Chapter 5

No one was allowed near the infirmary for a long time. I had heard that one of his legs was "shattered". I wasn't sure if that meant broken cleanly or badly, but I didn't ask. Everyone talked about Finny to me, but I didn't really want to hear anything else. I was surprise that no one suspected me of doing anything. I had to be alone and empty my mind and who I was to myself. One night, I decided to put on his clothes, and I felt like a nobleman or a Spanish grandee. When I looked in the mirror thought, all I could see what Phineas. After that I felt as though, "I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again" (54). That night I slept well, but in the morning I faced reality in what I had done to Finny. That morning Dr. Stanpole called me over and said "Finny's better" (54)! I talked to the doctor, but he didn't say much except, "Sports are finished for him, after an accident like that. Of course" (55). I was dumbfounded. He told me I had to help him get through this, but I wasn't sure if I could. I started to cry once he put his hand on my shoulder. "I cried for Phineas and for myself and f or this doctor who believed in facing things." Dr. Stanpole told me that Finny asked for me, and at an instant I stopped crying and went to see him. When I walked in I saw his left leg in white bindings suspended a little above the bed. He also had an IV in him. I noticed he had lost his tan, and his eyes no longer were full of humor. I started to talk to him about how I made him fall out of the tree, but I wanted to see what he had thought happened first. "What happened there at that tree?... How did you fall, how could you off like that" (57)? He said that he had just fallen, and that something jiggled. Then he told me how he had looked at me to reach and get a hold of. After he said that I flinched away and said, "to drag me down too" (57)! I was jumpy and cautious. I asked him again if he remembered what made him fall, and he said he must of just lost his balance. He told me he had a "feeling", but to forget about it. He was apologizing for the truth. I couldn't believe I had thought we were competitors. I felt so guilty I had to tell him the truth. When I was about to tell him, Dr. Stanpole came in, and then a nurse. He was taken back in an ambulance to his home in Boston. The summer session had ended and hen it was time to go back in the winter, I found myself stopping at the North Station in Boston. I showed up at Phineas' house, yet he wasn't all surprised. I felt horrible telling Finny what really happened in his own house, but I sat down next to him and told him exactly what happened. We started arguing and it struck me that I was just injuring him again. I had to take it back, but I couldn’t here. A few moments later, I asked and he said he would be back at Devon before Thanksgiving.