"The Shadow of a Crow" Summary

Inman awakens and recollects his childhood on Cold Mountain. He cannot stand the current world or what might be coming. It is late summer, hot and humid, and Inman remembers when he left school. A neighbor, Balis, wakes up and begins scratching notes, translating Greek into English. Since being wounded outside Petersburg and surviving against all odds, Inman has been here in a regular hospital, left to tend his own wound. While his neck heals slowly, he lies looking at the window that seems to frame a painting: road, wall, tree, cart, and blind man selling peanuts, and plays counting games.

When the blind man arrives, Inman walks over and asks how he lost his eyes. The old man was born that way. Inman asks whether he would like to see for 10 minutes...