Everything's Eventual Read Online Free PDF Page A

now I can't even do that. I'm too scared. Fright has locked down my vocal cords. I can only stare up as she rejoins him, the two of them gazing down at me like pallbearers looking into an open grave.
    Thanks, he says. Then he takes a deep breath and lifts the scissors. Commencing pericardial cut.
    He slowly brings them down. I see them see them then they're gone from my field of vision. A long moment later, I feel cold steel nestle against my naked upper belly.
    He looks doubtfully at the doctor.
    Are you sure you don't
    Do you want to make this your field or not, Peter? she asks him with some asperity.
    You know I do, but
    Then cut.
    He nods, lips firming. I would close my eyes if I could, but of course I cannot even do that; I can only steel myself against the pain that's only a second or two away now steel myself for the steel.
    Cutting, he says, bending forward.
    Wait a sec! she cries.
    The dimple of pressure just below my solar plexus eases a little. He looks around at her, surprised, upset, maybe relieved that the crucial moment has been put off
    I feel her rubber-gloved hand slide around my penis as if she meant to give me some bizarre handjob, Safe Sex with the Dead, and then she says, You missed this one, Pete.
    He leans over, looking at what she's found the scar in my groin, at the very top of my right thigh, a glassy, no-pore bowl in the flesh.
    Her hand is still holding my cock, holding it out of the way, that's all she's doing; as far as she's concerned she might as well be holding up a sofa cushion so someone else can see the treasure she's found beneath it coins, a lost wallet, maybe the catnip mouse you haven't been able to find but something is happening.
    Dear wheelchair Jesus on a chariot-driven crutch, something is happening.
    And look, she says. Her finger strokes a light, tickly line down the side of my right testicle. Look at these hairline scars. His testes must have swollen up to damned near the size of grapefruits.
    Lucky he didn't lose one or both.
    You bet your you bet your you-knows, she says, and laughs that mildly suggestive laugh again. Her gloved hand loosens, moves, then pushes down firmly, trying to clear the viewing area. She is doing by accident what you might pay twenty-five or thirty bucks to have done on purpose under other circumstances, of course. This is a war-wound, I think. Hand me that magnifier, Pete.
    But shouldn't I
    In a few seconds, she says. He'snot going anywhere. She's totally absorbed by what she's found. Her hand is still on me, still pressing down, and what was happening feels like it'sstill happening, but maybe I'm wrong. Imust be wrong, or he would see it, she wouldfeel it
    She bends down and now I can see only her green-clad back, with the ties from her cap trailing down it like odd pigtails. Now, oh my, I can feel herbreath on me down there.
    Notice the outward radiation, she says. It was a blast-wound of some sort, probably ten years ago at least, we could check his military rec
    The door bursts open. Pete cries out in surprise. Dr. Arlen doesn't, but her hand tightens involuntarily, she's gripping me again and it's all at once like a hellish variation of the old Naughty Nurse fantasy.
    Don't cut im up! someone screams, and his voice is so high and wavery with fright that I barely recognize Rusty. Don't cut im up, there was a snake in his golf-bag and it bit Mike!
    They turn to him, eyes wide, jaws dropped; her hand is still gripping me, but she's no more aware of that, at least for the time being, than Petie-Boy is aware that he's got one hand clutching the left breast of his scrub-gown. He looks likehe's the one with the clapped-out fuel pump.
    What what are you Pete begins.
    Knocked him flat! Rusty was saying babbling. He's gonna be okay, I guess, but he can hardly talk! Little brown snake, I never saw one like it in my life, it went under the loadin bay, it's under there right now, but that's not the important part! I think it already bit that guy we brought in.