Trumper opened the envelope and handed the driver a hundred-dollar bill. 'Maine,' Trumper said.
'Yes, sir,' said the driver.
Trumper leaned back, smelled the wretched air and felt the heat. He didn't quite know it yet - or he couldn't make himself believe it - but he'd been away for almost six months.
31
A Pentothal Movie
(159: Medium shot of Trumper putting down a small overnight suitcase in front of the reception desk at a hospital. He looks around anxiously; Tulpen, smiling next to him, takes his arm. Trumper asks the nurse behind the desk something and she gives him some forms to fill in. Tulpen is warmly attentive to him while he struggles with the papers)
DR VIGNERON (voice over): It's a very simple operation, really, though it does seem to frighten the patient a good deal. It is minor surgery, five stitches at the most ...
(160: Close-up of a medical drawing of the penis. A hand, presumably Vigneron's, draws with a black crayon on the penis)
VIGNERON (v.o.): The incision is made at the opening, here, to simply widen the passage. Then the sutures hold it open, here, so that it won't grow back the way it was. It will try to do that, anyway, by the way ...
(161: Long shot of a nurse leading Trumper and Tulpen down an aisle of the hospital. Trumper peers nervously into every room, bumping his suitcase against his knees as he walks)
VIGNERON (v.o.): There's just one night in the hospital to prepare you for surgery in the morning. Then rest the next day and perhaps stay that night too, if you're still ... uncomfortable.
(162: Medium shot of Trumper getting awkwardly into a hospital gown; Tulpen helps him tie the string in back. Trumper stares at the patient with whom he shares his room, an old man with tubes running in and out of him who lies motionless on the bed next to Trumper's. A nurse comes and deftly pulls the curtains around the bed, shutting off this view)
VIGNERON (v.o.): ... to put it another way, it is forty-eight hours of pain. Now, that is not so very much p
ain, is it?
(163: Sync sound. Medium shot of Ralph Packer interviewing Dr Vigneron in Vigneron's office)
PACKER: There is some psychological pain, I imagine ... you know, a sort of penis fear?
VIGNERON: Well, I suppose some patients would feel ... You mean like a castration complex?
(164: A male nurse is shaving Trumper, who lies rigidly on his hospital bed watching the man's razor zip through his pubic hair)
PACKER (v.o.): Yeah, castration ... Or, you know, afraid the whole thing will get cut off. By mistake, of course! (He laughs)
(165: Same as 163, in Vigneron's office)
VIGNERON (laughing): Well, I assure you, I have never made a slip-up in that area!
PACKER (laughing hysterically): Well, of course not ... no, but I mean if you're the sort of patient who's at all paranoid about your prick ...
(166: Sync sound. Medium shot of Trumper lifting the sheets, peering under at himself, letting Tulpen peek too)
TRUMPER: You see? Like a baby!
TULPEN (staring hard): It's like you're going to have a baby ...
(They look at each other, then look away)
(167: Sync sound. Same as 163 and 165. In Vigneron's office, both Packer and Dr Vigneron are laughing loudly and uncontrollably) (168: Medium shot. Trumper, sitting up in bed, waves goodbye to Ralph and Tulpen, who waves back from the foot of his bed)
VIGNERON (v.o.as if leaving instructions with a nurse): No solid foods tonight, and nothing to drink after ten o'clock. Give him the first injections at eight tomorrow morning; he should be in the operating room by eight-thirty ...
(Tulpen and Ralph walk out of frame together, escorted by a nurse. Trumper glowers after them darkly)
DISSOLVE