Machine Dreams

burn all his trays and the paper used to wrap his food. He was told to eat with his fingers, as no one could solve the problem of utensils. To each instruction, the leper called back, “Yes, yes,” in an accent. Anytime I heard him talk, he had a tone of question in his voice. He understood some English. The surgeon said, “Do you see the bucket?” and the leper pointed to it.
    The first month, Ava put up his food every morning and carried it out herself. She would be gone about an hour and watched to see that the leper ate. She spoke to him a bit and he talked back, though sometimes only repeating what she’d said to him. He was cheerful and often waiting outside the tent when she arrived. She took him a tin coffeepot, a supply of tea and coffee, a mirror, scissors, needle and thread, and a comb. She gave him some of Eban’s old clothes, but Li Sung never wore them; he wore only his railroad uniforms, which he laundered himself with soap provided by the railroad. After Li Sung’s death, it was discovered he’d saved Eban’s shirts and trousers and sewn them layered onto his blankets during the cold. But that was later.
    Early on, Ava tried to give him a dog for companionship, but he chased the animal back to her as though afraid he would infect it.
    He was grateful for the smallest kindness; the railroad men must have been very brusque to him. I took no liberties and addressed him as “Sir” or “Mister.” I would put the tray down and back up to the edge of the woods; he would nod and bow, pick up the food, and then sit cross-legged by the tent, eating. He seemed to feel he showed thanks by eating in silence with great concentration. I went closer again. Later we spoke briefly or sat without speaking. He knew some words but understood the ideas behind many more.
    I hadn’t been outside my house in weeks. Early mornings in the woods were so quiet and green, all the wildflowers blooming
and the sounds of the river so cool The clearing was like a churchy the sky arched over and deeply blue. I think I talked aloud because I knew he didn’t understand all I said. I told him my little girl had died and showed him in motions. She was … this tall, etc. He knew someone had died and folded his hands, then pointed to his eyes and touched his cheeks. When I describe these simple gestures, I don’t mean to give the impression he was not smart. I believe he was quite intelligent, and wishing to comfort me. He gave me to understand that he also had children, two, in his homeland. He would not see them again. I explained he might send letters, messages, but he said, “No, no,” holding his finger to his lips.
    I wanted him to see Emily so badly that I took him a photograph of her, knowing once he touched it I could not take it back. I put the picture on his tray. He understood at once and looked at the image carefully; then he bowed his head to me in gratitude and put the picture in his breast pocket. He placed his hand there and said, “Yes, safe. Safe.” “Yes,” I said to him, and knew she was, when before I’d felt only the injustice.
    Safe. He knew that word because the railroad men had said it loudly, many times, about the woods and the tent, and where they were taking him.
    By July Ava was much improved and began keeping house again. I was sent with the trays; Ava went with me on Sundays. She told me always to call out to the leper and make a remark or two that required answer. This was important, she said. The man could go crazy if he never spoke with anyone.
    Some boys from the town tormented Li Sung that summer, but he didn’t know they were making fun. A few threw apples at him and he picked them up, nodding his head like the fruit was a present. If anyone came too close, he stood in the door of his tent, holding his arms over his head and calling out in his accent, “Unclean, unclean!”
    Winters were hard in that country. A lumber company donated wood, and some rail workers arrived in September to build a shack. Li Sung sat at a distance and watched the work. The old tent was burned where it stood after the leper transferred his belongings, and a low fence was strung around the shack. Thepeople of Raynell donated a wood stove, feather tick, and ax, and allowed the leper to gather and chop his own wood from near the shack in early morning.
    Snow was deep for five months. I walked out once or twice a week, pulling a sled of provisions. Ava sent a cache of preserved foods, canned vegetables,