McMurphy's Win (Lyev Pitram)

Page 123, when Bromden raises his hand for the baseball game Written from the perspective of McMurphy

Twenty chronics. I just need one of them to get this damn game on.

“Fffffffuck da wife”, says Ruckly, the youngest of the chronics.

Nineteen chronics.

Eighteen chronics.

I keep going. With every non-response I get, I feel Nurse Ratched’s smile get wider and wider. I feel her presence tower over me more and more. I can’t let this happen. I was already humiliated when I proposed this the first time at the last meeting. I have to win that gamble.

Two chronics. No clue what his name is, but he’s so unresponsive I don’t even bother asking him.

And that leaves Chief Broom. Bromden, I think his real name is? Something like that. But he’s deaf, so what’s it worth? It won’t hurt to try at this point, what have I to lose? That damned nurse ain’t letting me off the hook either way after this.

“Chief, you’re our last bet.” The Indian stares blankly into my face. Please, for the love of God, give me some damn miracle Chief.

“The meeting is adjourned, then”, says Miss Ratched. Fuck her. “And I’d like to see the staff down in the staff room in about an hour. So if there is nothing el-”

Everything stops. I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Chief Broom’s hand twitched. The same hand that spends every day sweeping the floor might actually be of some use for me today. He starts to raise it. I don’t know how, but my miracle has come. That hand goes up, and it’s not coming down. It just happened. The World Series is coming to the ward.

I immediately pull the Chief out of his chair and slap him on the back.

“Twenty-one! The Chief’s vote makes it twenty-one! And by God if that ain’t a majority I’ll eat my hat!”. The Acutes and I are whooping, and in the corner of the room, I see the Nurse. That lady’s been oppressing the people of this ward for ages, and we finally got her back. Now I just need her to lose her temper so that I can win that bet.

She’s still smiling. I know that dirty bitch doesn’t want to admit defeat. The Big Nurse walks out of the day room, and that confirms it, we just won the vote.

I look back at the Chief. His eyes meet mine. I want to find his secret out, if the Indian is really deaf or not. What if he’s been faking it this entire time? I could bet a whole pack of cigs the entire room is thinking about that right now.

I was right. The curiosity of an entire room of Acutes has now piqued, and we’re all taking turns trying to talk to Chief Broom. “Can you hear us Chief?” “How’d you know to raise your hand?” I could bet another pack that the Nurse would like to ask the same questions as well.

But the Indian doesn’t respond. That means one of two things. Either he is indeed faking it, like we all suppose, but he’s still trying to play that damned charade of his. Or, he is actually deaf, and by some miracle, some miracle that could win my bet and push the Big Nurse over the top, he raised his hand the moment I looked at him, not knowing what it’d be for. Either way, he gets my utmost respect for it. Whether it is to break a secret just for the sake of us twenty watching the World Series, or his ability to recognize how much we needed his hand raised, he clearly supports me in some way.

Maybe I’ll find a way to pay Chief Broom back. He doesn’t play cards with us, obviously being (or pretending to be) deaf, so it’s not like I can give him a favorable bet. I don’t really know what he likes, what he wants, or who he even is, really. All I know is that he’s the guy who sweeps, and the guy that just made the tie-breaking vote.

Author’s Note:

With this version of the story being from the perspective of McMurphy, I wanted to highlight three specific aspects of his character: his gambling addiction, his hatred for the Big Nurse, and his determination towards his goals. The first is simple, as McMurphy continuously mentions the bet he made with the other ward members, as well as makes other gambling references. Second, I wrote aggressive language as McMurphy describes the Nurse, building off the actions she made in the actual book. Third, the man’s determination was shown at the beginning of this piece, as I write his internal monologue as he desperately tries to get the World Series game on, and his excitement when he succeeds. Lastly, I use more simple and colloquial language, assuming that that would be the type of thoughts going through the head of McMurphy.