Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty Two

Eddie.Cassin walked up and down the employees, and Inge was on the other end explaining what she knew to someone.Then turn to another person and repeat it from beginning to end. She motioned for Eddie to answer the phone. "Okay," Eddie said into the phone. A man's voice came over the phone, speaking excellent English, with a serious and authoritative tone: "Unfortunately, we can't talk about important matters over the phone." Eddie knew it was useless to argue with the caller.He recognized the speaker: a man of great use, a man who strictly obeyed the rules of the small but whole world he ruled.He said: "I would like to ask one thing, please tell me, is the lady in your hospital so ill that I have to tell her husband in Frankfurt to come back and see her immediately?"

The man replied seriously, "I advise you to let him come back immediately." Eddie Cassin said, "He has important things to do, and he can't come back unless it is absolutely necessary." After a moment of silence, the man said in a rough voice, but politely: "I think you should tell him to return immediately." Eddie hung up the phone.He saw Inge staring at him intently, so he said, "Get me a clean glass." When she was out, he picked up the phone and asked the army telephone man to connect him to Frankfurt.He was still waiting when Inge returned with the glass.So he handed the microphone to Inge.He grabbed a bottle of gin and grape juice mixture on the table and drank it.Then go back to the phone.

He was already going to Frankfurt to find the adjutant office at the headquarters, and after questioning three office personnel, he found out where Mosca was yesterday, but now he might be in the military law office.He's going to the Military Law Office again.They told him that Mosca had been gone only two hours: and they didn't know where he was.Eddie hangs up; drinks from his glass.Then he picked up the phone again, pondered for a moment, and after he wanted to call Frankfurt, he asked to be transferred to the information center of the American Soldiers Building.A sergeant answered the phone.Eddie briefly explained to him why Mosca must be found: and asked if he could broadcast an announcement through the loudspeaker that Mosca should answer the phone immediately.The sergeant asked him to wait.Shortly thereafter, he replied that an announcement was being made to stay by the phone.

Eddie waited a long time.He had just finished his second drink when suddenly Mosca's voice came from the phone, "Hello, who are you?" His voice was surprised, but not anxious. Eddie spoke briefly. He said, "Walter, this is Eddie. How's it going?" "I don't know, they sent me from one office to another. What happened there?" Mosca said. Eddie cleared his throat and said casually, "I figured you'd have to put that aside; your landlady sent Meyer a message that Helene had been taken to the hospital. Meyer sent the messenger to the base .I called the hospital immediately. They refused to tell me anything on the phone: they sounded very ill."

After a pause, Mosca's voice came over the phone, hesitating and stammering, as if he forgot the next sentence after saying the last sentence. "You really don't know anything about the specific situation?" "I swear to God," Eddie said, "you better come back." There was a long silence on the phone before Mosca said, "Eddie, I'm catching the night bus at six o'clock. Please pick me up at the station. It's estimated to arrive at about four o'clock in the morning." "Definitely," Eddie replied, "I'll hang up and go to the hospital, okay?"

"Okay! Thanks, Eddie." There was a click on the other end of the phone, and Eddie hung up too. He drank the drink in his glass with a grumble, and then said to Inge, "I'm not coming back today." He put the water bottle and juice into the suitcase, and strode away from the base. When Mosca stepped off the train from Frankfurt, the city of Bremen was still shrouded in darkness and darkness. It was not yet four o'clock in the morning, and a grass-green military bus was parked on the square outside the station, faintly visible.There are several scarred and crumbling lampposts erected on the square, and the lights are weak.He walked around the corner of the square and left the station.

Mosca went to the waiting room to check, but there was no trace of Eddie Cassin. He looked around on the street outside, but found no jeep waiting for him. He stood restlessly for a while, then walked along the tramway towards Herstrassestrasse, then turned into the long, winding Köfsteinstrasse.He only looked at the city full of ruins, and he didn't feel that he was still carrying a heavy travel bag. He never figured out why he didn't go directly to the hospital until later. When Mosca was about to get home, he suddenly saw a ray of light shining in the dark night.He recognized it as the light of his house.He turned into the gravel path, ran up the steps, and heard the baby's cries rising and falling.

He pushed open the living room door and saw Mrs. Saunders sitting on the sofa facing him, staring at the door, pushing the pram back and forth across the carpet.The baby's hoarse, self-willed, hopeless howls seemed incapable of alleviating his pain or calming him down.Mosca saw the overtired face of Mrs. Saunders, pale and haggard.The black hair that used to be neat and always combed tightly in the back is now loosely let down. Mosca stood just inside the door, waiting for her to speak.However, he saw her froze with fright, unable to speak.So I asked: "how is she?" "At the hospital," Mrs. Sanders replied.

"I know that, how is her condition?" Mrs. Sanders did not immediately answer.She stopped pushing the stroller and put her face in her hands. The baby cried louder, and Mrs. Saunders began to rock back and forth. "Ah! she screamed like that," she said, "she screamed like that!" Mosca waited for her to go on; "she screamed down the stairs." Sander Mrs. Si broke down in tears as she spoke. As if she could no longer hide the great misfortune, she let go of her hands covering her face and began to push the stroller back and forth again, and the child fell silent.Mrs. Saunders stared at Mosca, who was waiting patiently by the door. "She died, she died at night. I was waiting for you." She saw Mosca still standing there dumbfounded, waiting patiently, as if she hadn't said anything and was still waiting for her to speak.

He was numb, as if wrapped in a thin shell, unaware of sadness. The second time he heard Mrs. Sanders say that she died that night, he believed her statement but could not admit the fact.He walked out of the house, walked through several dark streets, and came to the hospital.He made a big arc around the iron fence before arriving at the main entrance of the hospital. Mosca walked into the hospital administration office, where a nun in a large white cap sat behind a desk on the night shift.Eddie Cassin sat on a bench against the wall. Eddie stood awkwardly and nodded to the nun.So the nun motioned for Mosca to follow her.

He followed the big white hat down the silent corridor.He could clearly hear the labored, heavy breathing of the patient as he slept.At the end of the corridor, they zigzag past several black-clad handymen who are kneeling and scrubbing tile floors. They turned into another hallway.The nun opened the door of a small room, and he followed her in.She was late to the side and closed the door.In the corner he saw Helene's face on the white pillow, the white sheet covering her neck.He took another step forward to get a better view. Her legs were tightly closed, and the swelling on that half of her face had subsided, as if the toxin had left her body along with the life.The lips were colorless, pale, without a trace of redness.His face was unlined and looked much younger than he remembered, but his face was expressionless.The closed eyes were sunken as if they were blind. Mosca moved forward again and stood by the bed.The window was hung with tightly drawn curtains, and on the windowsill stood a large vase of white flowers.He leaned over and stared at Helian, flustered.It was clear now that he had to accept the fact that she was dead, but he was at a loss.He is no stranger to death in massacres, even commonplace; however, the death he sees now is quite different.For the first time he saw dead the person whom he had kissed and enjoyed carnal love.It will never be possible to touch again.He suddenly felt convulsions all over his body, as if he had been electrocuted.He had seen what happens to dead bodies.He reached out to caress her closed eyes, her cold pale face.As he placed his hand on the white shroud covering her body, he heard a strange crisp crackling sound.So he pulled the cloth down. She was covered with a thick brown wrapping paper.He clearly saw the naked body under the paper.Behind him, the nun whispered, "Many wish she had no clothes. They need them." He proudly tore off the wrapping paper from her, believing that he had had the courage to overcome his grief, that he could hold on now through terrible times.She will be buried clothed enough, he thought, I could do it for her, asked suddenly, and he felt as if a thousand enemies were running through his blood; The hand suffocated the beating of the heart, and the eyes were suddenly dark.A moment later, somehow, he found himself standing outside the mortuary, against the wall of the hallway. The nun waited patiently.Mosca finally told her, "I'll buy some clothes that fit, can you dress her for me?" The nun agreed. Mosca left the hospital and began to walk along the circular iron fence, his legs were like lead, and his steps were shaky.Although it was not yet dawn, he could already feel the passing trams and the hurrying pedestrians on the street beside him.Curfew time has passed, and he keeps falling into deserted and uninhabited streets.Every time you get close, it seems like people are jumping out of the rubble-strewn underground and buried apartments.The sky has been hung with a ruthless sun, and the white hazy light falls on this land.He found himself alone on the outskirts of the city, into the country.The cold wind cut his face, and he stopped. He accepts everything now.Nothing that got worse could surprise him.All that's left is endless despair.Shame and guilt that can never be washed away. He considered what he had to do now: buy a black shroud for Helian and send it to the hospital: arrange the funeral.Eddie can help him, he'll take care of everything. .He turned around, felt something hit his arm, looked down, he was still carrying the blue travel bag.He was exhausted, and there was only a long road ahead, so he abandoned his backpack in the wet grass, raised his head, and walked towards the city against the cold morning light.