The Soldier in White

The lady in the corner

This is what Wikipedia says about the The Soldier in White, an unnamed minor character in Catch 22:

An unnamed soldier wrapped completely in bandages. He is connected to two bottles of unidentified and similar looking liquid, one which pumps the liquid through an IV into the soldier, and the other which drains the liquid from the soldier through a zinc catheter. When the bottles are respectively empty and full, they are switched around. Dunbar claims there is actually no one under the bandages.

There's a lady in the corner bed in DLL's room in the hospital. She has a nurse with her, 24/7 observation. There's no sign that she's able to talk, or to communicate in any other way. She does not read, does not look at the screen every bed now has, she just lays there.

Every so often, sometimes every few minutes, she makes gurgling noises. The noises are loud, and they seem to convey some urgency, some level of distress. The curtains are pulled and some machinery fired up. It sounds as if some sort of suction is applied, and things settle down again.

Vera. I think her name's Vera.

A big dip

The surgeon visited DLL. “She looks a bit clapped out” he said, “we'll keep her in, I think.”

She has had a dip in her recovery. BLISS keeps trying to cheer me up, I think, telling me it's the best place for her to be, under the circumstances.

Realisation – she may not be home for her birthday

A birthday in hospital. Please no.

Hospital food

“Shall we drive out and find somewhere to eat?” I said.

“No” said BLISS, “I like canteen food.”

That had me scratching my head. Not too loud, girl, or they'll be locking you up in the basement here for your own protection.

I had the worst fish and chips imaginable. Lukewarm, unidentified fish in those gritting-compound breadcrumbs, made from sand and colouring, that I thought went off the shelves along with Izal bogroll and Vesta curries (add raisins for an extra-special meal!). Bad chips. All the peas you can eat. All the - sitting there for hours and collapsing in on themselves like miniature suns whose time has come, becoming black holes of incredibly dense vegetable matter surrounded by a loose skin - peas you can eat, which isn't very many.

“How's your macaroni cheese?” I asked.

“Bloody awful. Worst ever.”

Tube strike

The reason DLL had a dip in form was because her drip, which should've been rehydrating her and giving her pain relief, wasn't working for the all important first few hours.