Chapter 29
Tom seemed to have been lying in darkness forever. His body had been unwrapped weeks ago; a grim experience accompanied by the sort of pain that even an extra dose of morphine could not mask. Daily saline baths were doing their job, and he could now lie directly on the bed with a reasonable degree of comfort. Yet he was still blind, and found it difficult to distinguish between sleeping and waking, nightmares and reality.
Then one morning, after his liquid meal the staff called breakfast, Tom’s nurse removed the bandages from his face and, for the first time, left them off. It was Jean – he knew all the nurses by voice now – and instead of wrapping him back up like a mummy, she slathered his lips with Vaseline and applied cool, saline compresses to his eyes.
What was the poin
