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1、A Days waitA Days Wait Ernest Hemingway He came into the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed and I saw he looked ill. He was shivering, his face was white, and he walked slowly as though it ached to move. Whats the matter, Schatz? Ive got a headache. You better go back to bed. No, Im
2、 all right. You go to bed. Ill see you when Im dressed. But when I came downstairs he was dressed, sitting by the fire, looking a very sick and miserable boy of nine years. When I put my hand on his forehead I knew he had a fever. You go up to bed, I said, youre sick. Im all right, he said. When the
3、 doctor came he took the boys temperature. What is it? I asked him. One hundred and two. Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in different colored capsules with instructions for giving them. One was to bring down the fever, another a purgative, the third to overcome an acid conditio
4、n. The germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition, he explained. He seemed to know all about influenza and said there was nothing to worry about if the fever did not go above one hundred and four degrees. This was a light epidemic of flu and there was no danger if you avoided pneumonia.
5、Back in the room I wrote the boys temperature down and made a note of the time to give the various capsules. Do you want me to read to you? All right. If you want to, said the boy. His face was very white and there were dark 1 areas under his eyes. He lay still in bed and seemed very detached from w
6、hat was going on. I read aloud from Howard Pyles Book of Pirates; but I could see he was not following what I was reading. How do you feel, Schatz? I asked him. Just the same, so far, he said. I sat at the foot of the bed and read to myself while I waited for it to be time to give another capsule. I
7、t would have been natural for him to go to sleep, but when I looked up he was looking at the foot of the bed, looking very strangely. Why dont you try to go to sleep? Ill wake you up for the medicine. Id rather stay awake. After a while he said to me, You dont have to stay here with me, Papa, if it
8、bothers you. It doesnt bother me. No, I mean you dont have to stay if its going to bother you. I thought perhaps he was a little light-headed and after giving him the prescribed capsule at eleven oclock I went out for a while. It was a bright, cold day, the ground covered with a sleet that had froze
9、n so that it seemed as if all the bare trees, the bushes, the cut brush and all the grass and the bare ground had been varnished with ice. I took the young Irish setter for a little walk up the road and along a frozen creek, but it was difficult to stand or walk on the glassy surface and the red dog
10、 slipped and slithered and fell twice, hard, once dropping my gun and having it slide over the ice. We flushed a covey of quail under a high clay bank with overhanging brush and killed two as they went out of sight over the top of the bank. Some of the covey lit the trees, but most of them scattered
11、 into brush piles and it was necessary to jump on the ice-coated mounds of brush several times before they would flush. Coming out while you were poised unsteadily on the icy, springy brush they made difficult shooting and killed two, missed five, and started back pleased to have found a covey close
12、 to the house and happy there were so many left to find on another day. 2 At the house they said the boy had refused to let anyone come into the room. You cant come in, he said. You mustnt get what I have. I went up to him and found him in exactly the position I had left him, white-faced, but with t
13、he tops of his cheeks flushed by the fever, staring still, as he had stared, at the foot of the bed. I took his temperature. What is it? Something like a hundred, I said. It was one hundred and two and four tenth. It was a hundred and two, he said. Who said so? The doctor. Your temperature is all ri
14、ght, I said. Its nothing to worry about. I dont worry, he said, but I cant keep from thinking. Dont think, I said. Just take it easy. Im taking it easy, he said and looked straight ahead. He was evidently holding tight onto himself about something. Take this with water. Do you think it will do any g
15、ood? Of course it will. I sat down and opened the Pirate book and commenced to read, but I could see he was not following, so I stopped. About what time do you think Im going to die? he asked. What? About how long will it be before I die? You arent going to die. Whats the matter with you? Oh, yes, I
16、 am. I heard him say a hundred and two. People dont die with a fever of one hundred and two. Thats a silly way to talk. I know they do. At school in France the boys told me you cant live with forty-four degrees. Ive got a hundred and two. He had been waiting to die all day, ever since nine oclock in
17、 the morning. 3 You poor Schatz, I said. Poor old Schatz. Its like miles and kilometers. You arent going to die. Thats a different thermometer. On that thermometer thirty-seven is normal. On this kind its ninety-eight. Are you sure? Absolutely, I said. Its like miles and kilometers. You know, like how many kilometers we make when we do seventy in the car? Oh, he said. But his gaze at the foot of his bed relaxed slowly. The hold over himself relaxed too, finally, and the next day it was very slack and he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance. 4
