분야
hwpAfterwards, he says, they always embrace.
The animal digs his sweaty brow
into his cheek...
and they stand in the dark for an hour...
Like a necking couple.
And of all nonsensical things,
I keep thinking about the horse...
not the boy, the horse,
and what he might be trying to do.
I keep seeing the huge head,
kissing him with its chained mouth...
nudging through the metal,
some desire absolutely irrelevant...
to filling its belly
or propagating its own kind.
What desire could this be?
Not to stay a horse any longer?
Not to remain reined up forever
in those particular genetic strings?
Is it possible, at moments we cant imagine,
a horse can add its sufferings together...
the non-stop jerks and jabs
that are its daily life...
and turn them...
into grief?
What use is grief...
to a horse?
You see...
Im lost.
What use, l should be asking, are questions
like these to an overworked psychiatrist...
in a provincial hospital?
Theyre worse than useless.
They are, in fact...
subversive.
The thing is...
I wearing that horses head myself...
all reined up in old language
and old assumptions...
straining to jump clean-hoofed onto
a new track of being l only suspect is there.
I cant see it, because my educated, average
head is being held at the wrong angle.
I cant jump, because the bit forbids it,
and my own basic force...
my horsepower, if you like...
is too little.
The only thing l know for sure, is this.
A horses head is finally unknowable to me.
Yet l handle childrens heads,
which l presume to be more complicated...
at least in the area of my chief concern.
In a way, it has nothing to do with this boy.
The doubts have been there for years,
piling up steadily in this dreary place.
it the extremity of this case thats made
them active. l know extremity is the point.
All the same, whatever the reasons, these
doubts are not just vaguely worrying...
but intolerable!
Forgive me.
I not making much sense.
Let me start properly, in order.
Come on. Break it up. Come on!
...through this gate, into another field.
I couldnt see it.
But I knew I had to get through that gate.
lf I did, l could see everything.
All right.
-Take one, Mary Ann.
-I dont want one.
-Mary Ann, come on.
-Dont bother me.
-You dont have to listen to them always.
-I know, but--
-You want one, take one.
-Dont be so ignorant!
All right. All right, now. Settle down.
Thats no good. Shall we smash it?
-Yeah.
-No.
-Now come on, well smash it.
-No.
-All right. Now pick up your right leg.
-No.
-Pick up your right leg, man.
-Why?
-It would please me a great deal if you did.
-I said, no!
Come on. Up.
Now scream! Jab it! Louder! Go on!
Scream! Scream! Thats it.
It began one Monday, some months ago,
with Hesthers visit.
Martin, I sorry.
I should have called first, I know.
Not at all. Youre a welcome relief.
-Have a filthy coffee?
-No, please, no.
-it really rather urgent.
-Take a couch.
Martin, Ie just come from the most
shocking case l ever tried.
My fellow magistrates wanted
to send him to prison on the spot.
Luckily, I got him remanded for a report.
-Whos he?
-A teenager. The names Strang.
Whats he done? Dosed some
little girls Pepsi with Spanish fly?
What could possibly have thrown
your court into such Tory convulsions?
He blinded six horses with a metal spike.
-Blinded?
-Yes.
-All at once, or over a period?
-All at once, the night before last.
Where?
In a stable over at Chalk Ford.
He worked there on weekends.
-What did he say in court?
-Nothing. He just sang.
-Sang?
-Martin, youve simply got to take him here.
You think this hospital is suitable?
How dangerous is he?
No, I mean, you personally.
Now look, Hesther,
before you say anything else...
I can take no more patients now.
I cant even cope with the ones I have.
-You must.
-Why?
Thank you. Oh, for... Damn!
Hello, Pat?
My advice is, cancel her leave for a month.
See what difference that makes to her dad.
Now, why?
Because theres no one else
within a hundred miles of that desk...
who can handle him, and perhaps
understand what this is all about.
The regular hospital will be useless,
and so will the other doctors here.
-Thats an unwarrantable statement.
-Well, its true.
Theyll be cool and professional.
Underneath, theyll be disgusted
and immovably English...
just like my court.
-What am I? Polynesian?
-Please, Martin.
-This is the last favor Il ever ask of you.
-No, its not.
Hes obviously abominable.
I know that already.
Why me? Why, Hesther?
-Theres something extraordinary about him.
-In what way?
Terrible, if you like.
I dont quite know what I saying.
I just knew l had to come here.
Take him, Martin. it very important.
What did I expect of him?
Very little, I promise you.
One more dented Little face.
One more adolescent freak.
The usual unusual.
This room will be completely yours.
No one will come in without your saying so.
Theres a bell if you need anything.
Theres a lavatory down the corridor,
second door on the left.
I think this is one of the nicest rooms
in the whole place. Dont you, Mr. Pearce?
Absolu
