Hospital sounds and smells. My bride and three nurses Surround me, comfort me. Scrubs. Questions. Needles. Surgeon arrives, fly unzipped. It’s too awkward to tell him. He marks the incision spot, Reassures me, and departs. I’m sleepy, drifting, dreamy. Jolly discovery, that bulge below the belly... An inguinal hernia. Likely earned in the saddle of a bike, pedaling upward on mountain roads, ...