Richard Britell July 20, 2012
388. As the Duck finished his story about Sarah and the car we arrived at the makeshift hospital at the old armory. They took one look at the old man, threw him onto a gurney, and rushed him into a single room because of his contagious condition. There was something about finding himself in a hospital room that brought Buboni out of his delirium, and as they unstrapped him from the gurney he jumped up shouting, "I can't have it, I can't stand it, not even for one instant."
389. The Duck and I both supposed that Buboni's alarm was just the same as you or I would feel at being treated for a serious ailment in a makeshift hospital by unknown persons, and we imagined we would have to restrain him, but we were wrong. He rushed up to the wall of the room, and with unusual energy for a man so seriously weakened by cholera, tried to rip a painting off of the wall of the room.
390. He was unable to remove the picture from the wall because its frame was screwed to the wall. The hospital room was decorated with three paintings, all of them prints, and all of then attached to the wall with screws. They must have purchased these pictures on sale because all three were the same image, with the same frame, and the same screws. It was a fall scene painted in brown and orange, mostly with a palate knife. They were those old style prints with an embossed pattern on the board that mimics brush strokes.
391. "These pictures are going to kill him faster than the cholera", said the Duck, "I will go out to the car and get a screwdriver and take them down, and mean while, force him to drink down this five gallon container of water because he's dehydrated."
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