Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in differentcolored
capsules with instructions for giving them. One was to bring
down the fever, another a purgative,2
the third to overcome an acid
condition. The germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition,
he explained. He seemed to know all about influenza and said there was
nothing to worry about if the fever did not go above one hundred and
four degrees. This was a light epidemic of flu and there was no danger
if you avoided pneumonia.
Back in the room I wrote the boy’s temperature down and made a note
of the time to give the various capsules.
“Do you want me to read to you?”
“All right. If you want to,” said the boy. His face was very white and
there were dark areas under his eyes. He lay still in the bed and seemed
very detached from what was going on.
I read aloud from Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates;3
but I could see he was
not following what I was reading.
“How do you feel, Schatz?” I asked him.
“Just the same, so far,” he said.