Deliverance - James Dickey [89]
of foreign matter in here, that I'm going to have to get out." "There was some camouflage paint on the arrows," I said. "That's what it is. But there might be something else in there, too. God knows what's in there." "We'll get it out," he said. "Then we'll sew you up like a quilt. You want a shot?" "Yeah," I said. "Scotch." "You can have another kind, before you get the Scotch," he said. "You might have to wait awhile for the Scotch; this is a dry county." "You mean you don't have any moonshine in this here hospital? And you way off in the country like this? What the hell is north Georgia coming to?" "No white lightning," he said. "We advise against it. Contains lead salts, most of it." He gave me a shot in the hip, and started working again. I looked out the window at the closing green of the day. There was nothing to see but the changes of green. "You want to stay here with us tonight? There's plenty of room. We've got a whole hospital. And you'll never get another chance like this one; I can tell you. It's peaceful here. No shotgunned farmers. Nobody who tangled with a tractor. Nobody on glucose from a drunk smashup. Nobody but you and your buddy, and a little boy, a snakebite case. And he'll be gone tomorrow. Copperhead poison is not such hot poison." "No thanks," I said, though I would have stayed with Lewis if I thought there was any use in it. "Get me sewed up and tell me where there's a rooming house I can stay in. I'd like to call my wife, and I'd like to be by myself. I wouldn't like sleeping in a ward, if I can help it, or in a hospital room if I don't absolutely have to." "You've lost some blood," he said. "You'll be pretty weak." "I've been weak for days," I said. "Give me whatever you need to give me, and I'll get going." "I sent your friend, the other fellow at the canoe, to Biddiford's, down in town. They'll treat you OK. But if I were you I'd stay out here tonight." "No thanks," I said. "I'll be all right. Tell the police where I am. Just drive me over there and take care of Lewis." "The other doctor's working on him. It looks like a complicated situation, with him. He'll be lucky if there's not some gangrene building up around that place. That's a hell of a break." "We're lucky we've got you," I said. "You're fucking aye," he said. "Hands of an angel." He drove me in his own car down through town, and in the main filling station were sitting Lewis' station wagon and Drew's Olds. I went in, up tight in my side but not having to hold it together anymore, and talked to the owner, and got the addresses of the Griner brothers so that we could send them the rest of the money. Lewis had arranged it all, and I had to have the owner of the station give back to me what I was supposed to do. I didn't have enough money, but I could either get it from Lewis or mail it in when I got back to the city. The main thing was that the keys were there. I said good-bye to the doctor, told him I'd come out to the hospital the next day. Then I called Martha and told her something bad had happened, that Drew had drowned and Lewis had broken a leg. I asked her to call Lewis' wife and say he was in the hospital up here and would be for some time, but that he was going to be OK. If Mrs. Ballinger called her or Lewis' wife they were just to say that we'd be back in a couple of days. I wanted to tell Mrs. Ballinger about Drew's death myself. I said I thought I'd be home about the middle of the week. I drove Drew's car down to Biddiford's, a big frame house booming and knocking with people and light. Everybody was at supper around a long swaybacked pine table with strips of flypaper hanging down to within a foot of it. Bobby was there with his face working around a mouthful of food, and I winked at him and sat down. They made a place for us -- farmers, woodsawyers and small merchants -- and I lost interest in everything but eating. Fried chicken came around me -- came at me from every angle -- again and again, and potato salad, and heavy coarse biscuits and gravy and butter and collards and lima beans and big hominy and turnip greens