| |
He is coming staggering. He may fall on the floor, break his bones; then you will be responsible."
He said, "No, I don't want him to break his bones."
"Then," I said, "you immediately pick him up. Whatever he says, you remember -- and this is the paper.... As you put him inside the office on the bench you write down what he has said, and I will be coming later on to collect all the papers."
Just behind him, I started collecting the papers. To the wife he said, "Pale? You must be mad. I slept a perfectly beautiful sleep, I am a hundred percent healthy. Something must be wrong in your eyes; you should go to the optician. Pale? -- I have suspected for a long time that you need glasses."
He came out, and the gardener took hold of him and said, "Master, what is the situation, what is happening? Your body is burning, you have fever. Have you slept in the night or not? You would have fallen if I had not stopped."
He said, "I could not sleep the whole night. And really, the body is burning. But I am going to the department because my record is that I have never been absent. So at least I will go, tell the head of the department and ask him to bring me back home in his car. I don't have energy to walk one mile, but I have to."
As he went out the postmaster said, "Mister Roy, it seems you have grown ten years older. But what has happened?"
Professor Roy said, "I don't know what has happened. Something certainly has happened. And I was angry at my poor wife; she was absolutely right. How do I look?"
The postmaster said, "Just like a ghost, absolutely pale."
He said, "My God! Should I go to the department or not?"
The postmaster said, "That is your record, your lifelong record -- don't break it, go. You can manage. I cannot certify that you will be able to come back again. The situation has gone so far down that if you can manage to breathe for one mile more it will be a great achievement. About coming back, I don't know."
And you could see him coming, like a drunkard....
He passed a few more stages where he was checked, and he gave his statements. And when he reached the department the peon
|
|
|