Chenneville by Paulette Jiles EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Paulette Jiles
- Language: English
- Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Late September 1865 / City Point, Virginia
Ding ding ding.
He found himself lying under white sheets with very little idea of how he
had gotten there. It was the morning he woke up. A piercing, repetitive
noise broke like thin glass over his consciousness. It was the sound of a
dinner bell. He heard rolling carts, the jingle of dishes rattling against one
another. His head felt tight, and he didn’t know why.
He seemed to have been there for some time.
People nearby were talking. Everything was painted white: the walls, the
center posts, a wooden roof overhead. A hot breeze moved down the aisle
between rows of beds.
He looked down and saw that his coverings were neat and unbloodied.
His hands were laid on top of the sheets as if carefully placed there one by
one. The bed was too short for him. They always were. On all the beds were
men; most of them were bandaged, some had crutches. The low murmur of
conversation went on and on. He saw that he did not have his clothes on,
but instead a sort of nightgown. He could smell vinegar and boric acid.
A young man came walking down the aisle and stopped by the foot of his
cot. The boy’s hair was as spiky as a porcupine’s, and he paused with a deep
lean forward to look closely into the tall man’s face. Canvas curtains at the
far end lifted and fell with the breeze.
He slowly pieced together the fragments of his present situation. He was
in a field hospital somewhere. He was still in possession of both arms, both
legs, a pair of feet, and a pair of hands. He could see out of both eyes. His
head felt as if it were encased in a bucket. He quietly regarded the young
man standing at the foot of his bed. He wondered if he were some relation
to him.
After a moment he said, “Who are you?”
A pause of astonished silence and then, “Oh God, you’re talking.” Tears
came to the boy’s eyes, and the tip of his nose became bright red. He said,
“I am a nurse.” He came to stand at the bedside as if he could not believe
his eyes. He put one hand on the tall man’s shoulder. “Wait, I am going to
call the doctor.”
“Very well. I won’t go anywhere.” He drew up one leg. He couldn’t
understand why the nurse had tears in his eyes. He saw that the men on the
beds were eating their dinner, reaching for more from the cart.
The boy hurried away. Shortly he came back with a man whose thick
dark beard straggled over his collar and the lapels of a soiled corduroy coat.
Both hands hung from the man’s cuffs like lead weights. His nails were
thick with dried blood. He had something in his fingers.
A feather.
“Well, well,” he said. “This is a pleasant surprise.” Then he paused and
looked carefully into the wounded man’s light-colored eyes. He came to sit
on the bed and the nurse hovered behind while the man on the bed watched
carefully to see what this man with the feather was going to do.
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