416
PARTISAN REVIEW
"I wouldn't worry, Ma," Clara's brother said. "She probably
asked for it." His shoulders were trembling with suppressed laughter.
In the back seat Clara and her sister-in-law squeezed each other's
hands to keep from laughing out loud.
They stopped at a red light. "Why are we parking?" Sadie said.
Clara and her sister-in-law snorted with laughter, gagged on it. The
grandchildren stared straight ahead .
"The Old Man's threatening to walk."
"Walk? He's got 104 fever ."
"Yeah. He pulled a tube out of his arm. He said it hurt . He said
they were trying to kill him."
"The fever must be down."
"He wouldn't make it to the door. Ma made me take his clothes
away so he couldn't walk ."
The last time he'd been in the hospital, the old man had walked
out, an overcoat over his striped pajamas, and hitchhiked home.
"We want to do an exploratory operation," the doctors had said.
"You're not Columbus and I'm not a continent, and nobody's doing
any exploring around here," the old man said; then he walked.
"Is Grandpa really dying this time?"
"He's threatening to walk."
"What will Nana say?"
"Probably what she said last time he walked - 'What are you
doing in my kitchen? You're killing me .'"
"That's what she said?"
"That's what she said."
"She's a jerk."
Oh God let him walk,
Clara prayed. She felt as if there were deep
fissures running through her body .
("Fishes?"
her psychiatrist asked .)
But when her brother called, she said, "It's really bad this time . He's
got to stay."
"Yeah. You gotta admire him. He's making Ma sick. He won't
listen to what's good for him."
Oh good,
Clara thought, remembering her father's raised arm,
his clenched fist;
good.
The fever left, no one knew why. No one knew why it had
come. The next time the family went to see him, he was sitting up in
