The Americans
I came to and saw I was lying in the centre of an L-shaped room by an antiquated high window generous of light and air. From the fortochka an autumnal freshness swept upon me. I saw the treatment trolley with medicines being wheeled towards me. Only ten or fifteen paces and the slanting rays of the morning sun separated me from the nurse in a light blue uniform and headscarf of the same colour. Together it all looked so angelically innocent: the sun, the branches of the trees, the rustling of variegated autumn leaves outside the window, but I already knew that any procedures would give me intolerable pain, and that the kindly nurse was my chief torturer. I roused up and braced myself, awaiting the start of the torments. Seconds began to split into still smaller moments, as t
