I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein Page A

you are,” the Doctor added, lying hopefully, one eye on the master oscilloscope. “But bored, of course. Very bored—that’s the worst part for a patient in life-support; he’s bored silly, yet we can’t let him sleep all the time; it’s not good for him and sometimes we need his cooperation. All right, any time you want to spell anything, give three distinct grunts and I’ll prove I know my abc’s.”
    Three grunts—
    “A . . b . . c . . d . . e . . f—” Johann grunted at “r.”
    “ ‘R’?” Dr. Brenner repeated. “Don’t bother to answer if I’m right. Okay, first letter is ‘r.’ A . . b . . c . . d . .—”
    The message read: “Right ear.”
    “Do you want the plug removed from your right ear?”
    One grunt—
    Carefully the Doctor removed it. “Testing,” he said. “Cincinnati, sixty-six, Susannah. Are you hearing with both ears? Does my voice seem to move from side to side?”
    One grunt, followed by three grunts—
    “Okay, spelled message. A . . b . . c—”
    Shortly the Doctor said, “‘Nobody’? Is that the first word of your message?”
    Double grunt—
    “All right, I’ll try again. A . . b—” He was interrupted by a series of grunts, and stopped. “You don’t want me to spell again . . . yet ‘Nobody’ is not the first word of your message. But I would have sworn that I got it right. ‘Nobody—’ Uh . . . hey! ‘No . . . body’—two words?”
    One emphatic grunt—
    “Are you trying to tell me that you feel as if you had no body? Can’t feel it?”
    Grunt—
    “Oh! Of course you can’t feel it; you haven’t finished healing. But honestly,” the Doctor went on, lying with the skill of long practice, “your progress has been amazingly fast. Both speech and hearing so soon, that’s wonderfully encouraging. In fact you’ve just won a bet for me. Five hundred,” he went on, still lying, “and at that I demanded more than twice the recovery time you’ve shown. And now I’m going to double my winnings by putting them back and betting that you’ll have full recovery of the use of your whole body in no longer time. Because this is a wonderfully healthy body you have even though you can’t feel it yet. Marvelous repair factor.”
    Triple grunt—Then the spelled message was: “How long?”
    “How long since your operation? Or how long until you get the use of your whole body?”
    Dr. Brenner was saved by the bell. He stopped reciting the alphabet and said, “Half a moment, Mr. Smith; Dr. Hedrick has arrived, I must report. Nurse will stay with you—just let the patient rest, Nurse; this has been tiring.”
    Outside the door Dr. Brenner stopped the casemanaging physician, saying, “Dr. Hedrick, one moment before you go in. You’ve checked the remotes?”
    “Certainly. Awake-normal, apparently.”
    “And rational, in my opinion. I have removed the central stopples from both ear pads and we have been talking, spell-and-grunt, killing time until you—”
    “I heard you on monitor, assumed you must have opened the ears. You take a lot on yourself, Doctor.”
    Dr. Brenner stiffened, then answered coldly, “Doctor—your patient, conceded. But I was here alone and had to use my own judgment. If you wish me to leave the case, you have only to say so.”
    “Don’t be so damned touchy, young man. Now let’s go in and see the patient. Our patient.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    They went inside. Dr. Hedrick said, “I’m Dr. Hedrick, Mr. Smith, physician in charge of your case. Congratulations! Welcome back to our weary world. This is a triumph for everyone—and vindication for a great man, Dr. Boyle.”
    Three grunts—
    “You wish to spell a message?”
    One grunt—
    “If you will wait a moment, we will remove some items from your mouth and you can talk instead.” (With great good luck, Hedrick amended to himself—but I never expected the case to progress even this far. That arrogant butcher really is a great man. To my surprise.) “Would that suit