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Show -204- fever dreams, as his son sat tensely beside his hospital bed. His father had caught cold and stayed ax-ay from work for a few days. When the cold seemed b e t t e r , he went outside to do some work about the yard. The next day he had a relapse, and the doctor was called. He had pneumonia and was taken to the hospital? As the fever mounted, he lapsed into delirium, and the family a l l -waited for the c r i s i s that never came. It x-as the f i r s t real i l l n e s s of his l i f e , so none of them were as worried as they should have been. Then he developed hiccoughs, huge racking explosions that went on day and night. The doctors took him off oxygen and substituted carbon dioxide. After four days of coughing, he died, not of pneumonia, the doctors said, but of heart f a i l u r e. The Teacher was the only one with him when he died. He had just relieved his mother, who had been there most of the day. In about a half-hour, the coughing suddenly stopped. The Teacher's f i r s t thought vas that now his father would get better. His face had relaxed from the torture of the hiccoughs and looked calm and placid. When the Teacher could detect no movement, he rang for the nurse. She came in a t once and picked up his father's arm; "He's gone," she said. "Get the doctor!" the Teacher told her. The doctor came in and confirmed the death. It had occured shortly after midnight. The Teacher now became the messenger of death. He had to |
