Slim Novel 16 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage
7. Stop on a Mountain Top
It is 1970, ten years since the last scene. Eddie so much enjoys what he calls his hermetic life at the Bronx apartment with Nina alone and because some things have not happened: Nina has not got pregnant, Eddie has not followed an active career in Medicine. He sticks with Montefiore Hospital and his good relations with Stan and Dr Leo Davidoff assure him to get whatever position he likes. And he chooses Pathology - the study of the biology of disease by micro and molecular examination of postmortem and biopsy specimens of the human body. It is an unexciting branch of Medicine. A pathologist examines tissue under microscope and his conclusion is gold standard for disease diagnosis. A pathologist is in charge of laboratory investigations in the hospital and that branch is labeled clinical pathology. By 1970, Eddie, is Chief of Pathology - a young chief and he can expect another 40 years at it, which includes secretary and full professorship at the school of medicine, ensuring continual contact with students and research.
Nina settles back into housewife role. One disturbing factor for him is that despite her care over his body and good health, she is forgetting her own. And she is going to fat, and daytime when he is at hospital she has a drink or two - self-made martinis. Their sexual life continues tranquil and satisfactory for her but it is not enough to satisfy Eddie's high drive and he has his own with secretaries and nurses.
8. Eddie's Father
was born in then Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1895 and by the mid 1960s was developing health problems common to men and women of his generation and caused by a lifetime unhealthy eating of too high calorie, very high red meat animal fat foods with too much salt in soups, sodas and canned beverages. His first heart attack, which pathologists call myocardial infarction, was 1965 and by 1969 he'd suffered three, the last one almost fatal but survived because of Eddie's and Nina's good home care. When he left hospital that time he says in his continental English to Eddie. "Mein son, this is the last time. Kill me before you allow them to suffer me again in the hospital. Promise me." And 6 months later it happens.
9. Eddie Kills His Father
It is last day August, hot; Eddie is sitting watching the Television comedy Hogan's Heroes with a Tuborg Beer can on his side table. He notes the time 7:18 pm as his phone rings. His mother from Long Beach.
"He got sick again." She refers to Eddie's father. "We had an electric failure from the heat. All the lights went out and stayed out. He got so angry - you know - the way he does when things don't go his way. Now he can't breathe. He's on the sofa." Eddie hears moans behind his mother's voice.
"Don't do anything Mom," he orders, knowing if she calls 911 they will put the old man in hospital and this time it won't be worth it and only will torture him, and he recalls his promise.
An hour and 15 minutes later he is getting out of the 5th floor elevator of the apartment building. He can hear his father's moans as he rushes down the outside corridor and he thinks, Still alive! Mom let's him in and there is dad on the sofa in pajamas, gasping and moaning.
When he sees Eddie he gasps. "Mein son!"
Eddie has brought along his doctor's black bag and while Mom sits, dazed in the corner to his right rear, he sits down beside his father lying lengthwise on the sofa. One look makes the diagnosis: Respiratory rate so fast, the old man gasps for life's breath, blood tinged foam at corners of mouth, rumbling sounds of congested lungs. Pulmonary edema! goes off in Eddie's head. He feels the pulse at right wrist. Almost uncountable, fast and weak.
Eddie reaches into his bag with left hand and comes out with a sheathed syringe prepared for emergency injection of 10 milligrams morphine sulfate. The blue veins in elbow crease are bulging from the high venous pressure of heart failure so IV injection is easy. Eddie unsheathes the morphine needle.
"Dad, this will make you feel better. It won't hurt."
His father, calmer despite the rapid breathing smiles up at him. "Thank you, mein son."
Eddie injects the morphine estimating 1 minute for injection. His father's breathing slows. His smile gets more. He reaches his other arm and pats Eddie's right hand.
"Mein son, mein son."
Then he stops breathing.
After a minute Eddie checks the carotid pulse in the neck. There is none. He listens over the chest. No heartbeat.
"Dad is gone, Mom," he says to his mother who sits helplessly nearby.
A little later, after putting his mother to bed with a sedative, Eddie calls the police. Two plainclothes policemen quiz him in the living room. His father was an obviously old man, dead of heart disease and taken care of by doctor son so it is just a formality. After they leave, Eddie sits quietly and thinks, Dad was always a lucky guy. And he had the final good luck to get a morphine death when his time was up. Well, I hope I am as lucky when my time comes but chances are I won't be because I don't expect to have anyone to carry out my last wish.
End of Section. To continue next, click 16.(10-11) Nina's Breast Cancer
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