Chapter 5
Miss McMurphy
WHEN I CAME out of it I got to my feet and looked around. Steiner was gone— and his gun was gone. The room was just about as it had been when he’d battered me down. He had a lot of strength for that kind of face.
I went into the bathroom and washed up. My tongue was in pretty bad shape— my jaw and the right side of my face were swollen. He’d kicked me in the right side. He was a dirty little rat— and he’d come out topside. That made me pretty sore.
I went down to the barbershop, told the man at the second chair that I’d walked into a door— and let the towels soak in for thirty minutes. I got some alcohol and rubbed my side. The bellhop brought me a quart and drank one with me. I downed two more, and in between I told myself what a damned fool I was. Then I packe
