Cutting for Stone

Marion sees three jets in the sky, then feels a huge explosion. He wants to believe that there is sense in what is happening but cannot understand it. Everyone drags their mattresses into a safe area in Hema and Ghosh’s house and lays there, waiting. Bombs and bullets explode nearby, and a bullet even breaks one of their windows. Ghosh deduces that the military is not joining the coup but fighting it.

The entire hospital is locked down. Rosina returns later and tells them that the military is attacking the Imperial Bodyguard, which Mebratu leads, and they are all over the city. Matron has a few guns, which she distributes to protect the hospital grounds from looters. Shiva tries to distract himself with math puzzles. Marion overhears Matron telling Ghosh about a past incident in which a man named John Melly died trying to rescue her at the hospital. She feels responsible for his death because she insisted on staying there, thinking it was safe from looters. After he was shot, she nursed him for two weeks until he died. Matron’s story makes Marion realize that the adults have lives he knows nothing about.