March 3, 2009
Forty-eight hours after the surgery, I stayed by Teacher Lin"s side without closing my eyes. He frowned without sound, I could judge his condition through his trembled eyelashes, until he squeezed my hand and opened his mouth to expel breathe, "Hurts."
After they gave an anesthetic, my heart calmed down. I kissed his forehead: "Well-behaved, the pain will go away quickly."
Our Teacher Lin always blessed with fortune.
When he was a kid, he lived in a military area compound. Although his parents were busy, the military armies had taken care of his daily life, so he never felt worried.
When he left home to go to school, many people regarded him as a handsome man. Female students who tried to hook on him picked his sheets and quilts up every weekend. He had shown off about this period of history until now.
After graduation, he admitted into public inst.i.tutions. He moved into dormitories, the 20-square-meter suite for a single person. All of them who lived there became a whole family. In this kind of dormitory building, the most important was the Big Sister Ma, she was nagging but took good care of young people"s daily life. His roommate was a local, his mother often came to pay a visit. That old lady was very kind. She saw Teacher Lin was so skinny as a bamboo pole, she also brought some supplements and food for him.
Later, he went into a relations.h.i.+p with my mother. Fortunately, my mother had a little cleanliness addict. My mother took down the curtains and washed it at least once a week. Now he didn"t even need to wash his clothes and quilts. My mother was afraid that he didn"t wash it clean.
After getting married, they moved into houses in the same neighborhood with their grandparents. Not for a long time, my grandmother retired. She saw that the young married couple worked hard, she offered herself to provide lunch and dinner. He and my mother only need to take turns making breakfast.
After I was born, under my mother"s all-around self-care ability training and blind adoration of Teacher Lin since my childhood, I took over such tasks as made breakfast for him, matched his clothes, also handed over drinking water cups to him. Since then, Teacher Lin shed the last bit of worry in his life for over 20 years.
I said this, just wanted to express a point of view – we had spoiled Teacher Lin all this time and we were used to it…
This time he went into surgery, the big matter as walked down from the bed or as small as dressed up and gargled. My mother and I did it all.
My first direct contact with the doctor was on the third night after the surgery, when I coaxed Teacher Lin to go to sleep. I was half crouched beside the bed in a twisted position that surpa.s.sed Sister Furong. My right elbow on the bed as a point of strength. My forearm supported on his neck and shoulder back let his head on my arm. With my left hand, I gently rubbed his back.
(s.h.i.+ Hengxia [史恒侠] better known by her nickname Sister Furong, is a woman from Wugong County, Shaanxi Province, China who received worldwide notoriety in 2005 for her postings on the Internet. s.h.i.+ Hengxia is often referred to as frjj, short for “Furong Jiejie”, which literally means “Sister Lotus”.)
Beforehand, Teacher Lin took off the oxygen tube and there were still four tubes left on the body, including the gastric tube, nasogastric tube, urethral catheter, and drainage tubes. He could slightly turnover, but the post-surgery wound and flatulence made him unable to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night. Under this semi-unconscious state, he could still accurately turn into my embrace when I lifted his neck to ma.s.sage him. After that, he fell asleep….. I felt awkward, gratified and also had to accept my misfortunes.
Just as I twisted in such an inelegant posture, the door pushed to open. They conducted room visits every two hours within three days after the operation. The night s.h.i.+ft doctor came in with a low-light flashlight in his hand. As the flashlight swept over my position, he stunned. I thought I need to explain, so I said in a low voice: "He couldn"t sleep because of the pain in his wound."
The doctor smiled: "Do you need some help?"
"No, thank you."
He nodded and left.
The light was dim and my mind was all over Teacher Lin. The first impression that the doctor"s left merely just his slender and tall back, nothing else.
Special Dialog:
Doctor: You just saw me at a glance, when you turned your head, you will surely forget me.