Nighthawk Blues by Peter Guralnick

Author:Peter Guralnick [GURALNICK, PETER]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316075442
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2009-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

THEY WAITED OUTSIDE while the doctor examined him. Mattie looked worried but busied herself with the dishes, shoved the kids out, pestered Jerry until he accepted another cup of coffee, and then sat at the broken old table quietly wringing her hands. “I knowed he was sick,” she said in a soft voice, “but I never knowed he was sick like this.”

“I’m sure he’ll be all right,” Jerry said, still shaken by the sight of Hawk, his face gray and drained of color, his hand helplessly shaking, his look almost quizzical, as if this could be none of his doing. “Has it been going on like this for long?”

“Not so long. Only once or twicet. I can’t call the first time —oh yes, it was right after the boy’s last birthday. Roosevelt had just got back from California, I think, and I put it down to being tired from all that traveling. He been working a long time now, you know, Mr. Jerry.”

Jerry nodded.

“Ain’t nothing you can do about it, though, I guess,” Mattie concluded. “He ain’t never been one just to lie down and quit.”

The doctor pushed the burlap curtain out of the way and stepped into the kitchen. He was a tall, light-skinned man with wavy hair combed out into an Afro. He wore a well-cut suit and vest out of which a gold watch chain protruded.

“Your husband is a very sick man, Mrs. Jefferson,” said the doctor in clipped precise tones.

Mattie fell back on her chair as if she had been struck. “Is he going to be all right, Dr. Bontemps?” she said.

“Well, I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that. He really ought to be in the hospital, where he could be looked after properly. He’s had a number of incidents now, and, while he’s comfortable enough at this stage, it’s hard to judge the extent of neurological damage. Until we can get him in the hospital and run some tests—”

Mattie was wringing her hands. “You think we ought to get him in the hospital then, Doctor?” Jerry said, just to fill the silence.

The doctor looked through him blankly. “Well, from what you say his antipathy toward hospitalization—a trait which, I might add, is not uncharacteristic of his ’generation— would not seem conducive to the establishment of good medical routine. Certainly he should be in the hospital, but it seems as if he would be fighting us every step of the way, and what he needs right now more than anything else is peace of mind. That plus the determination to follow certain prescribed medical routines with-out which all the hospital tests in the world aren’t going to do him any good. Do you understand what I’m saying, Mrs. Jefferson?” Mattie nodded automatically and looked at Jerry. “He must be put on a diet which will have to be strictly adhered to. No alcohol. No fried foods. Vastly lower the intake of salt. He must exercise regularly and take off, oh, I would say, about forty pounds.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.