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deserter, is reduced to tears. The staff are fired in a body, and later rehired, as Mrs.
Medwin slowly calms down.
At length peace, or at any rate an armistice, is established. Mrs. Medwin finds, to
her tearful dismay, that Earl is absolutely firm in his determination to keep Jacob at his
side. For the first time, he seems to be taking his place as master of the house, and there is
nothing she can do to oppose him. Jacob is to stay right here. George is not to lose his
job. What the others do, or don't do, Earl doesn't care.
So Krebs and Rowan are pacified, with compliments and feminine flattery, such
as Mrs. Medwin knows only too well how to apply. Zacconi and Doc are hurried off the
premises, like blackmailers, squabbling over the enormous check which Mrs. Medwin
has angrily thrust into their hands, with the threat of legal action if they ever dare to show
their faces around the house again. As for Jacob, he is unwillingly given the blue guest
room. George is to fetch his few belongings from the Psycho-Magnetic Medical Center.
Earl further amazes the household by announcing that he is coming downstairs to
dinner. The two doctors at first forbid this absolutely, but Earl is so determined that they
unwillingly agree, lest he should further excite himself and bring on another heart attack.
So, with infinite precautions, and with many blankets and much anxious coddling, Earl is
carried downstairs.
The atmosphere during the meal is several degrees below freezing point. Mrs.
Medwin, outwardly sweet -- she knows how to make the best of a strategic withdrawal --
has an eagle eye on Jacob's table manners. The English butler regards Jacob's ill-cut
clothes with an expression of resignation and aesthetic pain. The doctors are coldly silent.
But Jacob's disarming friendliness disregards all this, and Earl, delighted with his
new friend, laughs and jokes, doing his best to draw his mother into the conversation.
"Gee," he exclaims, "I haven't had so much fun in years!"
And the pathetic thing is that he is obviously speaking the literal truth.
PART FIVE
Less than two weeks have passed, but great changes have taken place at the
Medwins'.
Earl is out in the garden -- not in a wheelchair, either; but sitting on the lawn,
fully dressed, laughing and playing with Jacob's lemur and the other pets. The elegant,
formal flower beds are overrun with animals. We hardly recognize the petulant, scared
invalid of the earlier scene. Earl appears in every way to be a normal young man, except
that his overflowing gaiety and high spirits make him seem younger than his age.
Everything delights him: the sunshine, the flowers, the trees, the blue sky overhead. He is
enjoying being alive, in a way that very few adults ever do, unless they have just been
released from a sickbed or a prison. The simplest sounds and sights and sensations are
new to him, and still seem astonishingly beautiful.
Jacob, of course, is with him. They are seldom separated. If Jacob goes away,
even for a few minutes, Earl gets uneasy. It is only then that we become aware of his
weakness and utter dependence upon the older man. All his strength, all his assurance, is
drawn from Jacob. He hasn't yet reached the point at which he can stand alone.
The Medwins' staff react strongly to the new conditions. The servants sing at their
work, George is one big grin from ear to ear, the younger girls are quite stuck on Mr.
Earl. Everybody begins to notice how good-looking and attractive he is. And everybody
is fond of Jacob. The gardener, finding his precious flowers destroyed by the animals,
doesn't mind a bit. Even the butler has thawed out and makes British jokes.
Earl himself is charming to everybody. He can afford to be, now that he feels so
happy. He has begun to take a great interest in the people who work for him and to
inquire into their family histories and problems. He asks George to bring his little niece to
the house, along with the cook's children.
The tableau in the garden is watched by Mrs. Medwin and Dr. Krebs. Dr. Krebs is
just about to leave for the East, to attend other, more urgent cases. Does he really think
Earl is cured? Mrs. Medwin asks.
The great specialist shrugs his shoulders. "Cured" isn't a word one can use in
these cases. Certainly there has been an improvement, which may or may not be
sustained. A great deal depends on the psychological factor -- he indicates Jacob -- and
that is quite unpredictable. On the whole, although he doesn't exactly say so, he is
obviously pessimistic. Any time he is needed, Dr. Krebs assures Mrs. Medwin, he will
drop everything and fly out to the Coast within twenty-four hours. In the meantime, he
advises extreme caution and warns against overoptimism. Earl is still to be regarded as a
sick man. Tactfully, Dr. Krebs insinuates that he has seen a good deal of these so-called
"faith cures." They often achieve remarkable temporary results, but these are merely due
to a psychological shot in the arm, which draws on the patient's reserve energy. When
this is exhausted -- well, one can only hope there won't be a really serious relapse.
Mrs. Medwin herself is somewhat confused in her feelings. There is no need to
warn her not to be optimistic; her whole life is spent in a vortex of anxieties and fears,
which she has unconsciously transmitted to her son. Still, she can't altogether disregard
the evidence of her own eyes. Earl is transformed; he is up and about, doing things which
would have seemed like suicide only two weeks ago. And she assures her son over and
over again, with the most emotional sweetness, how happy she is to see it.
But is she really happy? Subconsciously, she is not; though she would never
admit this, even to herself. All her mother love, on which she prides herself above
everything else, is really a will to power. As long as Earl was helpless, he was hers, her
own baby, her victim, her possession. Now she feels that he is passing out of her power.
She knows better than anyone else that the new, revitalized Earl won't be content for long
just to admire the flowers, and enjoy the sunshine, and play with the animals. He will
want to go his own way, and whatever that way is, it will lead him out into the world.
Inevitably, she will lose him.
She is fiercely jealous of Jacob, on whom Earl now depends far more than he ever
depended upon herself. Yet, just because Jacob is the enemy, her instinct advises her to
make terms with him until the day comes when she can get rid of him altogether.
So she is very sweet to Jacob, complimenting him and flattering him in every
possible way, but watching all the time for some clue to a hidden weakness in his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]