312
PARTISAN REVIEW
George would say: "Good; then we can run." I chose silence, hoping
we would reach the lake before he had time to run. He must have
understood my idea, because he ran with startling speed.
"Watch me! I'm as fast as the wind!" he shouted.
And I enjoyed the dread inspired by the rushing. But, suddenly,
I felt
his
chest heave, and the sweat press onto my ears from his arms,
and I knew that something was about to happen. Then I heard his
foot stopped on a rock, and I felt the air letting me cut a path into it.
I landed on my back. My ankle gnashed upon rock, and a thunder
rolled through me with a stunning pain. Before I could gather my
senses, George had risen and stood over me saying:
"Are you hurt? You're not killed or something? Will you speak,
damn you?"
I was too numbed by a general ache throughout even to cry.
My head spun like a wheel, and my limbs were groaning. I slowly
identified the pain in my ankle.
"Are you hurt, or aren't you?" George asked.
I was afraid he was going to hit me.
"My ankle, George! My ankle!"
He lifted up my left leg; he pressed my toes back.
"Don't! My ankle!"
"If
you can stand it, nothing's broken. Come on, you're all right,"
said George, stooping over me.
The sun beat like splinters of rain upon my face . My left elbow
felt peculiar. It didn't bother me, but I had the mushy taste in the
nerves that it bled. I looked that way. A mass of new dung lay
there in a warm pool. Then I wept.
"What's wrong now?" George asked. "You just said you're not
hurt! What do you want now?"
I could only wail with anguish, and I did not know why I
reacted
so
violently.
"If
you don't keep quiet," said George, "I'll walk off and leave
you here and never come back."
"George-George- George- " I struggled to speak, giving a
better perspective each time to the calling of his name. "George,
don't-don't do that. I want to go back. Take me to Mamma."
"Look," said George, "how would you like me to take you
rowing? We could fish, maybe. I'd let you hold the line. How would
that be? I'll carry you down to the lake real carefully, don't worry;
and you can get cleaned up down there, and we could have a good
