In their worry for haste these two young men became unnecessarily aggressive, slamming my bad bones into the chair when it would have been just as easy to let me drop. How badly they wanted me out of the way, out of the dormitory to some unused corner of the ward, or even some other part of this rambling hospital; if it had been any later in the morning I am sure they would have sent me straight to work in the Industrial Unit without a thought that I had had no breakfast, meagre though my intake of food was. At times like this they were inclined to show a certain impiety. ‘What shall we do with him?’ asked one. ‘We could put him outside,’ came the reply. ‘Or in the toilet. Anywhere. It doesn’t really matter.’ The two of them broke into a relief of laughter. Boys, they were just boys. I knew, however, that their real wish was to be back at the dead man’s side, watching, morbidly intrigued no doubt, hopeful of catching sight of some protruding piece of artery which they might be able to name and so impress the Head Nurse. In their giddy indecision they left me at the windowed entrance to the ward - hardly a discreet place - before running back to the dormitory. At any other time I found that place comforting - since I was so prominent, I was curiously ignored by all who passed by me, each assuming, perhaps, that I was the responsibility of someone else. From there I could spend whole hours watching the grounds, wondering at the gardens and their outlines, the rockeries and lawns stepped at mystifying, useless levels. I could see the gardeners unload long-handled tools from their barrow to begin, uncommittedly, turning the cold caked earth in the barren flower-beds. I could fretfully guess at the business of other hospital staff, residents too, as they slouched, jaunted, ran before me, not that their doings should have been any concern of mine - what difference did it make to me? Still, it was a nice game, though not one I could indulge myself with on this particular morning. The sight before me pained my eyes: a thick icing of snow had fallen, gently, furtively, it seemed, to surprise all those asleep in the windless night. A few people were about, their faces bleached and gladdened by the snow, but they paid me no attention as they slithered past the ward, ignorant of the drama within. The dirty white and scarlet livery of an ambulance caught my eye as it bobbled at a funereal pace past the Infirmary, moving away at first then travelling laterally, past the laundry where the early steam of the day was being gobbed from vents in its long, windowless walls. The vehicle turned towards me, heading straight for me, slowly, tentatively, its front wheels probing for the limits of the road made indistinguishable from the gardens by the snow. It skidded a little as it turned to back up to the ward. Two women climbed out, opened the back and heaved a stretcher-trolley down to the ground and up to the ward doors. Someone ran from the adjacent office rattling an unneeded bunch of keys, saying, ‘This way. In the dormitory.’ The two women followed, a grainy urgency etched in their faces which I had not been able to detect through the panes of glass and the film of freezing mist that hung above the snow. The doors were left open for the cold to needle my cheeks and finger my ankles. Indifferent patients ambled down from the dormitory in search of cigarettes. One asked me if I had any, then was already on his way before he had finished his sentence. Soon, from the furthest corner of my field of vision - a reddened and greened extremity that was part reality, part supposition - I saw the party returning from the dormitory with the man hoisted over a shoulder, or suspended by the neck, or so it seemed. But this was simply an illusion, or a delusion, I could not decide which for my judgement is poor in such matters. What I saw was a huge bag of blood feeding into the body on the stretcher. Fools, I thought, letting blood to a dead man. What did he want with blood? But then, when he reached me, I heard him whimper, groan like the wind in the trees, and I realized he was still alive.