In Memory Of - John Fetto

Michael Leary drifted in and out of consciousness for seven days, as the doctors, cut, scraped, sewed and hopefully mended his leg. During the day, he saw tubes descending from a blur of whiteness, and felt a whirl of activity---voices, footsteps, hands prodding him, turning him over, like a steer on a spit. At night, freckled lights blinked at him, red, green and amber, on plastic boxes which beeped ominously, like ticking bombs. The intoxicating Ms. Barrows seemed to wander in and out, sometimes alone sometime with others. He once dreamed she introduced him to her tailor, but they wandered off frustrated when he couldn’t explain how he wanted his cuffs hemmed. He could use a good suit, whether he lived or died, and in his delirium he found he lusted for something posh--- wool, slate gray with just a subtle pin strip, double breasted of course because he was rather tall.

He would make a fine corpse in such a suit, he thought. They’d cut his hair and trim his beard, and pin his cheeks so he’d looked like he was enjoying a dirty joke. Barrows would weep. No one else, but wasn’t that enough? And when she published her expose on all the dirty deed committed so enthusiastically by her American government, they’d be a short paragraph at the front of the book, something in feminine stylized type as if written by Barrows delicate hand which said something like, “In memory of Michael J. Leary, photographer and friend…”

It was a nice dream, with a perfect ending, ruined on the eighth day when Leary awoke and saw Barrows standing next to his bedside with someone else, looking cross.

“What’s wrong and who is this?” rasped Leary.

“Bill Taylor, United States Treasury,” said the man and Leary groaned, closing his eyes, wishing them away. When he opened, they still stood there, staring at him, and Barrows pad was poised to write down every word they said.

“Gray pin stripe, double breasted, cuffs that break slightly over the toe,” said Leary and the dull agent of the United States government looked confused, but Barrows got it and smiled. A beautiful smile really, even for an American.