing and went through.

They were in a narrow passage. A dog was running along it. It seemed to be trying to bark, but no sound came.

—All the dogs, said the nurse in explanation, have their vocal cords removed. You have no idea how much trouble they were before, but now they can't complain and they're just darlings. Aren't you a little darling! she said to the dog. It dodged her hand and ran on.

There was a desk in the middle of the hall at the end of the hall. Another nurse, very large, sat looking through some kind of ledger.

—Margret, called out the first nurse.

This second nurse looked up as they approached.

—I've got a man here; what's your name? she asked James.

—James Sim, said James.

—James Sim, repeated the first nurse. I found him roaming around in the fourth dining room. He didn't know what he was doing there.

—That's not true, said James. That's not true at all.

The second nurse stood up.

—None of that out of you! she said loudly.

She gave the pages of the book a cursory examination.

To the other nurse she said,

—He's not in the ledger. Never came in, leastways not through here.

The two nurses looked at James. He tried to look as indignant as possible and gathered himself to say something really definitive.

At that moment, a man came around the corner. He wore a simple gray suit. The two nurses ducked their heads.

—No, no! he said, as he came up. No, no!

James looked at him.

—There's been a mistake, said James.

—Of course there has, James, he said, touching James's wrist lightly. No, no! he said to the nurses. James is not a patient. You're not a patient, he said to James. Come with me.

The nurses looked at James resentfully.

—Not a patient? said the second nurse.

—But Mr. Graham, said the first nurse.

—No, no! said the man.

and also

—Come along, now.

He took James by the shoulder and led him away.

(
D. Graham
)

—You really, said the man, shouldn't be wandering about until you know where you are and who you're speaking to.

and

—I'm David, by the way.

James said that he was James but that David knew that. David agreed that he knew that.

—There is, after all, said David, a rather serious business going on here. Did you know?

—No, said James.

—Yes, rather, said David. We treat an illness, an illness peculiar to our times. The cure was first assembled by a nineteenth-century theorist, Margret Selm. All the nurses are named after her.

—Of course they are, said James.

David smiled.

—Ah, then you're getting it, are you?

—I think so, said James.

—That's good. But anyway, you'll only be staying a few days, no?

—Yes, said James. I'm just here to be available to those who knew Thomas McHale. I was there when he died.

—I know that, said David. It's ever so nice of you to come. I for one should like so much to hear what it was like.

—Anytime, said James. I'm staying upstairs, in room seventeen.

—Of course, of course, said David somewhat dismissively. We shall see if I can find the time. I am very busy. But as for you and your roaming about, yes, I was listening behind the corridor.

James had narrowed his eyes at the words
roaming about
, which the nurse had uttered prior to David's arrival.

—Yes, continued David, I was listening. I can't help but enjoy such situations when they occur. Mistaken identity.

He rubbed his hands together.

—Until we can get you a proper badge, you will eat supper either with someone, or alone in your room. Tonight I'll have it sent up. I'll send someone to find out what you want, and that person will have it sent up. Yes, yes, that's it. Your supper will be sent up. Almost immediately.

He seemed pleased to have settled the matter.

The whole time they had been talking they walked at a furious pace. David had made many turns here and there down halls and through rooms. James could no longer say what part of the house they were in.