Chapter 20 Chapter Nineteen

This was Helene's first visit to the air force base, and Mosca ran to meet her outside the barbed wire and led her through several guard posts.She was slender and looked beautiful in a peach dress.The stuff was bought by Mosca with military coupons from Ann Middleton's army.The outer suit is a large white silk smock, a white bonnet, and a white veil.A veil hid her swollen cheeks.She held Mosca's arm tightly, and they both stepped into the gate of the air force base. Arriving at the employee, Inge stood up and walked away from the table to welcome Helene.They shook hands warmly and exchanged names in whispers.At this time, Mr. Top, the chief of staff, came in from the outer office, holding several documents for Eddie Cassin's signature.With a smile on his face and a gentle demeanor, he told Helene proudly that they have a very good dentist at the air force base, and the dentists in the United States are the best.

"You must have discussed it with Captain Adlock?" Mosca asked Eddie. Eddie nodded, then asked Helian softly, "How do you feel?" "It hurts a little," she replied.Helene was distinctly aware of the intimidating power Mosca and Eddie had over the people here, no matter how polite Mr. Top and Miss Inge might be.Here the roles played by the conqueror and the conquered are clearly defined, rather than gender and personal distinctions.This made her ashamed both for Eddie and for Mosca, and she said, almost defensively, "German doctors can't do anything."

"We have medicine they can't get," Eddie asserted. "Captain Adlok can cure you." He turned to Mosca and said, "You can take her over there now." Helene and Mosca left the employee and went into the outer room.The German clerks there were both amusing and strange when they saw this rude, bossy, ugly, cruel-looking American running for a tall, slim, shy, gentle, beautiful, sweet girl, and they all stopped working. The girl they had in mind for him was very different, completely beyond their expectations. They walked through the central area of ​​the air force base, traversing several paths leading to various hangars, airfields, and office buildings, until they came to a long row of low shacks.This is both an outpatient department and a base hospital.

In the dental room with four white walls, there is a dental chair wrapped in black leather, and there is no one there.Not long after, a German doctor in a white smock walked in.He said: "Captain Adlock is too busy at the moment, he wants me to look after you, please." He pointed to the chair and asked Helene to sit down. She took off her hat and veil, and handed them to Mosca.She put one hand over her swollen cheek, as if trying to hide it, before sinking into the dental chair.Mosca was standing beside her, and she reached out to grab his arm.The German dentist narrowed his eyes and studied her swollen cheeks.And helped her open her mouth wide, though gently, but firmly opened her upper and lower jaws.After staring intently for a long time, he turned to Mosca and said, "We can't do anything without reducing the inflammation. The infection has penetrated deep into the root of the tooth and bone. She needs penicillin injections and hot compresses at the same time. After the swelling subsides, I can Get the tooth out."

Mosca asked, "Can you inject her?" The German dentist shrugged. "There's nothing I can do. The penicillin is locked away and only American doctors have the right to use it. Can I go get Captain Adlok?" Mosca nodded.The German leaves the room. Helian raised her head and looked up at Mosca with a smile on her face.Seemed to be apologetic for the trouble she had caused."It's nothing special," Mrs. Sanders said with a laugh, putting the hat and veil on a chair.They waited a long time before Captain Adlok came in.He was a young man of good health and good looks.Wearing a uniform with smudges all over it, obviously a novice.The bow tie was loosely pulled down to under the unbuttoned collar.The overalls were open.

"Ai, let me see." He said briskly, and at the same time naturally inserted his fingers into her mouth, spreading his teeth. "Yes, I'm afraid my buddy is right." He nodded to the older German dentist who entered again. "She had to be injected with penicillin and put on warm compresses. Once the inflammation was gone, there was no difficulty in healing." Mosca knew the answer, but he had to ask, "Would you like to give her penicillin?" He realized that his voice sounded angry and poorly worded.He felt Helene's hand press tightly on his arm. "I'm sorry," Captain Adlok shook his head. "You are a sensible person. I don't want to destroy the system. And if I set a precedent for you, then every American soldier may bring his girl. What's more, the use of every penicillin must be strictly accounted for." .”

"I handed over the marriage certificate, can I treat it differently?" Mosca asked. "I'm sorry," said Captain Adlock.Mosca saw that the captain's apology was sincere and well thought out. "Listen to me, once your marriage certificate comes back from Frankfurt and is recognized, tell me immediately, and I will give you a thorough treatment. We don't have to wait until you are officially married. This is inflammation, and you can't wait stupidly." Helene put on her hat and veil, and thanked the captain in a low voice.He patted her on the shoulder and said, "If you keep applying hot compresses, the swelling may go down. If the swelling gets worse, you send her to a German hospital." Just as they walked out of the room, Mosca noticed that A doubtful expression appeared on the face of the old German dentist: it seemed that this treatment was too hasty.

Back at the employee, he tells Eddie what happened.Helene was sitting on the chair beside Mosca's table, her appearance seemed to be peaceful, and she did not appear to be in pain or sorrow. Eddie sighed, sympathetically.He said: "Why don't you go to the adjutant's office. See if he can get Frankfurt to approve your marriage application quickly." Mosca asked Helian: "Would you like to wait here for a while, or go home now?" "I'll wait," she said, "don't delay too long." He held her hand tightly, but her palm was full of sweat. "You do feel well?" he asked.

She nodded.Mosca left her. The adjutant was on the phone, his voice was gentle and gentle, and his frank face was staring attentively at the phone in front of him.He raised his eyebrows, suggesting to Mosca that he would end the call immediately.After hanging up the phone, he said excitedly, "What can you do?" Mosca stammered and cringed as he spoke.At last he said: "I wonder if there is any news on my marriage application?" "No, there is no news yet." The adjutant replied politely, and began to look through the bound volumes of various military regulations.

Mosca hesitated for a while before asking: "Is there a way to get the certificate approved quickly?" The adjutant bowed his head and replied: "No." Mosca forcefully threw his head away, resisting the impulse of the moment. "Do you think it would be of any use if I went to Frankfurt? Maybe you can tell me whom to go to?" Only then did the adjutant close the thick and heavy bound book and look up at Mosca for the first time.In a curt, businesslike tone: "Hi, Mosca," he said: "You lived with this girl for a year and did not apply for marriage until six months after the ban was lifted. I just brought it up, and now you're suddenly impatient. I can't stop you from going to Frankfurt, but I'm sure it won't do any good. You know how I think about work. Don't go down the wrong path."

Mosca no longer felt angry, only embarrassed and ashamed.The adjutant changed his tone and continued, "I'll let you know as soon as the approval is received, okay?" Mosca was sent away just like that. He went back to the employee, trying to look relaxed rather than worried.He knew Helene could sense it from his facial expression.Coincidentally, Helian was chatting with Yingqi while drinking coffee.Helene took off her hat and veil.She only drank little by little.From the sparkle in her eyes, he could see that she had been talking to Inge about the details of their baby.And Eddie was sitting in a chair, leaning back, smiling, listening.Upon seeing Mosca, he asked, "How is it going?" Mosca said: "Very well, he is willing to help as much as he can," and smiled slightly at Helian.He was going to tell Eddie the truth later. Helene put on her hat and veil, shook hands with Inge and Eddie, and walked out of the office with Mosca's arm in her arms.As they walked through the gates of the air force base, Mosca said, "I'm sorry, honey." Her veiled face turned immediately to him, clutching his arm, and he turned his face the other way.It seemed that if he didn't avoid her, he couldn't bear her fixed gaze. The next morning, before dawn, Mosca woke up to Helene's sobs.She buried her face in the pillow, whimpering.He pulled her closer so that her head was just under his bare arm. "It hurts a lot?" he asked softly.She said, "Walter, I'm sick, I'm sick." This seemed to increase her fear, and she wept aloud, like a frightened child. In the darkness, pain swept over her whole body, controlling the flow of blood and the activities of various organs in her body.At the air force base, Mosca's inability to help her added to her sense of terror, and she could no longer hold back her tears."I feel very sick," she added, changing her voice so completely that Mosca barely understood. "I'll do some more warm compresses," he said, turning on the bedside lamp beside him. He was shocked when he saw her face.Under the faint yellow light, half of her face was swollen, her eye was almost slit, and the outline of her cheekbones was severely deformed.Looks like a Mongolian.She raised her hands to her face: he went to the kitchen to fetch water for the compress. Yergin's daughter's dazed eyes were fixed on the piles of city ruins floating in the morning light.She was sitting on a large rock, her fingers dipping into an open can of yellow plums.At that time, the smell of broken bricks and tiles just rose from the ground.The little girl calmly fished out the yellow, waxy ball-shaped pulp.Then lick the sticky juice on your fingers.Yergin sat on a rock beside his daughter.He brought his daughter to this isolated ruin, so that she could enjoy this extremely precious delicious food alone, without sharing it with the German woman who nursed her during the day. Yergin looked at his daughter's innocent face with loving eyes.Those eyes clearly showed a crack in her childish mind, slowly widening.Doctors had told him there was still hope—send her out of Germany or Europe.Yergin shook his head.All the money he'd earned on the black market was barely enough to build a "wall" between the child and the misery - the miserable world around her.The doctor made it clear to him that this alone was not enough, that the wall would have to come down anyway. At this moment, he has made a decision: buy a fake ID card and settle in Switzerland.Of course it will take months of preparation and a lot of money, but it will cure her.She will grow up normally and live a happy life. She pinched a yellow-scented plum that was wrapped in sugar juice and gleamed with a bright yellow shimmer.To please his daughter, he opened his mouth wide to pick it up.She smiled at him.The smiling face made him unable to help stretching out his loving and protective hands, and gently stroking her cheek.Because in the middle of this isolated ruin, his daughter is like a young tree that is growing but not desirable.His eyes were glazed, and his smile was like a spasm of muscle. The morning air is icy.Autumn blunts the power of the sun and turns the earth and gray broken bricks the color of lifeless dry grass. Yergin said kindly: "Gisele, come here! Now I have to take you home, I have to go to work." The can of Huangxiang plums slipped from the child, and the sticky and thick sugar juice splashed everywhere and condensed in; Some broken bricks and tiles.She started wailing. Yergin picked her up from the stone and held her tightly in his arms, pressing her head against his neck. "I'm going home early tonight, don't rush. I'm going to buy a present, something to wear." Anyway, Yergin knew she was going to cry until they climbed the church steps leading to the steeple apartment. Against the gray-white sky, Yergin saw a man climbing over one pile of debris, disappearing, and then crawling over another small pile, coming towards him.Yergin put his daughter down, and she hugged his leg tightly.As the figure crawled across the last small, rolling rubble heap, Yergin recognized Mosca, to his amazement. Mosca was dressed in a green officer's uniform with the white armbands of his employees.His swarthy skin was gray in the first light of dawn.His face was full of tiredness, and his forehead was furrowed, destroying the mutual position of facial features. "I've been looking for you everywhere," said Mosca. Yergin stroked his daughter's head gently, and only glanced at Mosca.He wondered how he could find them so easily.Mosca seemed to have noticed this, and said: "Your housekeeper, she told me that you often come here in the morning." The sun was shining brightly, and Yergin could clearly hear the clang of the trams.He was full of doubts, and asked slowly: "What can I do for you?" Among the ruins around them, a slope collapsed, and broken bricks and tiles slid and fell down.Dust billowed and rushed into the sky.Mosca felt his feet sinking into the unsteady ground, so he moved.He said: "I need some penicillin and codeine or morphine. You know Helene's tooth, she's really sick right now." He paused awkwardly. "I want morphine today. She's in too much pain. I'll give you whatever you want." Yergin picked up his daughter and began to climb over the rubble, Mosca at his side. "It's a tough job," Yerkin said.However, he has a plan in mind; with this income, he can go to Switzerland three months in advance. “Surprisingly high prices.” Mosca stopped, and although the morning sun was not yet scorching hot, Yergin saw that his face was already dripping with sweat.In this face, Yergin also saw an expression of relief. "That's unreasonable!" said Mosca. "You can't intimidate me by going back on your word. In fact, I don't care how much I pay. You can rip me off as you like, but I have to get the anesthetic tonight." They stood on the last pile of ruins, facing the part of the city that was not completely destroyed.The church where Yergin lives is here. "Come to me at midnight," said Yerkin. "Can't come at night, my daughter is alone at home, and she is very ill, and must not be frightened again." He expected Mosca's sympathy.But there was no response.He felt annoyed, sad.The American cared so much about his mistress, why didn't he take her to America or somewhere safe?Mosca's ability to do for his loved one what he could not do for his daughter also greatly increased Yergin's pain.So he said almost through gritted teeth, "If you come before midnight, I will never help you." Mosca stood at the highest point of the pile of ruins, watching Yergin and the child in his arms sliding down the slope.He yelled behind Yergin, "Don't forget, pay as much as you want to get the narcotic." Yergin turned his face away and nodded.The child in his arms looked up at the autumn sky.