The Hospital Page #6

Let's give your father a week, Barbara.

What do you say?

I don't want my father in this hospital.

I had a dream about this hospital.

I dreamt this enormous...

starched, white-tile building

suddenly erupted like a volcano...

and all the patients, doctors, nurses,

attendants, orderlies...

the whole line-staff, food-service people,

the aged, the lame...

and you, right in the middle...

were stampeding in one hideous,

screaming, suicidal mass into the sea.

I'm taking my father out of here,

and as quickly as I can.

You're really a fruitcake, you know?

Let me put it this way. I love you.

I fancied you from the moment you came

lumbering down that hallway, upstairs.

I said to Mr. Blacktree,

"Who's that hulking bear of a man?"

The Apaches are reverential about bears.

Won't eat bear meat, never skin bears.

Bears are thought of as both benign

and evil, but very strong power.

Men with bear power are highly respected

and are said to be great healers.

"That man," I said,

"gets his power from the bear."

Swell. Now, look.

You haven't got a hotel room

or some sort of accommodations...

- where you can stay...

- Let me put it this way.

My father and I accept

the implacability of death.

If he dies, he dies.

I'm getting him out of here

and back to Mexico at 1:00 p.m.

I want you to come with us,

because I love you and want children.

I'm afraid Mexico

is a little too remote for me.

We could use you down there.

There's a curiously high incidence of TB.

You'd be a doctor again.

You'd be necessary again.

If you love me, I don't see any other choice.

What do you mean, if I love you?

I raped you in a suicidal rage.

How did we get to love and children?

I ought to know if a man loves me or not.

You must've told me half a hundred times

last night you loved me.

You murmured and shouted it.

You even opened the window

and bellowed it out into the street.

Those were more expressions

of gratitude than love.

Gratitude for what?

For resurrecting feelings of life in me

I thought dead.

My God, what do you think love is?

All right, I love you! You love me!

I'm not about to argue

with so relentless a romantic.

Since we have this great passion

going for us...

why don't you stay around New York

for a week or 10 days?

It's up to 10 days now.

- Just until your father's condition improves.

- No.

I've had these prophetic dreams

for seven nights.

Seven is a sinister number.

The meaning of these dreams is very clear,

seven times as clear.

I'm to get you and my father out of here

before we're all destroyed.

You're certifiable.

Half the time

you're an intelligent young woman...

then all of a sudden,

you turn into a Cabalist...

who believes in dreams

and witchcraft and bear power.

I don't like the way

you dismiss my whole life as unnecessary.

I do a lot of healing here in Manattan.

I don't have to go to Mexico to do it.

I also teach.

I send out 80 doctors a year into the world...

often inspirited, at least competent.

I've built up one of the best departments

of medicine in the world.

We have a hell of a heart unit,

we have a hell of a kidney group.

A lot of people come into this place

in big trouble...

and go out a lot better for the experience,

so don't tell me how unnecessary I am.

So why were you trying to kill yourself

with an overdose of potassium?

- Where are you going?

- My hotel. I have to check out.

Mr. Blacktree doesn't speak any English.

- You're coming back, of course?

- Of course.

I have to settle the bill, pack my father.

I think you need a few hours alone

to make your decisions.

What decision?

You're a very tired, very damaged man.

You've had a hideous marriage,

I assume a few tacky affairs along the way.

You're understandably reluctant

to get involved again.

And here I am with this preposterous idea...

you throw everything up and go off with me

to some barren mountains in Mexico.

Utterly mad, I know. On the other hand...

you find this world as desolate as I do.

You did try to kill yourself last night.

So that's it.

Either me and the mountains,

or the bottle of potassium.

I'll be back in an hour or so.

I'll be in my father's room.

All right, I love you!

My God!

I repeat, I'm asking you

to come out peacefully.

These buildings are condemned

and unfit for habitation.

You people are possessing

this building illegally...

and in violation of the law.

I'm asking you to come out peacefully.

So the hospital has assumed

the responsibility...

for finding 400 housing units

in good buildings.

The hospital wishes to point out

that this row of buildings on First Avenue...

was condemned by the city

before the hospital acquired ownership...

and even then...

only after responsible leaders

in the community...

approved the building

of our new drug-rehabilitation center.

God damn it. I've got a dozen community

leaders waiting for me in the library.

We're trying to work out

a negotiable formula for two years...

with no help from you people

in the Urban Affairs Division, I might add.

I am not going to throw

all that down the drain...

because some cockamamie activist group...

is showboating for the television cameras.

You get those people out of those buildings

before a wall collapses...

or a fire breaks out

and we've got a riot on our hands.

Okay.

Having your troubles?

I won't take much of your time.

My name is Welbeck.

I've been associated with this hospital

for six years...

and yesterday afternoon,

Dr. Gilley called me...

to tell me he was cutting off my privileges

with the hospital.

- Do you know anything about that?

- That's news to me.

- He said he sent the report on.

- I'll probably get the report tomorrow.

- I assume...

- A report about what?

I'm not sure myself.

I did a nephrectomy on a man

about seven days ago.

Emergency called in at 4:00 a.m.,

and the man was hemorrhaging...

I'm really sorry.

I do have a meeting to go to.

In any event,

there's nothing I can do about it.

If Gilley... I'll be in the library.

If Gilley wants to cut your privileges...

he's Chief of Surgery,

it's within his province.

You'll have to have the hearing.

I have a laparotomy for today.

I assume I'll be able to go through with that.

I've been connected with this hospital

for six years.

It seems to me I've had your name

down here before, for something.

Wait a minute.

You're the fellow...

with the Medicaid collecting business...

who incorporated and went public, right?

Something like that?

Milton Mead was telling me about you.

You're a whole medical conglomerate.

You've got a factoring service,

a computerized billing company...

a few proprietary hospitals,

a few nursing homes.

Good heavens, you shouldn't be brought up

before a committee of mere doctors.

You should be investigated by

the Securities and Exchange Commission.

You have to go through with the hearing.

I can't do anything about that.

...imperializing the Blacks.

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