ISBN: 0-88739-362-4
170 pp.
Size: 6 x 9
Pub Date: 12/2001
Paperback Original
Price: $13.95
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Second Half of the Life of Bernard Trammel, The
Douglas R. Eikermann
Bernard Trammel is in his prime when a severe stroke leaves him completely paralyzed. He can think, see, hear, and smell, but no one is aware that he is conscious. His world is reduced to the small corner of the hospital room where he's left, increasingly, alone, as his visitors dwindle and his loved ones give up on him. With sensitivity and pathos, Eikermann portrays Bernard's heightened awareness of the small vestiges of life available to him-the nurse who makes a habit of adjusting her pantyhose in his room, the private grief of other patients' relatives, the changing hues of light reflected from the ceiling as the sun rises and falls. But as Bernard's contact with the outer world shrinks, his inner world expands and fills with memories and imaginings, voices and visions, and he begins to examine his history, fate and, finally, the essence of existence, and death.
At first, she brought the children with her every day.... They would stand on stepstools by the bed, touching his arms and face and hair with their little hands, and they would turn and tell their mother that he felt warm. Bernard, of course, felt nothing and knew of their touch only from their remarks about it. But as they drew close to him, he sometimes thought he smelled freshly shampooed hair and he would remember wrestling with them in pajamas on the living room floor....
He remembered playing chess alone as a boy. He would first move a white piece and then walk around to the other side of the chessboard to move a black one. Each time he changed sides, he would don the personality of the player whose turn it was to move, like a comedian who turns away from the audience to put on a different disguise before a new character is about to speak.
"Mr. White, I do believe it is your turn," he would state with his best English accent.
"Why thank you, Mr. Black. I must have been thinking about something else. That was rude of me..."
When he was diligent in changing roles, the game proceeded in an orderly and enjoyable fashion, and, to Bernard's surprise and delight, Mr. White and Mr. Black took on distinct personalities and each developed a unique theory regarding how to deploy his chessmen.
Bernard wondered if this same technique might be effective for starting a conversation with God....
Bio: DOUGLAS R. EIKERMANN holds a Masters of Law from the University of the Pacific and works as a consultant to corporations developing marketing strategies for Latin America. He lives in Kansas City.
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