The Breathing Method, a Winter’s Tale (1982), Stephen King; summary

This is the only horror story from four novellas of Different Season. The story follows David Adley that attends the men's club for years. His boss has invited him to the club. He experiences unnatural things since then, but he still expects another invitation. Ten years, more or less, has passed since he joined the club, while much has changed in the world outside. Nothing has changed in the club, and Stevens the doorman seems not to have aged a month, or a single day. In the years he comes to the club, then Dr. Emlyn McCarron brings a Christmas tale from the past, the Breathing Method story.

The Breathing Method, a Winter’s Tale (1982), Stephen King; summary

He was under the canopy of the apartment building in New York, where David and Ellen had lived since 1946, by quarter eight to eight, and when the cab was five minutes late, he found himself pacing up and down impatiently. It was two days before Christmas Eve, now the snow began again, coming first in thin membranes, then twisting into cyclone shapes ahead of them in the street. 

David Adley was glad to see that the steps leading up to the door of 249B had been sanded – that was Stevens’s work, Stevens was there, holding the door open, a moment later David was inside. He had been coming to the brownstone which stands at 294B East Thirty-fifth Street for ten years, it can be said he is a gentlemen’s club.

On night Emlyn McCarron told his story- the story of the Breathing Method. There were  perhaps thirteen club-members in all. Stevens might know about the members. Stevens seemed older than he looks. He has a faint Brooklyn accent, but in spite of that he is as brutally correct and as cuttingly punctilious as a third-generation English butler.

David came to the club as the guest of George Waterhouse. Waterhouse headed the law firm for which David worked since 1951. He looked around for Waterhouse, but he disappeared. Feeling a little uncomfortable and a lot out of place, David wandered over to the fireplace. The fireplace at 294B was big enough to broil and ox whole. The legend engraved on the stone; IT IS THE TALE, NOT HE WHO TELLS IT.

For one thing, he has always loved books, and walks slowly along the shelves. There were a set of Dickens, a set of Defoe, and there also set of novels –eleven of them -- by  man named Edward Gray Seville, and the name of the firm gold-stamped on the spine was Stedham and Son. David never heard of Seville or of his publishers. The copyright was 1911 and the date of the last was 1953.  

He met George Waterhouse the next day in the hallway. George nodded his way and went on without speaking as he had done for years. In the New York Public Library David checked the card catalogue for works of fiction by a named Edward Gray Seville. He was waiting for the next invitation, George Waterhouse finally broke down and asked him back.

The firm sent him to Copenhagen for six weeks that fall, and he returned to discover that John Hanrahan, one of regular attendees at 249B, had died of cancer. A collection was taken up for his wife, who had been left in unpleasant circumstances. It came to more than ten thousand dollars. He supposed Stevens has mailed. It just so happened that Arlene Hanrahan was member of Ellen’s Theater Society, and Ellen told him sometime later that Arlene had received an anonymous check for ten thousand four hundred dollars. Written on the check stub was the brief message: Friends of your late husband John.

The years went by. In those same years he re-read the novel of Seville, and an absolutely stunning poet-the equal of Ezra Pound and Wallace Steven. All three volumes of his work had been published by Stedham & Son, New York and Boston. He did not found the publisher in Public Library, even an antiquarian book-dealer and asked him about the  imprint. But he said he had never heard of it.

In years David had never herd McCarron tell a story. Ten years, more or less, had passed since he had first come to 294B with George Waterhouse, and while much had changed in the world outside, nothing had change in there, and Stevens seemed not to have aged a month, or even a single.

Dr. Emlyn McCarron was nearly eighty now. All his life had been associated with a building, Harriet White Memorial Hospital. The Harriet White after whom it was named was named was his father’s first wife, and she got her practical experience in nursing. A statue of the lady herself stands on a pedestal in the courtyard before the building.

Twenty-six is old to be just starting out in the world of medicine, but he had done more practical internship in France, at the end of World War I. McCarron began practicing medicine in 1929, a bad year to begin anything. By 1935, things had improved a bit. In April of that year he saw a new patient, a young woman, white, who stated her age to be twenty-eight. But her true age seemed to be younger than that-- 23-25 years old. In the register form, she sign her name was not Sandra Stansfield but Jane Smith. She was two months in pregnancy. She wore no wedding ring.

She came to New York because she thought it might be easier to get her foot in the door there. The legitimate theater interested her more than the talkies. She got a job selling perfume in one of the big department stores and enrolled in acting class. Sandra was smart and terribly determined. She was lonely too, perhaps the single girl fresh from small Midwestern town. It was a young man in her acting classes, the two of them went out several times. She did not love him, but she needed a friend. She discovered she was pregnant. When she told the young man, he was gone from his lodgings, leaving no forwarding address.

In the course of his reading on the subject of pregnancy, he discovered the principle of silent birth and the idea of the Breathing Method. Screaming wastes energy which would be better used to expel the baby. The method was supposed to help mother focus her attention on the job and to cope with pain by utilizing the body’s own resources. A woman employing the Breathing Method began to breathe in a series of short, measured inhales and exhales when she felt a contraction coming on. The harder the contraction, the longer the inhale-exhale. The final stage called ‘locomotive’ – imitating a steam-driven locomotive. Sandra was the ideal patient. She was sort of woman the Breathing Method was invented for.

Mrs. Kelly, her supervisor at work, began angry with her belly. She had previously been quite friendly to Sandra. She had two almost-grown children and her respectable husband, who owned barber-shop and voted Republican. Sandra was fired.

She had moved to the cheaper apartment. She had even found work of a sort. A blind woman with a fairly comfortable income had hired her to do some light housework, and then to read to her from the works of Gene Stratton Porter and Perl Buck. Mrs. Gibbs, the blind woman who hired her was impressed with her. Several of the blind woman’s friends had expressed an interest in employing her following the birth of her child.

It was at the foot of the statue of his father’s first wife, directly below tht inscription, that Sandra Stansfield died not quite four months later in a senseless accident that occurred just as she arrived at the hospital to deliver her child.

Sandra’s labor began on Christmas Eve. The cab was late and Sandra’s labor was progressing more rapidly than Dr. McCarron had predicted. The driver, seeing that his fare was about to have a baby, help her down. Sandra only nodded, preoccupied with her deep inhale-exhales as a fresh contraction seized her. Mrs. Gibbs told him later that the young cab driver was more nervous than her poor Sandra, and that was probably a contributing cause to the accident. Another was almost certainly the Breathing Method itself. The driver was not seriously injured I the accident. He said the sound of the steady deep breathing coming from the back seat made him nervous.

The baby was alive. His mother was as pale as milk, and while there was terror and a kind of superstitious awe on her face as she looked down at that weirdly breathing body. Her eyes moved, her lips parted and there were seven distinct sounds, Thank you, Dr. McCarron. He paid the burial expenses, she had no one else. The baby was adopted. The adoption records were kept as secret as possible. There was a young man and his wife-their name was not Harrison, but that is close enough, they lived in Maine. They could have no children of their own. They named him John. He was forty-five yet, a young man. John was handsome, intelligent, and charming. He was now head of English department at one of the two or three most respected private college in the country. He inherited his mother’s determination.

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October 9, 2017

Sekapur Sirih

Satu-satunya kisah horor dari empat novela Different Seasons-nya Stephen King. Ide ceritanya liar cukup membangunkan bulu kudu, hanya saja, ada jembatan terputus yang menyisakan rasa penasaran hingga cerita selesai: apakah benar Stevens seorang manusia dan bagaimana dengan koleksi novel dan penerbit misterius. Novela ini cukup sulit dipahami, sehingga membacanya perlahan dan berulang kali. Kisah ini juga menggambarkan penolakan sosial kala itu pada wanita hamil diluar nikah. Metode Pernafasan, metoda bernafas ibu hamil yang dipraktekkan seorang wanita tekun hingga menghantarkannya ke alam maut.

Ringkasan (Resume) the Breathing Method (Metoda Pernafasan), 1982, Stephen King

Tuturan dari David Adley, bekerja pada subuah firma hukum, diajak bosnya menghadiri sebuah klub. Lelaki itu tidak biasa berbohong pada istrinya Ellen, kali ini sulit untuk tidak. Sejak pertemuan pertama, hidupnya berubah dan mengalami hal aneh. Salju Desember di jalanan New York tidak mampu mengurungkan niat David menghadiri pertemuan pertamanya. Sekitar delapan belas orang lelaki berumur memenuhi ruangan klub, Stevens pria penjaga pintu 249B dengan ramah melayani para anggota.

Walau petemuan pertama agak aneh, David tetap mengharapkan undangan dari George Waterhouse, bosnya. Undangan yang dinanti pun tiba. Waktu berlalu tidak terasa David sudah sepuluh tahun menjadi anggota klub, mendengar berbagai kisah. Apartemen sangat besar, apalagi di pusat kota New York, tungkunya saja muat memanggang seekor sapi.

Satu hal tentang David, ia sangat menyukai buku, langkahnya pun menuju rak besar. Karya-karya besar berderet di sana, namun ada novel yang memikat perhatiannya. Ia sempat membacanya. Ketika ia ke perpustakaan umum, mengecek buku yang dibaca di klub, tapi tidak ditemukan, bahkan penerbitnya pun tidak didapat dari katalog perpustakaan. Pustakawan dan penjual buku juga mengatakan ia belum pernah mendengar baik penulis dan penerbitnya.

Setelah tahun ke sepuluh, dunia luar berubah tapi tidak dalam ruangan 429B, tempat para anggota berkumpul. Begitu juga penjaga pintu Stevens, sama sekali tidak menua. Tapi aksen Brooklyn-nya meyakinkan David, ia nyata. Dr. Emlyn McCarron tidak pernah bercerita selama sepuluh tahun, namun dua hari menjelang Natal, ia membawa kisah kelahiran di malam Natal, dari masa lalu, namun bukan kelahiran dua ribu tahun lalu.

Emlyn McCarron kini berusia delapan puluh tahun, ia menghabiskan hidupnya di sebuah gedung rumah sakit. Harriet White Memorial Hospital, nama istri pertma ayahnya yang didedikasikan menjadi nama rumah sakit tersebut. Harriet White dulunya adalah perawat. McCarron memulai karirnya sebagai dokter saat berusia dua puluh enam tahun, umur yang cukup, setelah memiliki pengalaman praktek di Perancis akhir PD I.

Tahun 1929 bukanlah waktu tepat memulai bisnis medis. Namun di tahun 1935, keadaan membaik. Tepatnya di bulan April, seorang gadis muda yang mengaku berumur 28 tahun mendatangi ruang praktek David. Pria itu yakin Sandra lebih muda dari pengakuannya. Gadis itu masih berumur 23-25 tahun sengaja menyembunyikan nama aslinya, Sandra Stransfield dengan nama samaran Jane Smith. Hamil diluar nikah, pada jaman itu adalah aib besar.

Sandra akhirnya berteman dengan Dr. McCarron, dan membagi kisahnya. Gadis itu datang dari kota kecil di Minnesota, merantau ke New York dengan berharap menjadi bintang panggung. Sandra cantik bekerja menjual parfum pada sebuah pusat perbelanjaan, sambil mengambil kelas akting. Anak desa, dan benar-benar sendirian, dan ia membutuhkan teman. Seorang pemuda dari kelas menjadi teman dekatnya, keduanya sering brsama. Sandra sendiri tidak jatuh cinta pada pria itu. Kehamilan itu  hanyalah sebuah kecelakaan. Saat pemuda itu diberitahu, ia raib, mengelak bertanggung-jawab bahkan tidak meninggalkan alamat sama sekali. Sandra akhirnya menemui dokter.

Dr. McCarron baru saja membaca buku dan tengah mempelajari sebuah Metoda Pernafsan, untuk membantu ibu hamil ketika melahirkan. Teriakan saat melahirkan diyakini hanya membuang tenaga, tidak efektif. Lebih baik fokus, diam dan tenang mengeluarkan bayi. Helaan nafas dan buangan nafas sebebas-bebasnya lebih menolong, cara pernafasan pun sesuai dengan tahapan kehamilan maupun persalinan. Sandra adalah pasien idealis, sepertinya metoda ini diciptakan untuk pasien seperti dirinya. Tidak hanya pengakuan, sang dokter dapat merasakan jika Sandra benar mengikuti metoda itu.

Ny. Kelly, supervisor, di kantor mendapati keganjilan dalam perubahn tubuh Sandra. Wanita taat memiliki dua orang anak hampir dewasa itu, serta suami terhormat, dan berjiwa Republik, geram dengan ketidakjujuran Sandra akan kehamilannya. Perselisihan pun terjadi, Sandra dipecat. Menghindari hinaan, ia membeli cincin kawin, dan mengenakannya, dan mengaku bahwa suaminya seorang supir truk, tewas dalam kecelakaan. Cincin itu melegakan, melegalisasikan bayi dalam kandungannya, bukan anak haram lagi. Ia pun pindah tempat tinggal, dan bahkan memiliki pekerjaan sebagai pembantu wanita buta, mengerjakan semua pekerjaan rumah dan membacakan buku pada Ny. Gibbs. 

Wanita buta sangat tertarik dengan kisah Sandra dan bisa merasakan kehamilannya, teman-teman wanita itu pun kerap memberikan pekerjaan pada Sandra. Jadual kelahiran pada 10 Desember, perkiraan Dr. McCarron rupanya meleset. Tepat malam Natal perut Sandra baru berkontraksi untuk melahirkan. Karena cuaca, taksi datang telat, supirnya masih muda, dengan spontan menolong Sandra memasuki taksi begitu melihat wanita itu tengah hamil tua. 

Sandra hanya mengangguk, tanpa sepatah kata pun. Selama dalam taksi supir itu hanya mendengar tarikan nafas aneh dan tidak biasa, hingga membuat lelaki muda itu semakin gugup dan ketakutan. Tepat di depan gedung rumah sakit, pada kaki patung Herriet White, taksi mengalami kecelakaan. Taksi tergelincir, supirnya hanya luka ringan, tidak terjadi apa-apa, namun Sandra meninggal. Kecemasan supir muda mendengar nafas aneh Sandra memicu kecelakaan, Metode Pernafasan telah membunuh wanita itu.

Dr. McCrron berhasil menyelamatkan bayinya. Tubuh Sandra mengisyaraktkan gerakan Metode Pernafasan, mulutnya mengeluarkan tujuh kombinasi suara, sesaat setelah dokter mengatakan bahwa bayinya berkelamin laki-laki. Suara aneh itu mengucapkan terima kasih pada Dr. McCarron. Sandra tidak memliki siapapun, Dr, McCarron membiayai pemakamannya, bayinya diserahkan untuk diadopsi. Keluarga pasangan muda, tidak memiliki anak mengadopsinya di Maine. Bayi yang ia tolong di malam Natal itu kini berusia empat puluh enam tahun, dia menjadi Kepala Departemen Bahasa Inggris di tiga universitas ternama di Amerika. John Harris berparas tampan, pintar, dan mewarisi ketekunaan ibunya.

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9 Oktober 2017