by Egon Lass

Created on: February 25, 2009

THE WARD

The floors were shiny. Judas pushed himself through a hallway. The floors shone brightly. The lights above glittered and mirrored themselves in the tiles. Sometimes the nurse peeked from her office and called.

"Judas! Judas! Turn around! Turn around now! Come back the other way. Come on, Judas. Come on back."

Then he tried to lift his head and look to the side, first to one side, and then to the other. Then he tried to lift his head.

"OK, just a minute. I'm tired out...I can't...I've got to turn this thing...OK...just a minute."

And he sat for a minute. And he turned around. Back on one wheel, forward on the other, round, round, and around. The floors shone.

"Come on back," said the nurse. "That's it, Judas. Come on back."

The wheels went round and round. The lights twinkled. The hallway was full of doors. Sometimes there were people in the doors.

"How you doing, Judas? How's the old geezer?"

He was strapped to the chair with some white belts so his head wouldn't fall forward. He never could lift his head. He could squint to the side. The wall was full of doors. He could squint ahead. The floors shone. He couldn't lift his head. The lights above shone below in the tiles. He could see them shining in the tiles.

"That's it, Judas."

He had long, thin, dark fingers. They shook sometimes when he pushed himself up and back in the hall.

Homer fed him when he was hungry. He wiped his mouth and laid him to sleep. Sometimes he called him Ju-dasn't. Homer woke him up in the morning.

"Come on, Judasn't. Time for your bath."

Homer wheeled him into the big lavatory. He unstrapped him and kidded him.

"Can you get up, Judas?"

"Sure I can."

"Get up."

"Sure I can."

"Stand up, Judas."

"Sure."

His chest was sunken. He could never lift his head. The white linen hung from the ceiling. He could see it reflecting in the tiles. The floor was clean and spotless and shone like a mirror. The linen waved back and forth from a draft.

"You ole bluffer! Trying to fool me again, aren't you!"

"I was just kidding."

"Trying to tell me you can stand up all by yourself!"

Homer lifted him up like a baby. Judas kicked both feet to show how he could walk. His legs were brown and wasted, like dried up corn-stalks. Homer put him into the tub. The water sparkled clean and warm.

"Wash your left leg, Judas."

Somebody whistled in the shower. The shower was in some other place, closed off from the tub. The water roared like in a dream.

"The left leg, Judas. The left leg. Don't you know your left

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