Battered Young Miss

"Mr Luo can I have a moment of your time?"

Dr Qu Xiang, the oncologist had a chart of Luo Xue in his hand, while facing her husband. Behind them was a woman who appeared very gaunt and had lost not only a lot of weight, but also her hair.

"Yes Doctor Qu?"

"As you know, Mrs Luo doesn"t have much time to live, the cancer cells are spreading more rapidly than was first predicted. We have to keep her in here for close observation."

"Doctor since you said that my wife doesn"t have much time left, isn"t it best that we move her back home where my granddaughter and I can take care of her?"

"Mr Luo I understand that it may do her some good to stay at home, but what if there something happens while neither of you are around to take care of her? Are either of you able to administer the intravenous medications and IV fluids to her at home? These are the things you need to think about, before making the decision to remove your wife from the hospital."

Luo Fei felt pressured by the words of the doctor, although it sounded reasonable, but a part of him wanted his wife to be taking care of by people she was familiar with and in a place that she was accustomed to and not at the hospital for the remaining part of her life.

The doctor saw the creases of frown lines on the forehead of the man in front of him, he remembered the first time the couple met him at his office, looking back now, he realized that the man had aged a lot. The saying that tragedy makes people age over night could be held true for Luo Fei who in a single day received a news that shattered his mind and heart.

"At the end of the day, it is still your choice to make Mr Luo."

Luo Fei looked back at the woman whom he signed the marriage register over thirty years ago, he recalled the promise they both made to each other to be together forever in good times and bad times. They had already gone through the good times now was when they had to weather the storm of life together. A sadly smile appeared on his face, he couldn"t complain much since they were both blessed to see their grandchild even if they child pa.s.sed away before them.

"Doctor, my wife would stay at the hospital. I know there is no way for me do live in with her while she is here, since that is one of the reasons why I wanted her to be taken care of at home, but her health is more important to me than my personal comfort."

"Okay Mr Luo, I will check up on Mrs Luo later."

With that said the two shook hands, as the doctor parted ways with Luo Fei.

"H..ho..ney?"

A weak voice came from the bed across from Luo Fei, who saw his wife struggling to get up from the bed in an hospital gown.

"Yes! I"m coming!"

The man dashed across to where his wife was, taking her by the arm to help her to a sitting position on the bed.

"BLARGHHHHHHH!!!!""

Without any warning whatsoever, Lu Xue threw up on her husband, the bedding, her gown and the floor was stained with vomit.

The nurses at the ward heard the sound of someone vomiting, pausing what they were doing to search for where the sound was coming from, they soon located where it was and gave the perpetrator a dirty look.

"Look here! Make sure you clean up the mess! Or get someone to clean it for you!"

One of them was rude enough to ask Luo Xue to get up from the bed to clean up her vomit, despite knowing that she was a sick patient at the ward for chronically ill patients.

"Wh..What do you mean by that? Who say that? Why don"t you show your face?!"

"I was the one who said that."

Luo Fei was enraged by the way the nurse spoke to both in a demeaning way to both him and his wife, he could see from her the way she carried herself that she was the type that spoke to others rudely.

"D..Dar..ling...it"s okay...leave..her..alone."

Luo Fei had to hold his anger in for the sake of his wife who was pleading with him not to make a scene at the hospital, but he took a note of the woman"s face for future reference.

"Let me see if I can catch the housekeeper to clean the floor for us, I"m also going to get you a fresh set of gown and bed sheets."

Luo Fei patted the back of his wife"s hand even though it was sticky with vomit.

"O..kay."

Luo Xue replied weakly to what her husband said, watching as he left the ward to look for the housekeeper.

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ChuanDu Secondary School

At the rooftop, a teenage girl in pleated skirt of plaid red and green with a white collared s.h.i.+rt that had a crisscross black bow on the neck, sat on the cold hard concrete floor to eat from her lunchbox. She kept flipping through her phone looking at news of celebrities online and after a while she would switch to look at the notification from her social media account.

The phone of the girl suddenly began to beep, as she saw it was her grandmother on the callerID screen.

"h.e.l.lo grandma."

"Am I speaking to Liena? The grandchild child of Mrs Luo?"
Her grandmother had saved her on the phone as "Liena Grandchild" which was why the female voice on the other line was calling to ask.

"Yes! Is my grandma okay?!"

"We need you to come to the hospital now!"

The line went dead, as the caller cut off, leaving Sheng Liena in a state of panic. With her lunchbox in hand, she ran downstairs where her cla.s.sroom was to pick up her schoolbag, das.h.i.+ng out of the school straight for the hospital, taking a cab along the way.
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HuaQu Hospital Palliative Care Ward

Pus.h.i.+ng aside the main door leading to the PC ward, Sheng Liena ran inside towards where her grandmother"s bed was, to the left side of the room almost towards the center, the nurses station faced the main entrance into the ward.

Sheng Liena stopped dead on her track when she saw that the bed where her grandmother usually laid was now covered in white linen sheet.

"Grandma!"

Crying aloud, she pulled the cover off the molded figure on the bed to reveal her worst fears, her grandmother laid lifeless on the bed. Sheng Liena fell to the floor crying her eyes out, while the nurses looked from where they sat by their desk.

The ward was almost empty with only five people including the woman that just pa.s.sed away, that occupied the eighteen bed s.p.a.ce ward.

Sheng Liena pulled out the phone from the front pocket of her s.h.i.+rt to dial the number of her grandfather.

"Please pick up grandpa!"

The phone kept ringing, but no one picked up, after trying numerous times the girl finally gave up. Meanwhile, Luo Fei was at the bank and had his phone of silence, therefore when the nurse from his wife"s ward called his phone he couldn"t answer since taking a phone call at the bank could attract a severe penalty, this was the bank"s way of guarding against robbery. Several missed call appeared on the phone of Luo Fei while he waited for his turn from a long queue to cash his paycheck.

_________

"When is your grandfather coming?"

"I have been calling his phone, but he is not answering."

"You know that we cannot leave a body at the ward for too long or else other patients would start coming and everywhere would be stinking after some time."

"So what do you want me to do?"

They saw the look the teenage girl sent to them as though she wanted to reach out and slap all four of them in the face.

"I"m just saying that you need to start making preparations to have her moved to the hospital morgue."

"When did my grandma die?"

"Around the time you received the call from the hospital."

Sheng Liena had to grit her teeth from crying, she couldn"t believe that she wasn"t there to see her grandmother for the last time. Usually she would come in during visiting hours after school from four in the afternoon to seven at night when visiting hours ended. To her, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with her grandmother, since the doctor said she didn"t have much time left.

An hour later, Sheng Liena heard the phone of her late grandmother beep, she rose from the floor to see who was calling, as she saw it was a number she knew by heart, her grandfather!

"h.e.l.lo grandpa!"

"Liena, why do you have your grandmother"s phone? Is everything okay? Why aren"t you at school?!"

"Grandpa please come to the hospital!"

"What happened? Tell me!"

"It"s not something I can talk to you on the phone about, please come to the hospital!"

"Okay, okay, I will be there!"

Sheng Liena could not tell her grandfather that his wife just pa.s.sed away, it was a discussion best said in person.

Luo Fei hailed a cab, which took him from the bank straight to the hospital where his granddaughter was waiting for him.

------------

"Liena!"

"Grandpa! Grandma is dead!"

No sooner had the words left her mouth, she began crying all over again, Luo Fei on hearing the news of his wife"s death, clutched his chest as he crumpled to the fall of the ward. The nurses left their desk, rus.h.i.+ng to where the elderly man lay unconscious.

"Grandpa!"

Sheng Liena called out to her grandfather who lay motionless on the floor surrounded by the nurses.

"Call the doctor!"

One of them dashed out of the ward to alert the doctor of the incident at the palliative care unit.

A nurse began checking for pulse, but there seem to be none.

"He doesn"t have any pulse! Let"s take turns giving him CPR!"

The b.u.t.ton off his s.h.i.+rt was hastily taken off, as the nurses took turning applying pressure to his chest every two minutes minutes per nurse. A short while later, a female doctor in lab coat strode in and saw the commotion that was taking place in the ward, the other patients had left their bed to watch the nurses attempt to resuscitate the man on the floor. Already five minutes had past since the time the man collapsed

"How long have you been doing CPR? What is his name?"

"About five minutes doctor! Luo Fei!"

"We would all take turns doing CPR for the next twenty five minutes and if he doesn"t respond, I will have to p.r.o.nounce him dead. Anyone not performing CPR step back!"

The doctor sent a look at the patients and the teenage girl that was crying by the feet of her grandfather, who took off when they heard the warning tone of the doctor. Half an hour later, Luo Fei was still lying motionless on the floor of the ward, looking at the watch on her wrist, the doctor then said, "Luo Fei, time of death 3:01 pm."

"Grandpa!"

Sheng Liena rushed to where her grandfather"s body was, holding on to him as she let out a gut wrenching cry. In one day she lost not just one, but two people that were like a parent to her. The tears had not even dried from her eyes from her grandmother"s demise and yet she had to face another death in so short a time apart.