That doctor says he interviewed me for three hours. I say it was twenty minutes. Twenty minutes between my walking in the door and his deciding to send me to McLean. I might have spent another hour in his office while he called the hospital, called my parents, called the taxi. An hour and a half is the most I’ll grant him.
We can’t both be right. Does it matter which of us is right?
It matters to me. But it turns out I’m wrong.
I have a piece of hard evidence, the Time Admitted line from the Nurse’s Report of Patient on Admission. From that I can reconstruct everything. It reads: 1:30 P.M.
I said I left home early. But my idea of early might have been as late as nine in the morning. I’d switched night and day—that was one of the things the doctor harped on.
I said I was in his office before eight, but I seem to have been wrong about that, too.
I’ll compromise by saying that I left home at eight and spent an hour traveling to a nine o’clock appointment. Twenty minutes later is nine-twenty.
Now let’s jump ahead to the taxi ride. The trip from Newton to Belmont takes about half an hour. And I remember waiting fifteen minutes in the Administration Building to sign myself in. Add another fifteen minutes of bureaucracy before I reached the nurse who wrote that report. This totals up to an hour, which means I arrived at the hospital at half past twelve.
And there we are, between nine-twenty and twelve-thirty—a three-hour interview!
I still think I’m right. I’m right about what counts.
But now you believe him.
Don’t be so quick. I have more evidence.
The Admission Note, written by the doctor who supervised my case, and who evidently took an extensive history before I reached that nurse. At the top right corner, at the line Hour of Adm., it reads: 11:30 A.M.
Let’s reconstruct it again.
Subtracting the half hour waiting to be admitted and wading through bureaucracy takes us to eleven o’clock. Subtracting the half-hour taxi ride takes us to ten-thirty. Subtracting the hour I waited while the doctor made phone calls takes us to nine-thirty. Assuming my departure from home at eight o’clock for a nine o’clock appointment results in a half-hour interview.
There we are, between nine and nine-thirty. I won’t quibble over ten minutes.
Now you believe me.