‘He has also stated that his wife’s ample bosom at times gives him a feeling of inferiority. So. Does anyone care to touch upon this subject further?’

Harding shuts his eyes, and nobody else says anything. McMurphy looks around at the other guys, waiting to see if anybody is going to answer the nurse, then holds his hand up and snaps his fingers, like a school kid in class; the nurse nods at him.

‘Mr. — ah — McMurry?’

‘Touch upon what?’

‘What? Touch —’

‘You ask, I believe, ‘Does anyone care to touch upon —’ ‘

‘Touch upon the — subject, Mr. McMurry, the subject of Mr. Harding’s problem with his wife.’

‘Oh. I thought you mean touch upon her — something else.’

‘Now what could you —’

But she stops. She was almost flustered for a second there. Some of the Acutes hide grins, and McMurphy takes a huge stretch, yawns, winks at Harding. Then the nurse, calm as anything, puts the log book back in the basket and takes out another folder and opens it and starts reading.

‘McMurry, Randle Patrick. Committed by the state from the Pendleton Farm for Correction. For diagnosis and possible treatment. Thirty-five years old. Never married. Distinguished Service Cross in Korea, for leading an escape from a Communist prison camp. A dishonorable discharge, afterward, for insubordination. Followed by a history of street brawls and barroom fights and a series of arrests for Drunkenness, Assault and Battery, Disturbing the Peace, repeated gambling, and one arrest — for Rape.’

‘Rape?’ The doctor perks up.

‘Statutory, with a girl of —’

‘Whoa. Couldn’t make that stick,’ McMurphy says to the doctor. ‘Girl wouldn’t testify.’

‘With a child of fifteen.’

‘Said she was seventeen, Doc, and she was plenty willin’.’

‘A court doctor’s examination of the child proved entry, repeated entry, the record states —’

‘So willin’, in fact, I took to sewing my pants shut.’

‘The child refused to testify in spite of the doctor’s findings. There seemed to be intimidation. Defendant left town shortly after the trial.’

‘Hoo boy, I had to leave. Doc, let me tell you’ — he leans forward with an elbow on a knee, lowering his voice to the doctor across the room — ‘that little hustler would of actually burnt me to a frazzle by the time she reached legal sixteen. She got to where she was tripping me and beating me to the floor.’

The nurse closes up the folder and passes it across the doorway to the doctor. ‘Our new Admission, Doctor Spivey,’ just like she’s got a man folded up inside that yellow paper and can pass him on to be looked over. ‘I thought I might brief you on his record later today, but as he seems to insist on asserting himself in the Group Meeting, we might as well dispense with him now.’