Jesse Ball - Samedi the Deafness

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.

David stopped at the door to a room.

— Well, he said. I have to go in here. See you.

He slipped through the door and shut it.

James looked up and down the hall. Where exactly was he now? The halls all looked the same. All the walls were neatly painted, all the rooms were neatly numbered, but none of the numbers were consecutive.

Should he knock and ask David the way back?

A woman appeared behind him out of another door.

— Sim? she asked.

— Yes, he said.

— Don't know your way around, do you? Don't you? Do you?

— No, he said.

— Well, she said. It's no crime. You won't be punished, no, no. Have no fear of that. Come along with me. She led James up a set of stairs, and through a bridge back into the main building. Apparently he had passed into some sort of exterior set of buildings. When that had happened, he could not say. Had he been underground? He tried to remember if the rooms they had passed through had had windows. He closed his eyes and thought back. No, they hadn't.

— Here we are, said the woman.

James recognized up ahead the stairwell at the top of which was his bedroom.

— Someone else will be coming along shortly, said the woman, and left him to the kind attentions of the stairwell.