Page 203 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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188 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
difference how long you do without it, after a drink or
two you’ll end up just like you are now.” That cer­
tainly was real disheartening news, at the time.
The next question they asked was, “You can quit
twenty-four hours, can’t you?” I said, “Sure, yes, any­
body can do that, for twenty-four hours.” They said,
“That’s what we’re talking about. Just twenty-four
hours at a time.” That sure did take a load off of my
mind. Every time I’d start thinking about drinking, I
would think of the long, dry years ahead without hav­
ing a drink; but this idea of twenty-four hours, that it
was up to me from then on, was a lot of help.

(At this point, the Editors intrude just long enough to
supplement Bill D.’s account, that of the man on the bed,
with that of Bill W., the man who sat by the side of the
bed.) Says Bill W.:
Nineteen years ago last summer, Dr. Bob and I saw him
(Bill D.) for the first time. Bill lay on his hospital bed and
looked at us in wonder.
Two days before this, Dr. Bob had said to me, “If you
and I are going to stay sober, we had better get busy.”
Straightway, Bob called Akron’s City Hospital and asked
for the nurse on the receiving ward. He explained that he
and a man from New York had a cure for alcoholism. Did
she have an alcoholic customer on whom it could be tried?
Knowing Bob of old, she jokingly replied, “Well, Doctor,
I suppose you’ve already tried it yourself?”
Yes, she did have a customer—a dandy. He had just
arrived in D.T.’s, had blacked the eyes of two nurses, and
now they had him strapped down tight. Would this one do?
After prescribing medicines, Dr. Bob ordered, “Put him in
a private room. We’ll be down as soon as he clears up.”
Bill didn’t seem too impressed. Looking sadder than
ever, he wearily ventured, “Well, this is wonderful for you
fellows, but it can’t be for me. My case is so terrible that
I’m scared to go out of this hospital at all. You don’t have