nero wolfe & the curtain that must be obeyed

AUTHOR Carol L Deering

Bright apostrophe, early dawn, the sky’s possessed by a crescent moon.

You can’t see the moon or its reﬂection on the snow. Your bed faces The Curtain. No window, no door you can detect.

You doze off in mid-sentence, then wake with an acute non-sequitur, unsure why everyone starts laughing.

An ambulance brought you to this town, this hospital, for debriding your pressure wound, your body fraught with foreboding

Tubes in nostrils, a bag hanging down. You have a MRSA infection. Oxygen canula, IV antibiotics

Staff and visitors don hospital masks, gowns and gloves. Handwashing, no hugs.

You can’t manage to log in or text, or read the mystery on your ebook, even in huge font

I shrink Nero Wolfe and read out loud, with different voices – apparently out too loud. The Curtain shouts Hush!

When I turn back, you’re asleep.

Photography by Aditya Kalra

APRIL 2023