Language Arts Review 3rd Quarter 2019-2020
Mr. Dominguez
The Last Leaf
Two artists, Sue and Joana (nicknamed “Johnsy”) worked and lived in a single and very cheap studio. Sue
came from Maine and her friend from California.
In November, pneumonia spread like an epidemic in the artist colony. One after another, the inhabitants
were coming under the spell of this disease. This virulent pneumonia quickly made Johnsy to go to bed so
seriously ill. With a pallid face, she lay helplessly on her iron bed looking at the outside sky through the
open window. Johnsy’s condition deteriorated fast. Seeing that her friend was sleeping dangerously, Sue
called the doctor to see her friend Johnsy lying down hopelessly sick.
The doctor made a strict observation as he measured Johnsy’s temperature with the thermometer. He
declared that the girl was so unwell, and had only a 10 % chance of surviving. He also said that Johnsy
had lost all her will to recover. She could overcome that situation only if she had a strong enough desire
to fight off the affliction. Saying this, he asked Sue if the patient had any unfulfilled desire.
Sue, being Johnsy’s best friend, told the doctor that Johnsy had the dream of painting the Bay of Naples
someday. The doctor was somewhat unconvinced at this. He asked if Johnsy had any young man in mind.
Sue quickly replied in the negative. The doctor concluded that the patient was too weak to survive.
Nevertheless, he assured that he would give the best medicine possible to help her, but the medication
lost its efficacy by half, if the patient lost her will power to win her battle against the disease.
After the doctor left, Sue cried miserably shedding many tears. Then pulling herself up, she brushed her
hair and went to Johnsy’s bedside just to lift her friend’s gloomy mood. Johnsy lay in her bed motionless,
like deadwood.
Sue went to the kitchen to prepare some broth for her friend, but while she was preparing it, she heard a
low sound which appeared to be a countdown exercise. Quite perplexed, Sue rushed to her friend’s
bedside. Johnsy lay there motionless but staring at something outside and counting backwards. In her
faint voice, she counted 12, 11, 10,and so on.
Looking outside through the window, Sue wanted to figure out what her friend was doing. A withering
old vine was visible. The autumn cold win had stripped the vine of its leaves laying bare its skeleton
branch. Sue asked Johnsy what had engaged her attention. Johnsy said there were 100 leaves three days
ago. Their number was diminishing fast as they fell faster then. It was getting easier to count. Only five
left.
Sue still could not get any clue, then Johnsy told her that the fall of the last leaf would bring her death.
She was seeing death knocking at her door. She was waiting for the last leaf to fall so that she could
depart.
Sue went to see their neighbor Behrman. He was a painter living in the ground floor. He was past sixty
and had a typical beard. As a painter he had struggled for nearly forty years to accomplish his dream, it
was the huge desire to paint a masterpiece, but never had been able to start the job in right earnest.
Sue saw Behrman in his dimly lit studio in the ground floor. A black canvass mounted on an easel had
stood there for twenty years without receiving Behrman’s touch. Sue narrated how Johnsy had been lying
so sick in her bed with her obsession with the last leaf that stood between her and her death.
Johnsy had fallen asleep, Sue accompanied by her bedside. The next morning Sue got up from her one
hour sleep to find Johnsy staring at the window. But what a surprise! Despite the strong winds and
lashing rain that battered the place the whole night, a lone leaf had managed to survive. It was still alive
in that vine creeper’s skeleton.
Johnsy was astonished to see the way the lone leaf had withstood the lashing of the rain and the wind.
She imagined that the leaf would fall that day. The day dragged on monotonously. The night fell bringing
