416
CAROLE KOHANIM
I gave the letter to Michelle when she came this afternoon. It was
raining so we didn't go out for a walk. I didn't feel like talking
much so she just left after she took the letter. And oh yes. She said
that Ma's swelling went down and that she's out of the hospital
now. I told Michelle no that I didn't feel up to seeing Ma right
now.
May the seventeenth
That psychologist came to see me and I was feeling too de–
pressed to hate him, so I just answered his questions. I didn't even
feel like talking about Benjamin Franklin so I just told him I'd
forgotten about that stuff. Then he had me do all this arithmetic and
tell
him
what it means to say "People who live in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones." I said it means you don't tear another guy
down when you have the same problem he does. Then he wanted
to know about "One bird in the hand
is
better than two
in
a bush."
I told
him
it's better to have like a girl for yourself than to admire
two walking down the street. The psychologist just wrote this
all
down. Then he asked me if I was engaged. "No" I said, "Not
anymore." Then he just walked away.
No one came to visit me today - not even the Doctor. Some–
times I
wish
Melanie and I could get together again.
May the eighteenth
Well, my Brother Journal. It turns out yesterday was my last
time to write to you while I was in the Hospital. This morning after
breakfast my Doctor came to see me and he shook my hand.
"Brother," he said with all that old soul voice and handshake,
"Brother. You are a free man." I looked at him. I couldn't take
it in at
first.
Freedom! But my Doctor was still holding my hand
- shaking it - and I knew it was time to be cool. So I just shook
his
hand back and said, "Thanks, Brother." Then I got packed and
the orderly from Haiti went with me down and out to the gate.
I shook his hand with soul too, and I walked all the way to town
and took a bus home.
My father saw me and saw I was a changed man. He said
Melanie had been over yesterday and had said to say good-bye. She
also
said that she was taking the plane home East that same morning.
Then Sonny came
in
and gave me the soul shake. "She's gone.
