BARBARA GRIZZUTI HARRISON
421
smell. Like rotting orchids, bat dung. Were poisonous gases escap–
ing through all those bottles and tubes?
'jesus, the smell ," Clara's brother said, and hugged her.
"Does it bother you too?"
'jesus," he said, and kissed her.
The old man was leaning against the yellow door; he was wear–
ing blue paper slippers. "We're taking you home, Daddy," Clara
said.
"Possibly," the old man said .
"Not 'possibly,'
really.
Don't you believe me?"
"Possibly," the old man said; "could be."
But when Clara's brother walked in, he said, "Good boy, good
boy," and grinned. He had shrunk so much they had to tie his belt
around his pants with a double knot to keep them up.
When they rolled him past the nurses' station in the wheelchair,
he waved - "Hey, Old Man, you look like the Pope blessing the
crowds," Clara's brother said. He waved and he sang out, pleasantly
as spring, "Fuck you, fuck you." "You gotta hand it to the old guy,"
Clara's brother said. Clara's hand rested on her brother's as he
wheeled the old man to the elevator. A woman shuffled toward
them. Her hair was hennaed bright red, there was a bald spot the
size of a quarter on the top of her head. She wore a shiny pink nylon
robe, a red nylon feather boa, and blue paper slippers. She bent over
to whisper something in the old man's ear. Clara could have sworn
she bit it. The old man grinned and patted the woman's thigh. In the
elevator, Clara's brother said, "I got my own ideas about who's been
doing terrible things in this hospital." "Just what I was thinking,"
Clara said. They laughed so hard the old man bounced in his wheel–
chair. "Nice to see you children happy," he said. They laughed
harder. "What does an old maid want with a pear tree?" Clara's
brother said.
Riding in the car, Clara felt as if she were going on a picnic.
The old man's head, on its stalk of a neck, made quick, birdlike
movements, side to side, taking the world in like a child. He slept for
a while.
Then: "Pop's dead," he said.
"Yeah, Old Man."
"It's a sin."
"Yeah, it's a sin ."
