Page 32

By Jack Joseph Smith

Mr. Hyde I presume was the way this good nurse did it. Gibbons would always have the Hyde's as friend as alley. Second Hyde down had come into a doctor death scene once. He actually waited ten minutes for the folks in charge to forget about an autograph, and then after reason wasn't good enough any more, Dr. Jim Hyde ripped the place apart. The young man died. Hyde would carry that sadness with him through the leathing mills, the horses in some Green County fields, and those who could understand that he really didn't want to fight in country bars. Coma is finished. I saw him on the street when he was fifteen. He wore blue and white all over, except that his hair and eyes and shoes were black. So the Hyde's left the place alone. Second Hyde said right out, "Everybody knows that I ripe doen pants in hospitals. Gibbons is in trouble." Up in the hall Jim Hyde has not called his older or younger brothers. "No. I leave here now. Listen that I have seen. Gibbons is mad as well. There is no more room. But as the toughest family in Mount Lebanon we wish well too." What did Hyde the second mean when Gibbons was dying? "I ment that he had no family to speak of and I did. It made me defensive, it made him crazy. I realize that he is stronger, but I can not help him." Actually the few people Gibbons had ever thought about in his dreams included the three Hydes. He loved to watch them take risks. Sweet things like flying into metal shop and playing at the falls off the big north windows at the same time.

Original Scan

Page 32

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page uses the Hyde family to measure loyalty, toughness, and the strange social theater around Gibbons's crisis.

Its tone shifts between affection, bravado, and grief. The result is a page about male allegiance that never stops brushing against violence. The verified transcript clarifies the Hyde family passage and keeps the draft's source phrasing.


Claude

The Hyde brothers become Gibbons's mythic 'alley,' 'the toughest family in Mount Lebanon.' Dr. Jim Hyde once 'ripped the place apart' over a needless death and carries that grief 'through the / leathing mills' and 'horses in some Green County fields.' The second Hyde refuses the bedside, his refusal cut with envy and pride: 'I ment that he had no family to speak of and I did. It made me defensive, / it made him crazy. I realize that he is stronger, but I can not / help him.' The page closes on what Gibbons loved in them - watching the Hydes 'take risks,' 'flying into metal / shop and playing at the falls off the big north windows' - male loyalty forever brushing against violence. Source spellings ('alley' for ally, 'leathing,' 'ripe doen,' 'ment') are kept.