Tuesday, February 01, 2022

First Paragraph

"What am I doing here? I am flat on my back in a National Health Service hospital hoping, praying, that the rigors and fevers which have racked me for three months will turn out to be malaria - although, after many blood tests, they have not found a single parasite. I have been on quinine tablets for thirteen hours - and my temperature does seem to be sliding down. I feel my ears. They are cold. I feel the tip of my nose. It is cold. I feel my forehead. It is cool. I feel inside my groin. Not too bad. The excitement is enough to send my temperature soaring."

From "Assunta: A Story" in What Am I Doing Here by Bruce Chatwin

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