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Mari ?Omani
WHITE WALLS AND
Reccrde,
Writers' SectionvAicf.
The studio couch was pulled out and shades were drawn.
A table lamp drew low shadows from the ceiling and tram the
walls; it dwarfed the roam, made it cosy. The two nurses had
abandoned their stiff whits uniforms for flannel bathrobes and
slippers. Allis, small, dark-haired and pretty, lay on the
bed smoking. Nary sat by the lamp polishing her nails. A
miniature ivory radio crooned:
She was a pieture in old Spanish lace,
Just for a tender while I kissed the smile upon her face.
Pop it was fiesta--
I/You'd better lower Ito" Allis advised mechanically. "It's
after nine. Nre. Peter:tong' have kittens for a week."
slot her," Mary said, but she bent to the radio and turned
the dial. "Ever since I went in training I've lived in the
quiet of a tomb. 4uiet signs all over the hospital. Even in
the dining hall. Quiet signs in the dormitory. And now that
I'm through, quiet every time I'm on a case. On top of tat we
have to go and get ourselves a roam from a female that'd swoon
if we let out one lusty yell* One of these days I'm going to
get me a cabin in the woods for a week, and lot myself yodel
back to normal."
A man's plaintive voice still pulsed through the radio
There in a veil of white by candlelight she knelt to pray
"Listen to that's Allis snorted. She propped a fat pillow
behind her back. "Sounds romantic, doesn't het Sounds thrilling,
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doesn't he? But you never can tell. When I was in Burlington,
a crooner from an orchestra that was playing at the Lake was
brought to the hospital. On the verge of d.t. he had about
as much sex appeal as a dead mackerel. What a letdown that was'
Be just lay there in bed demanding attention every second, think-
ing we had to wait on him hand and foot. Believe me he did
get his attention for a while. Every girl on the floor carried
a puff and lipstick around in her uniform pocket. They all but
had fistfights to see who could get in there to pamper the nit-
wit, But just for a day. It didn't take them long to get fed
up with tl,ose royal kidneys of his. That crooner had the worst
disposition of any one I've ever came across."
"I'd rather have a male patient any day," Mary interjected.
"A man's not as fussy as a woman."
"So would I, ordinarily," Allie agreed. "But one extra
bad male is worse than ten females. Remember that old timer
in the ward the year I graduated. He was an awful grouch. Swore
and cursed all the time. Couldn't open his mouth without letting
out a stream of scum. We all dreaded to take our turn with him.
He knew he was going to die, and he was scared. This business
of dying was on his mind all the time and it made him uglier
than ever. He got so bad they decided to move him to a private
room. The ward staff was tickled pink to get rid of him. The
morning you heard he was going to be moved you walked in and
said to him, 'Well, Mr. Brown I hear we're losing you soon.'
"All he could think of was dying. Remember he called you
a hell -skirted -fool, and said he'd die when he was damn good
and ready, and not before? Then he went into one of his awful
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tantrums." Allis laughed, "To finish it off, Dr. Burton walked
in a few minutes later and very innocently told the ward patients.
'It's going to be pretty dead around here with Brown gone, isn't
it?' Mr. Brown all but exploded. he called Dr. Burton a murd-
erer. It took poor Burton an hour to convince him that be was
simply going to be moved to another room and that's all.
"I was taking care of a cute Spanish kid around the same
tire, he was about four years old. he chubby, lovable kind*
We were all crazy about him. His father'd died of stonecutter's
t.b, a few months before* Little Jerry was diabetic. The night
he cane to UA I had to get a speciment„ so I brought him the
urinal. ;(3 didn't want to use it. I coaxed and pleaded. He'd
just lay there and shake his head.
Look Jerry,' I begged. 'Be a good boy and use it. You
don't want to wa.,,e up in the night, do you, and find your bed
all wet and cold?'
"Ee said, "Not cold. I pee hot.'
"Mary here used to know Jerry's father. She lived next
door to him in Graniteville. I always lived here in town ex-
cept for part of my training that I received out of State.
guess Barre's just a habit with me I can think of lots of
other places I'd rather live in. I had three months in ped-
iatrics in a children's hospital in Montreal. I happened to
mention my hometown to an old doctor who was on the hospital
staff. 'Barre?' he said. 'Sure I know Barre. I was there
once years ago. That's the trappa town. The stuff's strong
enough to kill a mule. Do they still make it there?' I told
him that a lot of them up here was getting beer -minded, but
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there was still grappa for those that wanted it.
"I worked in the sanitarium up on the hill for a few months,"
Vary said. "It's a fine hospital, but the atmosphere's so de-
pressing. A few get well. Darn few. Everything seems so futile,
so hopeless. Not only the patients themselves, but the place it-
self. The atmosphere. I've seen visitors come up the hill
smiling and chatting. The minute they open that door they're
changed. It's as if they left their smiles in a package outside
the door. I suppose it's the same feeling that makes you silent
when you visit the dead, The visitors who come up there realize
that most of the patients are doomed. If they'd only be cheer-
ful it'd help a lot. some t.b. patients don't fight for life.
If the visitors came up with hopeful faces it might give them
the initiative to fight the disease. I couldn't stand working
in the sanitarium. The gloom followed me everywhere. I couldn't
even enjoy myself evenings.
"Of course, in this sanitarium most of the patients are
men. Granite workers."
Allie leaned across the bed and crushed her cigarette in
a tray. "hen I was in high school I knew an entire family
tbat was wiped out by t.b. A boy and a girl from that family
went to school with me, The two of them and the f.Aher and
mother all died within five years. The father was the first to
get it. He was scotch, a stonecutter. But he wasn't the first
one to die in the family. His son went ten months before he did.
I should think anyone with any brains would keep out of granite.
But I guess they say the same about nursing.
Mary cut the radio to a whisper. "Oh, I suppose one job's
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as bad as another. Not to change the subject but that was some
fire we had on Main Street Saturday. Those Syrians lost about
Si -B(4000. The Gordon Block. Two or throe Syrians owned it.
Everything was destroyed a flahman store, beauty parlor, dental
office, three lawyers' offices.. Ex -mayor Gordon had a fine law
library there, one of the best in the State. The fire started
in the eisiman stores We funny. the Montpelier Fishman store
had a fire only last week, didn't it? I heard they were in-
vestigating---"
Allis intorrupted„ "I'd made an appointment for a permanent
at the beauty parlor directly over Fishman's--now that's out.
I can't seem to get it done as I want it anywhere else. You
get used, to one person's work, but this time 1 just had to try
out a nw place. I'm going to the Firemen's Ball Wednesday
night. Thanksgiving eve. Tommy Reynolds is playing."
"Think he'll have as much appeal as your d.t. crooner?"
Mary teased.
"Never oan tell." Allie paused for a moment. "I've seen
it happen more times. I mean, standing in awe of someone, or
having a crush on him, and then some perfectly natural, homely
thing happening that takes him off the pedestal and shows him
to be just as human as yourself. Like Fudge, Remember Fudge?
In training we were all scared to death of Lim. If it was my
hard luck to be scheduled for the operating room with him I'd
silver all the way through the operation. He had a way of look-
ing at you with his small, sharp, bright eyes. kade you feel
as if you were under the microscope, and not one-third as im-
portant as what's usually under there. I'll never forget one
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appendectomy. I was scheduled for unsterile attendant. Fudge
was about halfway through the operation when I noticed him squirm-
ing, and wriggling that roly-poly waist of his. Then all of a
sudden his white pants eased over his hips and slipped to the
floor. And Fudge stood there with his legs swathed in long,
gray underwear. Le went right on operating, all he said was,
'Pick tem up,' and he shuffled his feet out of those pants with
scarcely any movement. Everyone else in the room was sterile,
so I stooped down and picLed them up and draped thee over a
chair.
"I wasn't scared of him any :acre. I got so I actually
liked the pompous little so-and-eo. be rest of the doctors
thought it was a big joke. Remember Low they used to greet me
as 'kiss Pants.' Lven Fudge called me that."
"It isn't only the pants accident that makes you like him,"
vary hinted.
"cell, I'm going to the ball with Fudge's nephew," Allie
retorted. "But that doesn't mean anything ---or does it?"