Half World: a Novel
“The doctor asked questions, ran tests, told Henry that he was suffering from nervous exhaustion, that his senses had been overrun by the stress of the last few months. Henry left the office with a small bottle of sedatives, a smaller bottle of sleeping pills.
When he returned to work there were days of nothing, anesthetized days. Henry sitting in his office, moving paper. Roy Pritchard came to visit. Henry’s secretary brought him coffee, avoided eye contact. Everyone avoided eye contact. Doors closed when he approached, conversations ceased in midsentence when he entered the room. Henry taking his pills, moving through the hallways, immaterial, an invisible man.
One morning he was summoned to a conference room by a couple of Marist’s men. There was no explanation for the call. When he was seated, they pulled down a projection screen and turned off the lights. A film came to life in front of him. Faces of American soldiers, one after another, skinny teenagers, sunken-eyed and gaunt.
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