Chapter 37: The Indifferent Opposition

“ ... All my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large.”

— H. P. Lovecraft, from a letter to Farnsworth Wright dated July 5, 1927, written in connection with the resubmission of The Call of Cthulhu to Weird Tales. The quotation was later excerpted in “The Eyrie” in Weird Tales, Vol. 11, No. 2 (February 1928). Public domain.

In the months that followed, Dreibruch University changed with the improvements that Silas, Kaufman, and Ashcombe discussed.

The transformation had not occurred with the sudden violent bang of revolution that most would be accustomed to in that place and time, but rather over a random week here or on an offhanded Monday where some workers that the rich populace looked upon showed up. However, a quiet accumulation of successes had bought the college goodwill in the area.

Each recovered patient, each improbable survival, each whispered recommendation, and even the study of gunpowder and riflery had all added another stone to a foundation that seemed to grow stronger with every passing week.

They were gaining a reputation for efficiency and intelligence. This was all Theophilus wanted at one point. As time had gone on, he had unconsciously realized that this goal was not only achievable but also just a stepping stone to greater heights. He could save humanity through his institution. There was no higher calling.

What had begun as a modest place of learning and study quickly resembled a place possessed by purpose.

The medical wing had become a hive of continual activity. Surgeries were in the evening, and there was around the clock care for every patient that came in. People came in from as far south as Florida to get assistance with tumors, bleeding, and diseases that were quickly fixed. Dreibruch’s teaching hospital was quickly becoming the premier place of treatment in the Union.

Carriages arrived throughout the day bearing men and women from distant places, and Ashcombe was right. There was some pushback on there being African and Mexican-American workers on the cleaning staff, but a reminder that some jobs were seen as less important than others smoothed that over. While Ashcombe had said the words, it had been Silas and Kaufman who felt bile in their throats when he said it.

Nonetheless, within three months, more than five thousand people had been treated by the facility. For those in society doing the math, Dreibruch treated almost sixty people a day, but only five surgeries were really needed. For the most part, Ashcombe’s diluted tincture worked. The patients were kept for observation. Once Kaufman was certain that the compound had left a patient’s body, he discharged them.

The nurses were quick studies. The women (mostly married ladies in their thirties and forties) who did not want to be homemakers found that they were quite good at following Kaufman’s orders. He gave them a quick course of study over a week, explaining about bandages, protocol, what to monitor, and the other major important parts of the job, and afterward, the nurses who had come from a local parish reinforced their work over the weeks.

Everyone was paid, which made for happy workers and happy subjects.

Hope had become Dreibruch’s most abundant commodity for everyone.