Anna in the Afterlife Read Online Free Page B

it useless for piano playing and getting her into a lawsuit that—in the end—produced a document (from a fancy psychiatric clinic in Beverly Hills) that Anna cherished to the end of her days.
    Who could have guessed that an injury that prevented her (as she testified in the deposition) from opening windows, holding a newspaper, combing her hair, buttoning her blouse, kept her from cooking, slicing and dicing things (though she never cooked), that prevented her from filing her nails, turning on the tap water, washing dishes, and opening the mail, and most of all destroyed her life’s greatest joy, piano playing, should turn out to be the source of the single finest written testimony (which would be forever on file in the legal records of the land) to her superiority?
    When Sammy’s insurance company had offered her a mere $500 for her injuries, her orthopedist, who drove a Jaguar and thus knew about the ways of the world, told Anna her injury was worth at least $5000. His brother-in-law was a lawyer—he’d help her out. The lawyer had had Anna examined by the psychiatrist who, as an expert witness, testified in writing that Anna had suffered a severe disability, “a tremendous shock, jeopardy, and infringement of life’s enjoyment to her.”
    Anna wished this document could be buried with her at the coming interment. She could recall certain passages verbatim:
    Patient is a seventy-seven-year-old white female looking and acting younger than her stated age. She is extremely lively, vivacious, intelligent, sharp, and well-verbalized and expresses herself precisely and extremely well, has an appropriate and charming manner not displaying at all any handicaps of advanced age .
    A man like this, with framed degrees covering the walls of his office, should know charming and vivacious when he saw it.
    Patient admits she frequently ruminates about her condition, is “disconsolate” (her vocabulary is superb), and while otherwise she does not feel her age at all, she is certain that the quality of her life has fundamentally deteriorated .
    In summarizing Anna’s personal life in the document, he added, “The patient has an older stepsister with whom she has little contact because this sister values beauty and riches while patient cherishes integrity and inner worth. Her younger sister values knitting and collecting little knickknacks while the patient is a devotee of culture, art, and music.”
    Anna had always wanted an objective assessment of her attributes from a neutral (but astute) observer. Surely the doctor had nothing to gain from all these compliments. At the end he wrote under “Mental Status”: Patient is a pretty, well-groomed, very well-verbalized, attractive, wiry lady, energetic, full of life, vivacious, and delightful. She relates extremely well without any hesitation, is capable of expressing warm emotions. She is obviously a sophisticated musician who has a great deal of general knowledge of music and art; she is well trained, competent and enthusiastic. Her memory is excellent. She is sharp and quick, responds appropriately to all questions and her concentration abilities are undiminished. She feels well-appreciated and loved by strangers but particularly also by her family, her sister, and two daughters, with whom she appears to have excellent relationships, as well as with her grandchildren .
    Anna wondered, just for the briefest second, if this expert doctor had been expertly fooled by her. With all her glissandos, with all her thundering chords and harmonies ringing in her ears, with all the applause and love she had invented, didn’t she, just for a second, feel the terrible drumbeats of loneliness and of terror? What if she were nothing but nothing? What if under all that flattery, all the chattery words came to a bushel of lies? What if the truth were known about her? She would never admit to her doubts. She would drown them out with