front of a lady.
“ I urge that we make haste...” the Doctor said, ushering Percy to a table. The nurses began to strap him down. The Doctor began summoning tools, which it seems to me turned out to be a bone saw and a syringe fit for tranquilizing a horse.
Just as the nurses strapped Percy to the table, I heard him react slowly,“ What’ s … going … on?”
The Doctor stepped forward just as the nurses sprang into action, pulling aside the dull, stained curtains with a melodramatic swoosh to reveal a row of gurney tables, each with a struggling or nearly dead person strapped to them! I let out a small shriek. One man lay with his chest opened as though it were a valise. Another- a woman!- struggled uselessly against her bonds, her jaws wired together and her right side drenched in blood. One man was missing his lower limbs. These grotesque figures were bloodied and terrified, and to my great horror, Percy was wheeled into the line.
The Doctor made a move to inject Percy ' s head with the syringe. Even as an adult, I do not care for injections, and as a child, I was quite terrorized by them. I tried to move to his aid, but the nurses— or should I say inmates?— restrained me!
" She has the most lovely eyes," Percy said dreamily. " Like fried eggs. The pretty ones with sprigs of rosemary." It was precisely the buck-up I needed.“ Wait!” I cried. The Doctor looked up. " Whatever for?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious. " Because... because... these other people were here first!”
I struggled desperately with the nurses and managed to free one hand to point at the gurneys. " You must cure these other patients first. Percy and I are English. Queues do matter to the English!"
The physician handed the syringe back to a nurse. " You are quite right, of course."
The nurses let go.
“ For example, this one,” I indicated the pathetic wretch struggling for his life nearest.
The Doctor paused. Then he skipped over to the table that I had indicated where lay the terrified and bleeding person.“ Indeed you are quite right!” the Doctor called.“ What he has cannot be cured easily. He has many illnesses that must drain out from the body like pus, but there appears to be some sort of blockage deeper in! Note that I have already removed his hatred and placed it over there.”( He indicated a bloody pile.)“ And now I shall remove his guilt!”
The nurse handed him a saw. Well, now in my failed attempt to rescue Percy, I had put this poor man in peril!
“ But wait!” I cried.“ With deadly illnesses you must be very exacting, for things such as guilt can hardly be perceptible. Moreover, does not one wash away one ' s guilt? I have heard that a cleanly touch will produce the best effects. You must be delicate, and anywhere you don’ t find an illness, perhaps you should take care, lest an illness creep in.”
“ Yes!” cried the Doctor, agreeing far too joyously, and he delegated the job to a nurse“ You must examine this man very minutely. Use magnifying glasses, telescopes, anything to aid in the discovery of these tiny illnesses. If you do not find an illness, make each part comfortable with a pillow of gauze or a fresh drink of disinfectant!”
The man in the next bed down screamed, for horror seems to come in piles when the insane are left unrestrained, and the nurses had begun sawing off his foot! The Doctor leapt to the man ' s side, crying,“ This man needs a new leg! Perhaps we can take your friend’ s leg? My saw!”
“ But wait!” I cried.“ No doubt there must be a better way to help this man, than to play musical chairs with everyone’ s limbs.”“ Do you really think so?” asked the Doctor.“ You must stop the bleeding, or he will die!” I commanded.“ Well, I never!” exclaimed the Doctor.“ Nurse,