Ranting and Raving, parts 400 - 403

Richard Britell July 24, 2012

400. At five o’clock the day staff of the hospital went home, and an entirely new staff arrived for the evening shift.  We were still in the district of Dannersville, a very poor district, and so the night staff consisted of just one person, and elderly black woman.

401. This old woman now entered Buboni’s room and introduced herself saying, “Good evening, I am the night staff person, my name is Jamalia, but everyone here just calls me ‘Aunt Jemima’. My job is to clean the halls with the buffer, empty the bed pans, and generally bring the patients back to life after the day staff has finished killing them.

402. Jemima took an immediate interest in Buboni and pulling up a chair next to his bed said, “Let’s have a look and see if the professor’s time is up, or if he is going to make it through the night.” She took hold of  Buboni’s hand and had a look at his palm.  “How did you know he is a professor?” I asked. “Because it’s obvious.” she replied.

403. “I learned to read palms as a child", she said,  "but where I come from hardly a single person lives to be forty, so these old man’s sorts of hands are not so easy for me to figure out. But the professor’s hand is pretty obvious, just have a look here.”