Chapter 35 Chapter Thirty-Five

Obinas was walking in the garden of the hospital. Before his eyes was the dark night, but in his ears he heard all kinds of joyful sounds that can only be heard in broad daylight.It was pitiful to see the gravel rustling under his feet every time he took a strenuous step.Despite several such walks, he was far from being fit for the trip to Zurich.Once at the train station, he began to faint.The strangest and most unbearable feeling a blind man feels when he is dizzy.Noisy sounds, footsteps, voices, and wheels rang together, and some sharp and heavy dangerous objects seemed to be rushing towards him, scaring him into a daze.He was constantly in constant fear of bumping into something, even though Margo supported him.

On the train he felt nauseated, because he could only hear the clanging and the shaking of the carriage, but he could not feel the train moving forward at all, no matter how hard he tried to imagine the scenery outside the window moving rapidly back.After arriving in Zurich, he had to grope his way through the invisible crowd again. All kinds of obstacles and sharp edges were holding their breaths and waiting aside, ready to hit him at any time. "Oh, let's go, what are you afraid of!" Margot said impatiently. "I'm leading you. Well, stay here and don't move. It's time to get in a taxi. Lift your legs. Don't be so timid. I think you are as timid as a two-year-old baby."

The eminent professor of ophthalmology carefully examined Obinas' eyes.His voice was soft and courteous, so that Albinus imagined him to be an old man with a priestly face and a clean shaven beard.In fact, the doctor was young and had a beautiful mustache.His diagnosis didn't sound much new to Albinus—the optic nerve was damaged at the junction of the brain, and it might heal after a while, or it might shrink, there were two possibilities, and it was almost half right. half.But in any case, judging from the patient's current condition, what he needs most is a complete rest.It is best to live in a sanatorium in the mountains for a while.

"We'll see when the time comes," the professor said. "Will you be able to see it by then?" Obinas said with a wry smile. Margot doesn't have much interest in nursing homes.An elderly Irish couple they met at the hotel offered to rent them a summer cottage.The house is on a hill in a health resort.After discussing it with Rex, Margot gave Obinasto to a hired nurse, and they went to inspect the villa together.It was a nice house--two stories, with small, clean rooms, and a cup of holy water fixed to each door. The location of the place seemed to Rex a favorite: a lonely cottage, high on a hill, hidden in a thick forest of black cedars, only a quarter of an hour from the village and inn below.Rex chose for himself the sunniest room upstairs, and went to the village to hire a cook.He had a serious talk with the cook.

"We are paying you so well," said he, "for employing you to attend to a patient who has been blinded by violent mental stimulation. I am his doctor, but, according to his current He must not let him know that I, a doctor, still lives in the house where he and his niece live. Therefore, if you are not strict and reveal the secret directly or indirectly—for example, tell me Let him hear you when you speak—you will be legally responsible for affecting the patient's recovery. I believe that such negligence will be severely punished in Switzerland. Also, I advise you not to approach my patient or talk to him Talk to him. He has violent schizophrenia. I can tell you that he once punched an old lady in the face and seriously injured her. (The old lady has many similarities with you, but not as much as you Beautiful.) Of course I don't want this to happen again. Remember, if you go to the village and spread the word, arouse everyone's curiosity, and make my patient sick, he will first Smash your brains out, and then smash that house. Got it?"

The woman was frightened and was about to turn down the well-paid offer, but Rex assured her that with the niece at her side, she would never have to see the blind man, and the blind man was no trouble.The cook then agreed to accept the job.Rex told the cook again that neither the butcher nor the laundress were allowed to enter the villa.After the arrangements were made, Rex moved into the villa while Margot went back to pick up Obinas.He took all the luggage into the house.Then I made a plan, decided how to allocate and arrange the rooms, and removed all redundant and fragile items.He went into his room, whistled merrily, and pinned some rather indecent pen drawings to the wall.

Near five o'clock Rex saw through the binoculars a taxi approaching from a distant hill.Margo, in a bright red tank top, got out of the car and helped Albinus out.He shrugs, wears dark glasses, and looks like an owl.The car turned around, turned a curve, and disappeared behind dense bushes. Margo held Albinus's arm, he seemed both docile and clumsy.He used crutches to explore the way and climbed up along the mountain trail.Now and then they made their way through the cedar groves until at last they came to the little garden terrace.The frightened cook came over to meet them cautiously. She helped Margo carry the box, and tried not to look at the dangerous lunatic. (By the way, the cook has become a loyal servant of Rex.)

Rex leaned out the window and made funny poses for Margo—he put his hands on his chest, then stretched out his arms tremblingly—imitating the cartoon characters in Punch Weekly—of course, he acted What is pantomime.In normal times, he would be shaking and screaming funny.Margo looked up and smiled at him and walked into the villa.She still held Albinus' arm. "Take me into the rooms and have a look, and tell me what's in here," said Albinus.He wasn't really that enthusiastic, but he thought it would please Margo if he asked, because she always liked moving to new places.

"A small dining room, a small drawing room, and a small study," she explained, showing him the first-floor rooms.Obinas touched the furniture and patted various objects in the room, as if he were patting the head of a strange child.He tried his best to identify the direction. "Then the window must be over there." He pointed confidently at a white wall.He slammed into the corner of the table, but reluctantly stretched out his hand to draw on the table, pretending to measure the size of the table. Then they walked up the creaking wooden stairs side by side.Rex sat on the top of the stairs, trying desperately not to laugh.Margo waved a finger at him in warning, and he stood up cautiously, backing away on tiptoe.Such caution was unnecessary, for the wooden stairs made a loud noise under the blind man's feet.

They turned into the corridor.Rex had already returned to the door of his room.He put his hand over his mouth, bowed to them several times, and crouched several times to avoid them.Margo shook her head at him resentfully—this kind of joke was too dangerous, and Rex scurried around the room like a naughty boy. "That's my bedroom, this is your bedroom," she said. "Why do we have to separate?" Obinas asked unhappily. "Oh, Obi," she sighed. "You know what the doctor ordered." They looked at all the rooms (except Rex's, of course).In order to prove that Margot is a good guide, Obinas plans to go around the villa alone without her support.But after he took two steps, he lost his way and hit the wall.He smiled apologetically, and then almost knocked over a washbasin.He stumbled into the corner room (the one Rex lived in, with no access to other rooms except the corridor), but by then he was so dazed he thought it was the bathroom.

"Careful, it's a storage room with piles of stuff," said Margot. "Don't touch your head. Come back, it's time to go to bed, I'm afraid it won't do you any good to run around like this. Today is an exception, and you won't be allowed to run around in the future." In fact, he was exhausted too.Margo put him to bed and brought him supper.After Obinas fell asleep, she went to find Rex.Because they didn't know how soundproof the house was, the two of them only dared to whisper.In fact, they could talk aloud, and Albinus' bedroom was quite far away.