586
PARTISAN REVIEW
sense of elevation, no stumbling block, but instead drawings, orna–
ments, and patterns, richer than at the entrances to houses and quite a
few other pharmacies, and a hollow even deeper than in church door–
ways, you found yourself inside the medicine warehouse just like that,
without crossing a threshold.
"The Eagle"-that was the name of Taxham's pharmacy, chosen by the
founding brother, who'd long since moved west, to Murnau in Bavaria,
and established himself, along with his daughters, sons, and grandchil–
dren, in the "Red Boar Pharmacy." But given its appearance, somewhere
between a newsstand and an electric-company utility building, a more
appropriate name would have been "the Hare" or "the Hedgehog," as the
current owner acknowledged, or, if he'd had his druthers, it would have
been called "Tatra Pharmacy," after the land of his fathers.
OF
COURSE, the people of Taxham stopped in to see him before going
to the doctor's, perhaps also hoping to spare themselves a visit. What's
less well known is that as a rule they would ask for advice and help
afterward as well. "More and more the doctors have become specialists.
And sometimes I think I can see the big picture that they miss nowadays.
And besides, with me the patients needn't fear a referral or an operation.
And sometimes I can even really help them."
THAT COULD HAPPEN and did happen above all when he crossed off
medications, instead of adding or substituting others-not all the pre–
scriptions on the doctor's list, but one here and there. "My task is pri–
marily selecting and eliminating. Making room, not on the shelves but
in people's bodies. Making room and channeling currents. And of
course, gentlemen, if you insist, I have everything in stock." At night the
shop-barred, locked, barricaded-seemed like a bunker ("which you'd
have to dynamite to get into").
And in fact there were quite a few people in the village whom he was
able to help this way-"also because they let themselves be helped this
way." And since his reputation didn't extend beyond the village–
"Heaven forbid!"-it was clear at the same time that the pharmacist of
Taxham was by no means a miracle healer.
THE LOCAL RESIDENTS were hardly out the door when they promptly for–
got their gratitude, and therefore him as well. Unlike family doctors,
