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any sort of physical examination . It was inconceivable. She knew she
had a body of extraordinary kind, and that strange gray oblong organs
would be discovered swimming like sea animals in the plate of the
X ray. No ... he had to be satisfied, since it was always possible that
the doctor might frighten her off from the brink of her death with a
knife or a needle , whereas her present ill health, so hopefully plain ,
though he only conjectured it , advanced with a steadiness no one as
deeply concerned as he could fail to appreciate. He would accept the
uncertainty. Mr. Hess knew no more of the spirit than his hat did–
that is, not directly ; and if his flesh seemed to be sliding slowly from
him like thick batter or a heavy syrup, it did not make his bones more
saintly . Nevertheless it was that realm , mysterious in its work as
magnets , and moving always out of sight and underground like rivers
of electricity, which was the source of his dismay and the cause of his
anguish. He did feel that with ingenious instruments it probably could
be seen, in some way metered or its passage mapped, for this invisible
world in which his wife lived made her weary ; the stream she swam in
was perhaps impalpable, bur it left her damp; indeed, there were
times when Mr . Hess sensed, somehow, the current flowing, and knew
that sallow as her skin looked, lifeless as she seemed flung down on a
couch or discarded in a chair like emptied clothing, she was lit up
inside and burning brightly like a lamp. Even so, the only lamp he
knew which fit his image of her was the sort which smoked above a
poker table ; surely she had no sky inside herself to fall from, no ceiling
fixture , ceiling chain , or wire burning like a worm . She had her dis–
tances, all right, bur within was their one direction, and Mr. Hess could
not help bur wonder once again exactly why he was sitting where he
was ; how it had happened to him, so bodily a being, even if he were a
bit baggy and had all those habits she disapproved of in her subtle
aerial way , never saying a word, just exuding an odor like ripe cheese
when he appeared, causing the temperature and light to alter, holding
up time so that it seemed he'd been picking his nose forever, or simply
sending a sigh through the house like a breeze ; how had it happened
he should be so fastened to this-this twig, he sometimes thought in
those moments when the past seemed as though it had held a promise
and he'd once been a blossom , then a fruit , full of juice and flavor ;
how had it happened to him? prisoners must say that, over and over, he
thought, handcuffed , chained, shit , Christ even thought it, as he was
