Chapter 6
“Will he live?” asked someone on Ivan’s right side. He tried to move, but the pain in his head was excruciating.
“He just might,” said a man “He’s coming to, so we’ll soon find out.”
Ivan was on a padded table face down on his stomach and covered with a sheet. With each movement of his body it only worsened the pain in his head.
“Can you hear me youngster?” asked the man.
“Yaw,” replied Ivan with lots of pain and he winched his face.
“What’s your name?” asked the man.
“Ivan Yanosh,” he said.
“Ivan I’m a doctor, do you understand?” he asked.
“Yaw, you doctor, help people,” Ivan groaned.
“Where are your parents?” The doctor asked.
“New York,” replied the lad.
“New York,” said the doctor in surprise “why that preposterous.”
“Maybe the boy is just confused,” suggested a woman “with a blow like that it could have very easily messed up his thinking.”
“You could be right,” said the doctor. “Ivan, where are you going?”
“To west, find farm, write poppa bring mama sisters farm,” he said.
“West to find a farm, indeed,” scoffed the doctor. “The boy’s out of his head. With a bump like that it’s a miracle he’s still with us. I’ll give him a sedative and let him sleep for the next few hours and by then he should be in better shape to answer our questions.”
Much later that day, it was a very groggy lad that opened his eyes. As his eyes began to search about the room, he discovered there was another person also in the room with him.
“Where me?” asked Ivan as the figure approached him. It was a young lady dressed in a white smock.
“Good afternoon,” she said “How are you feeling today?”
“Ivan head hurt,” he replied.
“Yes, I imagine so,” she said “you’re a lucky young man just to be alive.”
“I need go west,” said Ivan.
“You lie still and I’ll get the doctor,” she said as she left the room. A few minutes later she came back with a man dressed in a white smock.
“How are you?” asked the doctor.
“Head hurt,” replied Ivan.
“Well, that will pass in a few days,” said the doctor as he began his examination of the young patient. With a few prods, some questions, and then more prods the doctor completed his exam.
“Ivan, now tell me where are your parents?” he asked.
“New York,” the youth replied.
“That’s not possible,” said the doctor. “He must be a runaway.”
“Don’t you think he could . . .” asked the woman.
“There is no way a child this small could have gotten here from New York with out his parents. It’s obvious he’s a runaway, so get the sheriff and turn him over to the law.” The doctor turned and left the room. The woman, once more came to Ivan’s side.
“Ivan . . . that is your name?” she asked.
“Yaw, Ivan Yanosh,” he replied.
“Where were you going?” she asked.
“West, find farm, good land,” said Ivan. “Write poppa bring family, farm, we live there all time.”
“How did you get here?” she asked slowly.
“Train,” said Ivan “Click, click man put Ivan on train, go Oklahoma, find farm.”
“What?” she gasped “Ah, who? That’s crazy, who’d be mean enough to do that?”
“Click, click man, he say if have trouble see click, click man train station,” said Ivan.
“Click, click man . . . oh, you mean telegrapher at the rail road station?” she said.
“Yaw,” said Ivan.
She left the room. Another woman in a white smock came and fed Ivan some hot oatmeal with a touch of cinnamon, a piece of toast and a slice of peach for desert. He was helped to the potty because his head was spinning around the room when he tried to walk. He was soon, back in bed.
“Where is Miss Lowery?” inquired the doctor.
“She had to run an errand,” said the lady who fed Ivan “She said something about going over to the Sheriff’s Office.”
Ivan was asleep most of the day. Before she left for the day Miss Lowery came to feed Ivan and to bring him some clothes, which she put into a cardboard box under his bed. As she left his room she thought about what Ivan had said, then what the doctor said. It worried her, but she went straight home where she lived with her parents and two brothers. By the time she had reached her home she had put Ivan, more or less, out of her mind.