
[3567] One night, having finally succeeded in falling asleep beside my son
as usual, I woke with a start, feeling as if I had just been dealt a
violent blow.
[3568] It's xxx [place = overwritten] all right, I am not going to tell you a dream properly
so called.
[3569] It was pitch dark in the shelter.
[3570] I listened attentively
without moving.
[3571] I heard nothing save the snoring and gasping of my son.
[3572] I was about to conclude as usual that it was just another bad dream when
a fulgurating pain went through my knee.
[3573] This then was the explanation of
my sudden awakening.
[3574] The sensation could indeed well be compared to that
of a blow, such as I fancy a horse's hoof might give.
[3575] I waited anxiously
for it to recur, motionless and hardly breathing, and of course sweating.
[3576] I acted in a word precisely as one does, if my information was correct,
at such a juncture. [3577] And sure enough thep [place = margin left] [₰]pain did recur a few minutes later,
but not so bad as the first time, as the second rather.
[3578] Or did it only
seem less bad to me because I was expecting it?
[3579] Or because I was getting
used to it already?
[3580] I think not.
[3581] For it recurred again, several times,
and each time less bad than the time before, and finally subsided altogether, [place = margin left] [₰]
so that I was able to go [place = supralinear] [⁁]get to sleep again more or less read [place = overwritten] ssured.
[3582] But before
going [place = supralinear] getting to sleep again I had time to remember that the pain in question was
not altogether new to me.
[3583] For I had felt it before, in my bathroom, when
giving my son his enema.
[3584] But then it had only attacked me once and never
5 [place = overwritten] recurred, till now.
[3585] And I went to sleep again wondering, by way of
lullaby, whether it had been the same knee then as the one which had just
excruciated me, or the other.
[3586] And that is a thing I have never been able
to determine.
[3587] And my son too, when asked, was incapable of telling me
- Segments
Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt