Louse Read Free Page A

and shortcuts applies to all procedures for which all staff members are responsible. It is known as the“Liability Doctrine.” In short, if any half step or shortcut is taken through any procedure, we are liable for our lack of thoroughness and/or attention to detail, even when such thoroughness and/or attention to detail is dependent on another staff member. This dependency on other staff members makes for
interdependence.
    Every week since I have been Poppy’s ward, I have been suffering from a lack of interdependence. I have been demoted once a week for as long as I can remember because Poppy’s exterminator has never appeared in Poppy’s chambers to perform his duties. And since the exterminator and I are considered a full step—I, half the step, he, the other half—my efforts cannot be completed in full. According to my contract, I am to escort the exterminator through the corridors, into the bathrooms, and through Poppy’s living quarters. Every third Thursday of the month, at exactly 9:00 P.M. , I am to wait in one of the three corridors leading to Poppy’s chambers. I am to wait until either Poppy calls for me, or until I am supposed to be somewhere else. Not once has the exterminator shown up, and not once have I heard of an investigation into the exterminator.
    I do not understand why there hasn’t been any investigation; especially since Poppy has seen, on more than several occasions, a small beetle crawling in and out of the various ravines of his chambers’ landscape. When I tell Poppy that the exterminator has been neglecting his duties, he tells me about the Communist diaspora and the nature of the Mongol hordes of the thirteenth century. He often talks at length about the ruthless attacks Genghis Khan led on a fortress in Bukhara in the region of Central Asia. He will condemn the Mongols in both the Chinese and Russian governments, blame them for these regimes’ obstinacy throughout the centuries.When he is through with his discourse, I ask him what should be done. He says he doesn’t want me to do anything. In fact, he warns me that I am not to speak about such things until he, himself, sees the insect with his own eyes. And when this occurs, I am not supposed to contact the exterminator, but rather am expected to chase after the bug, capture it, and send it down the incinerator. But every time he has seen this beetle, I haven’t. I tell him so. Regardless, I am sent off to attack this invisible creature, dig for it with my fingers, through the refuse of headlines and history, tear away words upon his commands. I destroy the mountain range as I know it, rearrange it so that it looks like a wrecking crew has stripped the land of all its precious qualities. He points me in this direction and that direction until he tires from the chase and I’m left panting and sweating and have newsprint and paper cuts covering my hands.
    I discovered early on that Poppy is deathly afraid to be in the same room with another’s blood, which I find confusing, because he is so exacting when describing the details of medieval weaponry and how, with the proper amount of brute force, a thick and heavy sword cuts through skin and crushes bone, whereupon a man is a pulsing corpse. On the several occasions I have bled in his presence, he has informed Celia Lonesome, Head of Domestic Staff, to send a cleaning crew to disinfect his chambers. During this time he remains in bed as the workmen clean around him, spraying heavy doses of ammonia onto the newspapers and into the air. Dressed in smocks, masks, and rubber gloves, the crew disinfects and scours until they have depleted most of the chambers’ oxygen. The old man takes deep breaths, which calms him of his terror. And, mind you, his terror is quite real. I have learned that he has many fears like this, and if one wished to torment him it would bea very simple chore. If there was a man of action and malicious deeds who