7

Alabama 7
The divans and easy chairs are old and worn. The table on which sits his phone
is littered with circular letters, medical journals, and samples of medicine.
Above the desk is a shelf of books, old medical books. A heater stands with
pipe in the ceiling on one side of the room, and to the right of the heater
are two doors. One opens into the small anteroom where the minor wounds, cuts,
bruises are care for, and the other opens into a kind of consultation room
where there is a table for people to recline on. On the floor is a pair of
bathroom scales. Opening from the consultation room is a small anteroom in which
is kept medicine, the walls are lined with bottles and cans. The door to the
left in the waiting room, passes through a dark and dingy storage room into
the People's drugstore.

The doctor's car is always parked in front of the office, except when the
doctor is at home or on a call. Almost any time of the day, you can see that slow
short-legged walk of the doctor, as he goes with medical kit to his car. The
motor of his car roars, as he backs away, and goes into the country. Many
times his calls lead him for miles, many times over almost impassable roads.
His car is a coupe.

On Sunday the doctor is always in church; he never misses a service,
though he once did. He is perhaps feeling his years, feeling the approach
682