Read "Three Days Before the Shooting" by Ralph Ellison online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I INSPECTED MY AILING watch. What was the time? An odor of iodoform drifted to me, bringing an image of a lonely seashore in high summer, the blue mutability of foam-fringed waves. Away. Far off a buzzer sounded, faded, leaving an interval of silence from which slowly emerged the faint clink and tinkle of glass striking against metal, and my eyes were drawn down to the end of the corridor where there now appeared a white-suited attendant pushing a metal steam cart.
Taking his time, pushing at a forward slant with his red head low over the handlebar, he approached until abreast the sleeping Hickman, pausing to gaze at the old man for a moment, then roll the cart to the other side of the Senator's door. And now, seeing him about to knock, I got to my feet, hoping that I might have a word with one of the nurses, but as the door came slightly ajar I saw one of the security men looking through and stayed where I was, watching them. He said something to the attendant and disappeared. Then immediately a nurse took his place, carefully blocking the view as she began passing the attendant several napkin-covered trays which, squatting and rising rhythmically, he placed on a rack underneath the cart, then proceeded to hand her trays of food covered with silver serving bells. He worked swiftly, negotiating the narrow passage with professional skill, but someone inside the room must have become nervous, for he had barely handed over the last tray when the door snapped to, almost catching his hand, and a look of high indignation flashed over his freckled face and he pronounced a silent obscenity with such graphic expressiveness that I was forced to stifle a laugh. His lips continued to work angrily as he knelt beside the cart and came up with two heavy silver coffeepots and went to stand close to the door, waiting until the door swung inward and then, moving with the abrupt precision of a marine presenting a rifle for inspection, he plunged the gleaming vessels into the crack with a resounding clank!