Michael Malone - Weebly

Ramona Dingley lay encased in the clear plastic oxygen
tent in the middle of her massive mahogany four-poster
that her father, Ignatius, had inherited from his mother,
Bridget. Ramona's eyes were closed, her breath a soft
sigh. Around her sat Orchid O'Neal, and a hired nurse
that Sammy Smalter had insisted upon, and the druggist
himself, and Father Jonathan Fields. Orchid was telling
her beads, the nurse was working a crossword puzzle,
Jonathan was repeatedly reading to himself the
Visitation of the Sick.
From time to time he looked over at the old
woman. At one point her eyes flicked open, caught his,
and then (or at least so it seemed to the curate) she
winked at him. Of course, it might have been an
involuntary twitch, but in memory, Jonathan always
preferred his interpretation. He had winked back and
broadly grinned.
On the other side of the room, near the bureau
crowded with her trophies, Ramona's closest friend, her
kinsman Sammy, sat holding his book of Browning
persistently before his eyes until he could compel
himself to see the words. Daily for most of his life