THE M.D. A Horror Story by Thomas M. Disch

Author:Thomas M. Disch [Disch, Thomas M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-16T21:00:00+00:00

45

“William? William, are you in there?”

William woke with a start. The room was dark, and the phone was ringing, and his mother was rapping at the door.

“William, would you please answer your phone. It’s been ringing the longest time.”

“I got it,” he called out, and picked up the phone.

“Thank you,” Sondra said. “And will you point out to your friend, whoever he is, that it’s almost one A.M.?”

“I have a collect call,” an operator announced in a strange accent, “for William Michaels, from Winky Meyer.” She pronounced the name with a precision denoting disapproval. “Will you accept the charges?”

“Uh.” The receiver of the phone was covered with some kind of glop. William switched the phone to his left hand and wiped his right hand on the bedspread. As he did so, he realized that the glop had not been on the phone, but had been on his hand before he’d picked up the receiver. “Just a second, operator.” He used the corner of his bedsheet to wipe both hands clean and then wiped off the receiver, but it was still sticky when he picked it up again.

“Are you there, Mr. Michaels?” the operator inquired.

“Yes, operator. I’ll accept the charges.”

“Go ahead, Miss Meyer.”

“William?” It was Judith. Why had he thought it was Ben? Because the operator had said Winky Meyer. He was still half asleep, and he could feel the dream fading and there were things he’d been told in the dream that he had to remember. And it wasn’t just on his hand: his pajamas were a mess, too. It dawned on him that he’d been having a wet dream, the first he’d ever had, and the stuff on the phone and in his pajamas was sperm, the first genuine sperm he’d ever produced though he’d been jerking off pretty systematically for more than a year. But the dream hadn’t been anything like wet dreams were supposed to be, it wasn’t about sex at all.

And now Judith was on the phone.

“Judith?”

“I’m sorry, did I wake you up? It’s an hour earlier there, I thought you might still be up.”

“Is something wrong? Where are you?”

“I’m in the Greyhound station in Miami. But don’t tell Father, not for another half an hour anyhow. By then I’ll be on a bus. I’m coming home.”

“But Ben just talked to your doctor today. He said you’d be in the hospital another two weeks.”

“I left the hospital right after lunch. My mother always comes in the afternoon, and I couldn’t face another one of her visits. She does nothing but complain about her health. I’m the one in the hospital, though it’s really more of a mental institution, but she spends the whole time whining about her health, and not having money for her own hot tub. She was always like that, but she’s worse now. It was such a dumb thing to do, coming down here.”

“But Judith!”

“Don’t be angry, and don’t worry about me. I’m really quite well. In fact, I’ve never been better. That’s one of the reasons I had to call you.

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