It's time for your applesauce mr. Walter sir............
(elsemore in)
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"Applesauce?" said Walter.
"Applesauce?" said the nurse.
Walter said, "What?"
The nurse said, "You said applesauce."
Walters one unbandaged eye strained to focus. The chinawoman wasn't a nurse after all. And he wasn't in a hospital.
He said, "I dreamed of a strange world."
She said, "Well, I hope so," and she leaned over and picked up the long pipe that was lying beside Walter in his bed.
"How long have I been out?" Walter asked. "Do we have a president yet?"
"14 hours, sir," said the chinawoman. "Mr. Lincoln still president.
But not for long, maybe. Listen. You hear cannon?"
Mr. Lincoln. Walter remembered suddenly what it was in his dream that he had wanted from that market with the funny name, Snappy. Something from the little dish on the shopkeeper's counter next to the sign that said, "Need one? Take one. Extra? Leave one."
"It was a strange world indeed," Walter said. "People rode wagons without horses. Picked up their dog's shit from the green grass. Has my wife been looking for me?"
"You wife?" asked the nurse. "Maybe you smoke too much. First you ask we got president, we got president long time. Now you ask is wife looking for you, but she not you wife yet."
Walter reached for the book on the bedside, but it hadn't been written yet. This second chance made him smile. As soon as his head cleared he would rejoin his unit. When the war was over he would ride straight back to his beautiful flower, and they would write the book together.
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