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A CANDLE IN THE WIND

A storht Laura Shane was born, and there was a strangeness about the weather that people would remember for years

Wednesday, January 12, 1955, was frigid, gray, and soht thick, fluffy snowflakes spiraled out of the low sky, and the people of Denver huddled in expectation of a Rocky Mountain blizzard By ten o’clock that night, a bitterly cold gale blew in fro down those rugged, wooded slopes The snowflakes grew smaller, until they were as fine as sand, and they sounded as abrasive as sand, so, when the wind blew them across the s of Dr Paul Markwell’s book-lined study

Markwell slu Scotch to keep warm The persistent chill that troubled hiidity of the mind and heart

In the four years since his only child, Lenny, had died of polio, Markwell’s drinking had gotten steadily worse Now, though on call for eencies at County Medical, he picked up the bottle and poured htened year of 1955, children were being inoculated with Dr Jonas Salk’s vaccine, and the day was near when no child would be paralyzed or die from poliomyelitis But Lenny had been afflicted in 1951, a year before Salk tested the vaccine The boy’s respiratory muscles had been paralyzed, too, and the case had been complicated by bronchopneumonia Lenny never had a chance

From the mountains to the west, a low ruht, but at first Markwell thought nothing of it He was so involved with his own enduring, bile-black grief that sometimes he was only subliminally aware of events that transpired around hiraph of Lenny stood on his desk Even after four years he was tortured by his son’s s face He should have put the photo away but instead left it in view because unceasing self-flagellation was his uilt

None of Paul Markwell’s colleagues are of his drinking problem He never appeared to be drunk The errors he made in the treatht have arisen naturally and were not attributed to malpractice But he knew that he had blundered, and self-loathing only induced hiain This tinized the thunder, but he still did not wonder about it

The phone rang The Scotch had left him numb and slow to react, so he did not pick up the receiver until the third ring "Hello?"

"Dr Markwell? Henry Yamatta" Yamatta, an intern at County Medical, sounded nervous "One of your patients, Janet Shane, was just brought in by her husband She’s in labor Fact is, they were delayed by the storot here"

Markwell drank Scotch while he listened Then, pleased to hear that his voice was not slurred, he asked, "She still in first stage?"

"Yes, but her labor pains are intense and unusually protracted for this point in the process There’s blood-tinged vaginal mucus - "

"That’s to be expected"

Impatiently Yamatta said, "No, no This isn’t ordinary show"

Show, or blood-tainted vaginalHowever Yamatta had said Mrs Shane was already well into labor Markwell had blundered by suggesting that the intern was reporting ordinary show

Ya’s wrong Uterine inertia, obstruction of the pelvis, systemic disease - "

"I’d have noticed any physiological irregularity that would’ve erous," Markwell said sharply But he knew that he ht not have noticedif he had been drunk "Dr Carlson’s on duty tonight If soet there, he - "

"We’ve just had four accident victiht in, two in bad shape Carlson’s hands are full We need you, Dr Markwell"

"I’ up, finished his Scotch, and took a pepper a heavy drinker, he always carried e and popped it into histhe hall to the foyer closet

He was drunk, and he was going to deliver a baby, andto botch it, which would mean the end of his career, the destruction of his reputation, but he did not care In fact he anticipated that catastrophe with a perverse longing

He was pulling on his overcoat when a peal of thunder rocked the night The house reverberated with it

He frowned and looked at thebeside the front door Fine, dry snoirled against the glass, briefly hung suspended as the wind held its breath, then swirled again On a couple of other occasions over the years, he had heard thunder in a snowstor, always soft and far away, nothing as ain Falling snow flickered queerly in the inconstant light, and the as briefly transformed into a mirror in which Markwell saw his own haunted face The subsequent crash of thunder was the loudest yet

He opened the door and peered curiously at the turbulent night The hard-driving wind hurled snow under the porch roof, drifting it against the front wall of the house A fresh, two- or three-inch white hs of the pine trees were flocked as well

Lightning flared bright enough to sting Markwell’s eyes The thunderclap was so tremendous that it seeround, too, as if heaven and earth were splitting open, announcing Ar, brilliant bolts seared the darkness On all sides eerie silhouettes leaped, writhed, throbbed The shadows of porch railings, balusters, trees, barren shrubs, and streetlamps were so weirdly distorted by every flash that Markwell’s familiar world acquired the characteristics of a Surrealistic painting: the unearthly light illuive thely

Disoriented by the blazing sky, thunder, wind, and billohite curtains of the storht He wondered how much of the bizarre electrical phenomenon was real and how ed cautiously across the slippery porch to the head of the steps that led to the snow-covered front walk, and he leaned against a porch post, craning his head out to look up at the light-shattered heavens

A chain of thunderbolts made the front lawn and street appear to juth ofin a ja only the dazzling white of the lightning, the starless sky, the sparkling white of snow, and ink-black shuddering shadows

As he stared in awe and fear at the freakish celestial display, another jagged crack opened in the heavens The earth-seeking tip of the hot bolt touched an iron streetlamp only sixty feet away, and Markwell cried out in fear At the lass panes in the lamp exploded The clap of thunder vibrated in Markwells teeth; the porch floor rattled The cold air instantly reeked of ozone and hot iron

Silence, stillness, and darkness returned

Markwell had sed the pepperhbors appeared on their porches along the street Or perhaps they were present throughout the tumult, and perhaps he saw them only when the comparative calh the snow to have a closer look at the stricken streetlamp, the iron crown of which appeared half melted They called to one another and to Markwell, but he did not respond

He had not been sobered by the terrifying exhibition Afraid that neighbors would detect his drunkenness, he turned away from the porch steps and went into the house

Besides, he had no tinant woain control of himself, he took a wool scarf from the foyer closet, wound it around his neck, and crossed the ends over his chest His hands were treed to button his overcoat Fighting dizziness, he pulled on a pair of galoshes

He was gripped by the conviction that the incongruous lightning had son, an o ree, put up the door, and backed the car into the driveway, the chain-wrapped winter tires crunching and clinking softly in the snow

As he shifted the car into park, intending to get out and close the garage, someone rapped hard on thebeside hi down and peering at hier was approximately thirty-five His features were bold, well-fora navy peacoat with the collar turned up In the arctic air his nostrils smoked, and when he spoke, the words were dressed in pale puffs of breath "Dr Markwell?" Markwell rolled down the"Yes?" "Dr Paul Markwell?"