He looked up.
That big rigid boxed shape building was still standing high. The building was in a clean white color way, as if someone paints it every day. Who would miss that building if it fell into pieces? The good thing is that Ludo would be able to get out.
Theo has came many times to that hospital. Every time he sees the big building, he feels peeved, sad and angry. Inadvertently he gripped the flower bouquet his mother set it up for Ludo. He gripped it so tight until the stem broken. He would throw the orange peony, the pink rose or the white lily into the trash. Will Ludo be happy to receive some flowers? Theo frowned, no real man is pleased to get some flowers.
Ludo has been treated in this hospital for nearly eight months. It was more than half a year and it feels like a lifetime for kids in his age. Theo does not understand about Ludo"s illness. His parents had tried to explain it. There was something in Ludo"s blood or something like that.
What a strange disease. How could it get into the blood? May be the doctors were just playing it up or maybe Ludo tricked them so he can stay away from school. No school for eight months is pretty good. You can play games till you get retched and not seeing any annoying soul at school.
Maybe I should try and pretending to have one as well, Theo thought. He has been thinking about it, but he was not sure whether he wants it to keep off school or so he can be with Ludo all day long in the hospital.
Theo packed a navy-white box in his arms, it was full of milk chocolate bars. They loved to eat chocolate together while Theo visited Ludo. Just like they would do when Ludo visited Theo at his house. Today, Theo bought the chocolate bars with his own money and he was so proud when he walked into the hospital.
But Ludo could not eat lots of chocolate anymore. In fact, he could only eat a little food. Sometimes, he was not eating at all. But it didn"t trouble them, the chocolate bars alone could make them feel at home.
In his loud tone, Theo started his visit,"Ludo, I"m coming! You are not missing anything at all from school. We got a reading task again! Anne Frank.. or something like that, a women"s name. And I didn"t even finish the book before. I think Mr. Albert is a bit nuts."
"Our lunch is still like rubbish soaked in oil, but it"s not bad, today we got fried potato b.a.l.l.s, just too salty. Today that fatty George tried to strike me in dodge ball game, but I managed to smack a ball to his face. His nose bleed and got sent to the medical room. But he used his bleeding nose to get away from cla.s.s. How lucky he was.." Theo lengthy recited.
Theo always came with plenty news and stories. He did not care what was happening inside Ludo"s room when he got in and blabbering. The nurses and Ludo"s family knew Theo"s visit schedule, it was from after school time until evening. Some days, his father would pick him up after his office hour and the other days he would go home by himself with a bus or train. But everytime Theo went home, he never put on a happy face.
Ludo grinned weakly,"I hope his nose is still flat." he amused.
Theo smiled.
A brown haired nurse with a tired face, changed the infuse bottle beside Ludo"s bed. Theo knew her name, it was Edith the Ultra Stern.
"His nose won"t get more flatter when it is flat already," laugh Theo.
Nurse Edith glance toward Theo, then to the table next to Ludo"s bed. Her eyes went down, then she left the room without a word. Ludo"s food, a dollop of porridge in a red plastic bowl, had no sign of being touched.
Evening comes and the sky looks pale. Theo walked home. It needed a long time to get home by walking. But he didn"t like the idea of sitting quietly in a bus or squeezed in a train. His full brain needed to be loosen along the way.
It has been months Theo could not accept that Ludo was in such severe illness. But today he could not set it aside anymore. Seeing Ludo"s food untouched and a secret glance from nurse Edith the Ultra Stern, pulled Theo from his fantasy world.
Ludo was ill. His body was so skinny he looked like a skeleton, his voice was getting raspy and faint, his lips was pale blue, his skin transparent, Theo thought he could see Ludo"s veins and bones. All the evidents of Ludo"s illness poured in front of his nose. And there was nothing Theo can do to help cure Ludo. He even can"t ask Ludo to eat his food. Because when he asked Ludo to eat, it means he admitted that Ludo was ill.
Aargh.. but what was the difference? Even if Theo denied with all his might, Ludo would still be ill. And there was nothing he could do to save him. His best friend since childhood, whose never left him even though he s.n.a.t.c.hed the last Reese chocolate from his hand, now laid in bed, with a white pale face looking like a ghost, scary and in pain. That was how his best friend is now.
It was not fair. Ludo was still very young. He should have a long time to live. He should"ve got more chances to gobble as much chocolate as he wants. And he should see with his own eyes how Theo thrown a ball to fatty George"s nose this afternoon.
He recalled the time before Ludo became ill, Ludo had a chubby red cheek, his heart ached, as being pierced by thousands of thorns. So, this was not fair for him as well. They should have plenty more time to picking on people together. He should have owned his best friend much longer.
If only there was a way to end Ludo"s suffering, Theo thought furiously.
"d.a.m.n it!", Theo cursed, while kicking a tin cans. It flung toward a narrow alley. He should not do that, there could be a homeless guy who would beat him up then. But he didn"t care. Somehow he expected it would happen, so at least, he could feel the pain Ludo"s suffered, although in a different way.
A big shadow stirred from the alley. It must be the angry dirty-stinky homeless who would ask him some money. He prepared himself, put up a stance, ready to fight. I had boxing practices, haven"t I, his conceited thought. Yeah, he understood he was no good in fighting, but at least he got style.
Nonetheless, appearing from the alley, he was not that dirty-stinky homeless guy with long curly grayed hair and toothless and sooted eyelids, that Theo antic.i.p.ated. He was not a moneyless drunkard nor escaped homeless from a social inst.i.tution nor a punk wanted by the police.
Emerged from the alley, it was something far different.