Read Online The Memory Book by Howard Engel - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Howard Engel
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riding a stationary bicycle. Occupational therapy tested me with games to see how deep my brain damage went.
“The third class is in reading,” I explained. “Here the teacher, a Miss … Sorry, her name escapes me. Anyway, she tries to re-educate my poor bruised brain to recognize the letters of the alphabet again and the words they could be organized to form. I’m slow at this; the letters keep changing shape on me, r ’s becoming p ’s without warning and j ’s turning into h ’s.” I could find no sense in this. If the d ’s suddenly became b ’s, or the p ’s, q ’s, I could see the dyslexic logic of my degeneration. Maybe I was foolish to look for method in my confusion. My disorganized head treated all letters equally; my affliction was at least democratic.
I also told Anna how anxious I was to get back on the street again. I even included what I could remember of the more upbeat of the comments that had been made by doctors and nurses in passing. When I had finished, she sat back hard in her chair.
“Wow! Poor bunny, you really have been raked over the broken glass, haven’t you? Everything but wild dogs chasing you over frozen ice floes.”
“Hell, no! I’m just a member of the walking wounded. My floor is full of people who can’t walk or talk or put a spoon in their mouth. I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m so fit they may be getting rid of me before too long.”
“But your reading? Your memory?”
“Neither will be cured by bedrest here on the fifth floor. There are people here who can’t even pull the bell cord to call a nurse if they need one.”
“Whoever attacked you can claim ‘by way of mitigation’ that he could have hit you harder.”
“We have to catch him first. Do you know the university residence at the corner of Wessex and Spadina?”
“The building with the crazy O dangling over traffic? Sure.”
“Could you nose around the Dumpster and see if the perpetrator left his name and address anywhere?”
“Benny! Two things: you’re forgetting how long ago this attack on you occurred, and I’m a lecturer in English literature, not Susanna of the Mounties. I wouldn’t even know what to look for.”
“You’re right. I keep forgetting you’re not Batgirl. Besides, aren’t there students waiting for you to show up at Secord?”
“No, not during the summer, Benny. Instead, I’m teaching summer school here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Coming here to visit you doesn’t take me out of my way at all. In fact, it helps me pass the time. It keeps me out of libraries and such low places. Let me think about your idea overnight.”
“Forget it, Anna. It was a dumb idea. Even I have them sometimes.”
“Do you really think I might find something?”
“It’s just part of the drill. It’s unlikely there’s anything to find, but you can’t check it off the list of things to do if you haven’t looked.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Anna. It’s just that I’m going stir-crazy in here. I need to be up and doing already. The longer I stay in bed, the weaker I get.”
Anna took my hand across the table. “Damn your wheedling ways, Benny. I should be armed against them at this late date in our relationship. I’ll go around there and have a closer look. I’ll see what I can find. And if I run into what Flora McAlpine ran into, I’ll take my lumps.”
“Who’s Flora McAlpine? The cops asked me about her.”
“Didn’t they tell you?”
“Tell me what? The name rings a very distant bell.”
“Flora McAlpine was a professor at the university. She was lying in the Dumpster with you. They found the two of you together. The only difference was that you were still alive and Professor McAlpine was dead.”
TEN
Anna and I walked across the hospital lobby. It was busy, crowded with people frustrated in one way or another. They couldn’t find where a patient was located, or they couldn’t find a proper gift for some newborn. Vaguely I admired the
“The third class is in reading,” I explained. “Here the teacher, a Miss … Sorry, her name escapes me. Anyway, she tries to re-educate my poor bruised brain to recognize the letters of the alphabet again and the words they could be organized to form. I’m slow at this; the letters keep changing shape on me, r ’s becoming p ’s without warning and j ’s turning into h ’s.” I could find no sense in this. If the d ’s suddenly became b ’s, or the p ’s, q ’s, I could see the dyslexic logic of my degeneration. Maybe I was foolish to look for method in my confusion. My disorganized head treated all letters equally; my affliction was at least democratic.
I also told Anna how anxious I was to get back on the street again. I even included what I could remember of the more upbeat of the comments that had been made by doctors and nurses in passing. When I had finished, she sat back hard in her chair.
“Wow! Poor bunny, you really have been raked over the broken glass, haven’t you? Everything but wild dogs chasing you over frozen ice floes.”
“Hell, no! I’m just a member of the walking wounded. My floor is full of people who can’t walk or talk or put a spoon in their mouth. I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m so fit they may be getting rid of me before too long.”
“But your reading? Your memory?”
“Neither will be cured by bedrest here on the fifth floor. There are people here who can’t even pull the bell cord to call a nurse if they need one.”
“Whoever attacked you can claim ‘by way of mitigation’ that he could have hit you harder.”
“We have to catch him first. Do you know the university residence at the corner of Wessex and Spadina?”
“The building with the crazy O dangling over traffic? Sure.”
“Could you nose around the Dumpster and see if the perpetrator left his name and address anywhere?”
“Benny! Two things: you’re forgetting how long ago this attack on you occurred, and I’m a lecturer in English literature, not Susanna of the Mounties. I wouldn’t even know what to look for.”
“You’re right. I keep forgetting you’re not Batgirl. Besides, aren’t there students waiting for you to show up at Secord?”
“No, not during the summer, Benny. Instead, I’m teaching summer school here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Coming here to visit you doesn’t take me out of my way at all. In fact, it helps me pass the time. It keeps me out of libraries and such low places. Let me think about your idea overnight.”
“Forget it, Anna. It was a dumb idea. Even I have them sometimes.”
“Do you really think I might find something?”
“It’s just part of the drill. It’s unlikely there’s anything to find, but you can’t check it off the list of things to do if you haven’t looked.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Anna. It’s just that I’m going stir-crazy in here. I need to be up and doing already. The longer I stay in bed, the weaker I get.”
Anna took my hand across the table. “Damn your wheedling ways, Benny. I should be armed against them at this late date in our relationship. I’ll go around there and have a closer look. I’ll see what I can find. And if I run into what Flora McAlpine ran into, I’ll take my lumps.”
“Who’s Flora McAlpine? The cops asked me about her.”
“Didn’t they tell you?”
“Tell me what? The name rings a very distant bell.”
“Flora McAlpine was a professor at the university. She was lying in the Dumpster with you. They found the two of you together. The only difference was that you were still alive and Professor McAlpine was dead.”
TEN
Anna and I walked across the hospital lobby. It was busy, crowded with people frustrated in one way or another. They couldn’t find where a patient was located, or they couldn’t find a proper gift for some newborn. Vaguely I admired the
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