No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

159
That was all. Without saying a word I went out
of the pharmacy and staggered back to my apartment.
I asked Yoshiko to prepare a Bait solution. I drank it.
I went to sleep without telling her anything. The
whole of the following day I spent in bed, giving as
excuse a lie to the effect that I felt a cold coming on.
At night my agitation over the blood I had secretly
coughed became too much for me, and I got out of
bed. I went to the pharmacy again. This time I confessed
with a smile to the woman what my physical
condition was. In humble tones I asked her advice.
"You'll have to give up drinking.''
We were like blood relatives.
"I may have alcoholic poisoning. I still want to
drink."
"You musn't. My husband used to soak himself in
liquor in spite of his T.B. He claimed that he killed
the germs with liquor. That's how he shortened his
life."
"I feel so on edge I can't stand it. I'm afraid. I'm
no good for anything."
"I'll give you some medicine. But please cut out
the drinking at least."
She was a widow with an only son. The boy had
been attending a medical school somewhere in the
provinces, but was now on leave of absence from school
with the same illness that killed his father. Her father-