Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman

Author:Elliot Perlman [Perlman, Elliot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781101217337
Google: Nww2zXwPzmUC
Amazon: B000FDK7FA
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 2004-12-16T08:00:00+00:00

12. “Only toward the end of my stay in hospital was I able to get out of bed to walk to the toilet. I was in the neuro ward sharing a room with three other patients, all men. On my second day of walking to the toilet I was slowly pulling up my pants around my shaky leg when one of the other three, who’d had his head shaved and stapled all the way around, burst in on me. He grabbed me and accused me of having sex with his wife right then and there in the toilet. Then he thought I was her. He lifted his gown and tried to mount me. I pushed him away as best I could, and it made him angry. He took a swing at me, and I just managed to duck. I had to hold on to him to keep him from hitting me and to keep from falling. He was still hard. I could feel him against me. I was in agony from the movement. The whole time I was calling out for a nurse. One of the other patients in the room pressed the buzzer, and two nurses came and got him off me.

“He did eventually recover enough to be remorseful about it. His wife must have heard about it because she was embarrassed, too. It turns out they lived in Mildura. When visiting my parents recently I looked him up. He’s on welfare now and living in an apartment on his own. His wife has gone. He’s lost everything. Used to be a teacher.”

“Did anyone else visit you?”

“Yes, there was a day not long after the surgery when I was visited by some of the people who had been on the retreat with me. Pamela was one of them. That’s when she gave me these photographs, the ones she’d taken, including the one of my fall.”

“Are these the photos?”

“Yes. You can look at them if you like. I can’t bear to. They even managed to drag Terry Brabet along. Can you believe that? Stoned as I was at the time, I couldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t actually come into the room, just stood at the doorway, raised his right hand in the air, and tentatively said ‘Hi.’ I should have said, ‘Look how far I’ve gone beyond my comfort zone!’ Then he slunk off somewhere. Couldn’t look at me for too long.”

“Did Joe Geraghty come?”

“He did, but not with them. He did and this I remember well. He came at

night when no one was supposed to be there. It was after visiting hours. The other three were asleep and, since I was always half asleep anyway, at first I thought I might be dreaming or hallucinating. He pulled up a chair so that he was sitting right next to me. When he leaned forward he was level with my head and I could smell his breath, heavy with alcohol. I pretended to be asleep, but that didn’t stop his whispering.

“ ‘Mitch.

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