love education

Chapter 21 February (3)
"Is he very ill? How is it?" the boy asked anxiously.The nurse looked at him and said nothing, "Come with me." They went up two flights of stairs and came to the end of a long corridor, where there was an open door leading into a hall with There are two rows of beds.

"Go in," urged the nurse again, and walked in. The boy mustered up his courage and followed. These are the thin faces of some patients, some of them have their eyes closed tightly, and it seems that they are not far away from death; Moaned the same.The hall was so dim, the air was filled with the pungent smell of potions, and the two nuns were walking back and forth holding small medicine bottles.When they came to the end of the hall, the nurse paused at the head of one of the beds, drew back the curtains, and said to the boy:

"This is your father's bed."

Tears welled up in the boy's eyes, and the package fell to the ground. He buried his head on the sick man's shoulder, and tightly grasped his father's motionless body on the quilt with one hand. arm.The patient didn't seem to feel it. The boy stood up, looked at his father, and then began to cry.At this time, the man woke up, looked at the boy deeply, and seemed to recognize him, but his lips did not move.

Oh, poor father!How much he has changed!If he hadn't been introduced beforehand, the boy would never have recognized him. His hair had turned white, his beard had grown out, his face had begun to swell, with a slight dark red on it, and the skin on his face was taut. Glowing, his eyes are not as big as they used to be, his lips have thickened, his whole face has begun to deform, now only his forehead and eyebrows look normal, and he seems to have difficulty breathing.

"Father! Father!" cried the boy, "it's me, don't you recognize me? I'm Cicero, I'm your Cicero! I came from the village, and my mother sent me Come on! Take a good look at me, don't you recognize me? Say something to me!"

The man stared at the boy for a while, then closed his eyes again, "Father! Father! What's wrong with you? I am your son, your son Cicero!"

The sick father still did not move, and his breathing was still difficult.The boy continued to cry, found a chair, sat down, and waited for his father to wake up without taking his eyes off his face for a moment.

"A doctor will come to visit him soon," he thought, "and then he will tell my father's condition." After that, he fell into a state of sadness, and he thought a lot about his kind father. the past.On the day they parted, his father had already boarded the parting ship. He said goodbye to his father for the last time. He also thought of how much his family had placed their hopes on his father's long journey, and remembered the sad look on his mother's face when she received the letter. Thinking of his father's possible death, he could even see his mother dressed in black, and the whole family was in mourning... He just sat there for a long time, until one hand lightly It was on his shoulders, and he suddenly woke up. It was a nun.

"What's wrong with my father?" The boy asked the nun eagerly, "Is he your father?" The nun asked him kindly, "Yes, he is my father. I just arrived. What's wrong with him? ?”

"Be brave, my child," replied the nun, "the doctor will be rounding the ward in a moment." She left without saying anything.Half an hour later, he heard a bell ringing, and saw the doctor coming in from the door at the other end of the hall, followed by an assistant, nuns and nurses, and they began to round the ward. Every bed should be inquired and checked.The waiting period seemed to the boy to have passed through centuries. Every time the doctor stopped by someone else's bed, the boy's heart would become more anxious.Finally, they came to the hospital bed next to it. The doctor was a rather old man, tall, somewhat hunchbacked, with a dignified expression.Before he left the bed next to him, the boy stood up. When the doctor walked towards him, the boy couldn't help crying, and the doctor took a look at the boy.

"He is the patient's son," said the nun, "he just came from the country this morning." The doctor put a hand on the boy's shoulder, then leaned over to examine the patient, he took the patient's pulse, and then He touched his forehead, and then asked the nun a few questions, and the nun replied: "There is nothing new." The doctor pondered for a while, and said: "Treat the same way." At this time, the boy mustered up his courage , asked the doctor in a crying voice:
"What's wrong with my father?"

"Don't be afraid, boy," replied the doctor, laying his hand on the boy's shoulder again, "he has erysipelas in his face, which is a very serious disease, but there is hope for your father, and you To help him, you must be able to do him a good job by being around him."

"But he doesn't know me anymore!" the boy exclaimed, with a hint of frustration in his voice.

"He will recognize you. Maybe tomorrow. We should all look forward to the best. We must muster up our courage."

The boy wanted to ask a few more questions, but didn't dare, and the doctor walked past him.The boy began to work as a nurse.Because he couldn't do anything, he had to help the patient cover the quilt, and touched his hand from time to time to drive away the flies around him.And every time the patient groaned, he ran over and bent over to have a look.Whenever the nun brought something to drink for his father, he would rush to take the cup or spoon from her hand and feed his father something to drink.And the patient always looked at him from time to time, but there was no sign that he had recognized his son. However, every time he looked at the boy, his eyes would stay on his face longer, especially when When the boy cried with his handkerchief over his face.

The first day passed like this, and the boy made a bed out of two chairs in the corner of the hall, and spent the night.He started his work again the next morning. On this day, the patient's eyes seemed to have regained consciousness. When the boy was stroking his father and talking to his father, he could only For a moment, a grateful expression seemed to flash in the patient's pupils, and at this moment, his lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something.

Every time he opened his eyes, he searched for the figure of his little nurse.The doctor made two more examinations for the patient, and felt that the patient's condition seemed to have improved.Towards evening, the boy was picking up his glass to drink something, and he seemed to be aware of a slight smile passing over those swollen lips.After that, the boy became more hopeful, and he began to have expectations in his heart.He began to expect his father to understand what he said, so he kept talking to him until he couldn't speak anymore.He told his father about his mother, about his little sisters, and how he got home, and he encouraged his father with warm and affectionate words.Although he often wondered whether his father could really hear him, he kept talking because, even if the patient couldn't understand him, at least he could feel happy when he heard his own voice, which was full of joy. An unusual feeling of love and sorrow.

In this way, the second day passed, and the third day and the fourth day passed like this one after another. The father's condition seemed to have improved a little, but it was very likely to develop in a bad direction.The boy was so absorbed in doing all this that he couldn't even eat two meals a day when the nun brought him something to eat, and he chewed some bread or cheese, and he didn't seem to care much about what was going on around him. Don't care, there are dying parents, sisters who come to visit suddenly at night, and visitors who cry in despair.These gloomy, miserable scenes in the hospital had never before alarmed a boy.

Time passed day after day like this, he was always by his father's side, paying attention to his father's condition all the time, so vigilant and careful, every time his father sighed or glanced at him, he would get excited Trembling all over, the combination of hope and disappointment made him restless, his spirit was liberated by moments and disheartened by others.

On the fifth day, the patient's condition suddenly deteriorated. When the doctor made his rounds again, the boy asked him about his father's condition. The doctor shook his head, as if to say that everything was over.The boy threw himself on the chair and burst into tears.But there was one thing that gave him some comfort, that is, his father's consciousness seemed to gradually recover, and he looked at the boy with more focused eyes, and that expression was mixed with sweetness and tenderness.He didn't drink the medicine given by anyone, except his own son, and he seemed more eager to take the medicine.He tried to open his lips many times, as if he wanted to say something to the boy, and when he made these efforts, his thoughts could not be more clear.Sometimes the boy would suddenly grab his father's arm, and suddenly there was boundless hope in his heart. He almost excitedly said to his father:

"Come on, come on, father! You will recover, and you can leave this place in a moment! We will go home together, come on, just hold on a little longer!"

It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and just as the boy was about to give up his efforts and no longer put his hope in those gentle cries, footsteps came from outside the door of the ward closest to him, accompanied by the sound of footsteps getting closer, A strong voice spit out a few words:
"Good-bye, dear nun."

And these few words made the boy jump up, he wanted to scream, but his throat was too tight to scream.At that moment, a man walked into the ward, his hands were wrapped in thick bandages, and a nun followed behind him. Seeing them, the boy suddenly screamed, and his whole body seemed to be nailed to the ground. in place.The man turned around, stared at him for a while, and exclaimed excitedly, "Cicero".Then he rushed towards the boy, and the boy threw himself into the man's arms, so excited that he couldn't even speak, the nun and the nurse followed quickly, standing there in amazement.

The boy still couldn't say anything.

"Oh, my dear Cicero."

After looking at the sick man with concern, the father called to his son, kissing him constantly, "Cicero, my dear son, what is the matter? They have taken you to another man's house." By the hospital bed, and I've been waiting there, I've been dying to see you since your mother wrote that letter saying 'I've sent him.' My poor Sissy Lo, how long have you been here? How could you have made such a mistake? My illness was cured without much trouble, you know, I have always been strong. Well, how is your mother? And Kensettla? That cutie, are they all ok? I'm leaving this hospital now, come with me, oh my God, who would have expected such a thing... ’ The boy was about to chime in with news from his father’s family. "Oh, how happy I am!" he stammered, "I'm so happy, what a miserable day I'm having!"

And the boy kept kissing his father, but he didn't move. "Come on," said his father, "we can go home tonight."

He pulled the boy to his side, but the boy turned his head to look at the patient he had been caring for.

"Hey, are you going or not?" urged his father, astonished.The boy couldn't help but glanced at the patient again, at that moment the patient opened his eyes and was looking at him with concern, then the boy told his father the truth:
"No, father, you have to wait here for a while. I can't go now. There is an old man here. I have been here for five days. He always looks at me with concern. I thought he was you. I am so I love him, he looks at me when I feed him, he always wants me to stay with him. Now he is very dangerous, please be patient, I really don't have the courage to leave here, and I don't I don't know why, it hurts my heart to leave him. I will go home tomorrow, let me stay here a little longer today, because I don't want to leave him at all, just see the way he looks at me Well, I don't know who he is, but he really needs me, otherwise he will die so alone, let me stay, dear father."

"Well done, boy!" the nurse called, and the father stood there in bewilderment, staring straight at his son, then at the patient.

"Who is he?" the father asked, "like you, a countryman," the nurse replied, "he also just came back from abroad, and he went to the hospital with you one day, when our nurse brought him here , he is already delirious and can’t speak, maybe in a far away place, he also has a home and a son, he may think you are one of his sons.”

"Stay here," said the father to Cicero.

"He won't be here long," said the nurse in a low voice. "Stay here."

Again the father said, "You are a caring child. I will go home right away so that your mother will not worry about me. I will leave you a silver coin for daily expenses. Farewell, my brave little boy Baby, we'll meet again soon."

(End of this chapter)