[{"node":{"title":"Parker003","Collections":"Hopdance","Contributor":"Linen Hall Library","Coverage":"1970","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Tuesday, April 26, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Parker003","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"Stranger, Mirror","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/parker003","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Parker003_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeff- 1 -\nI. One day they said, It's time you went to the gymnasium, Mr. Tosh\nsaid so you go there,And whistling even, a shanty of sorts. Trying to fancy yourself aboard\nship along these long corridors with the curvy low ceilings, a male nurse\nin his white smock smiling past like a cabin steward. Polished floor, the\nright crutch sliding a little. Easy, On a real ship, on these things, with\none bound you\u2019d be on your arse. All at sea. There now, wordplay even. Of a\nsort, The boy is back in his mind again.\n\n Tunnelling left, that must be the place, swing doors with portholes.\nEases his right shoulder between the doors, bundling through in an awkward\nscuffle, the hospital gymnasium. Bars, ropes, curious engines. Nobody here\nyet. Heeling round to starboard...\n\n a spectral stranger in the corner lurking there eyeing you out of a\nragged thicket of dirty fair hair, lank blue jumper hanging limp on the bony\nshoulders, metal crutches clamping the forearms, fixing you with that\nglittering eye, transfixed, don\u2019t look down... gross blue knot dangling in the\nvacant space where the left leg should be, pyjama knot, dangling from the\nblunt stump fat with its bandages, the one fat thing, gorged full on its\nown blood. First sight of it. First mirror.\n\n Easy. As others see me, Scary ghost, Sad freak. No wonder they tried\nto make you wear their long tartan dressing gown, get a haircut, stay in\nthe ward, spare the feelings of the healthy, no wonder, horrified eyes\nsliding sideways as they pass me in the corridor.\n\n Motionless, holding the stare. For the slightest move, confirmed by the\nmirror, will force him at length to identify with that halt scarecrow which\nnow at last stands there revealed to him after the months of living wholly\ninside that stricken mask. Caught.\n\n Look.\n","Type":"Text"}}]