Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Four

Mosca gave Frau Saunders the childcare commission and withdrew to the army quarters in Metz.He went to bed as soon as it was dark, when the parties were often just beginning.The ups and downs of music and the roar of laughter resounded in every room around him, creating chaos, but he actually slept soundly until all the parties were over.In the middle of the night, the fun-seeking parties dispersed, and the whole dormitory was dark and silent.He was fully awake.Look at the watch on the table: one or two o'clock in the morning.At this moment he lay quietly on the bed, not daring to turn on the electric light, because it gave off a gloomy, depressed and weak yellow light.He didn't fall asleep until just before dawn, and slept until people were busy getting up and going to work.He always does this every night: after waking up, he raises the watch close to his face to see the time clearly, and he always smokes a cigarette, sits on the bed with his back against the head of the bed, and spends the good time with his eyes open in the gloomy cold night .He listened quietly to the couple's giggling, heavy breathing, and lullaby-like groans in the next room—like the dying roar of laryngitis and the hoarse cry of a sleepwalker, and then in the lavatory. The sound of running water, followed by soft clicking and scratching sounds, as if they were going to sleep.Sometimes it was the low-pitched continuous speech played on the radio and people talking to each other, mixed with the sound of footsteps in the hall, and the hoarse cheers of women leaving the dormitory in the street under the window.As dawn came, Mosca fell asleep again.It was still noon when I woke up, and the early winter sun painted the walls of the room a pale lemon color.

One afternoon, two weeks after the burial of Helene, he heard footsteps breaking the silence of the hall, followed by a knock at the door.He got out of bed, put on his pants and walked towards the door. The door was unlocked, and he stretched out his hand to open it. . He had only seen this face of the visitor once, but he would never forget it.It was Honey, with his chamber cap, blond hair, big fat nose, and sparrow face.Honey smiled and asked, "Can I go in?" Mosca stepped aside, beckoning him to come in, and then closed the door.Honey put the suitcase on the table, looked around the room, and said cheerfully to Mosca, "I'm sorry to wake you up." "I was going to get up," Mosca said.

The little man with white skin said slowly: "Unfortunately, I am very sad to hear the news of Mrs. Zun's death." There was a half-smile expression on the ground. "We are not married," said Mosca, turning and walking towards the bed. "Oh, that's right." Honey clapped his hands and stroked his bald head, then pushed back his short hair. "I'm writing this article to tell you something very important." Mosca said, "I don't have any cigarettes." Now." Honey said seriously: "I know, you are not the director of the Army Consumer Cooperative, since Wolfe returned to the United States..."

Mosca smiled at him, "So what?" "No, you misunderstood," Honey said quickly, "I'm here to tell you about Yergin. The penicillin he gave you was bought through me. Yes, I'm the go-between." He paused a moment, "He knew there was something wrong with the medication, it wasn't working. He paid a fraction of what I would usually pay him to contact him, you know?" Mosca had to sit on the bed, suffering from pain in the abdomen, and pressing the scar with one hand, the nerves in his head suddenly felt strong convulsions.Yergin, Yergin, he thought, this Yergin again, he had done a lot for them to please Helene, and Helene was very fond of his daughter.How shameful it was that Yergin had coaxed him, played him so much, and brought him into such misfortune!He put his head in his hands and lowered his head sobbing.

Honey said softly, "I heard you refused to cooperate with Wolfe. I'm not insensitive, I'm not stupid, I know you saved my life. Please believe me, if I knew beforehand that Yergin was The medicine I bought for you, I must stop him! Unfortunately, it's too late, I know too late, Yergin is determined to betray me and your girlfriend." He saw Mosca still quietly Sitting on the bed, with his face in his hands, and dejected, he leaned over and said in a soft voice: "I have heard good news. Jergin is back in Bremen, staying at the same place, and your landlady has told him that everything It's normal, he doesn't need to be frightened."

Mosca stood up abruptly, and asked impatiently: "Did you lie?" Drips of oil stains. "If you think about the past, you'll see that I'm not lying." Mosca went to the wardrobe and unlocked the handle.Feeling quick to act, and still heartbroken but still happy, he took a blue American checkbook from the closet, signed five checkbooks, each worth $100, and showed Honey . "Get Yergin here tonight, and the money is yours." Honey backed away again and again. "No, no!" he said, "I can't do that! How did you come up with such an idea?" Mosca held out his blue check and took a step closer to him.Honey stepped back and muttered to himself in a low voice: "No, no; I can't do that!" Seeing that he really didn't want to do it, Mosca picked up the suitcase on the table and handed it to him: "Anyway, I still want to thank you for the news," he said.

He stood alone in the middle of the room, his brain was buzzing, and he was continuously impacted, as if a large artery was violently dilated and contracted there, and a strong blood flow was discharged to hit the heart. He was uneasy, and the blood seemed to be boiling.Feeling weak, as if the air in the room had thickened and suffocated him, he walked out of the dormitory. On the street, I didn't expect the sun to shine and the autumn wind to blow cool. The momentum of early winter's invasion of late autumn has gradually weakened.He turned onto Kufstein Street and walked in the direction of what had once been his so-called home.The bare trees beside the road cast indistinct shadows.Apart from a headache, he hadn't felt this good in a long time.He thought it would be possible to sleep through the night tonight.

He tiptoed into the apartment, stood outside the living room door, heard the creak of the crib, entered the room, and saw Mrs Sanders sitting on the sofa with a book in her left hand and a stroller in her right Put on a beige wooden pusher and keep pushing back and forth.She sat upright and serenely, with a gloomy, sad and melancholy expression on her wrinkled face.The child in the cart is asleep, blue capillaries running through pink foreheads. "Is he all right?" Mosca asked.Mrs. Sanders nodded. "Everything is fine." She put down the book and stroller and rubbed her hands together. "Did you get the package I sent?" He mailed her a large box of groceries last week.

She nodded, she looked much older.The way she was sitting and the way she answered reminded Mosca of something familiar, and he stopped looking at her when he asked. "Would you like to take care of this baby all the time? I'll pay you handsomely. I'll give you as much as you want." His headache seemed to swell and he wondered if she had any aspirin. Mrs. Saunders picked up the book again, but did not open it.The stern face lacked the sardonic humor that was his usual expression. "Mr. Mosca," she said formally, "if you agree, I will do my best to adopt this child as my own, and that will solve your problem." She spoke very coldly.Suddenly tears welled up, streaming down his cheeks, and his face was completely wet.The book fell to the floor, and she covered her face with her hands to hold back her tears.Seeing her so sad, Mosca remembered something he was familiar with: she was behaving in exactly the same way that his mother had been sad when he had hurt her feelings.

But she was not his mother, and could not really move him.He walked towards the sofa and put one hand on her arm, "What's wrong? What did I do wrong?" He spoke calmly and rationally. She wiped her tears with her hands and said calmly, "You don't care about the child. You haven't been seen for so long. What if she knew you like this? How terrible, how terrible! She is faithful to you." , she is so caring for the child. She often says you are a good person, and even when she fell down the stairs, she stretched out her hands to the child. She was so sad, screamed so heartbreakingly, and missed the child so much, but you Now she doesn't understand her love for her child at all, and doesn't care about him!" She stopped to catch her breath, and continued hysterically: "Ah, you terrible fellow! You play with her, you are a liar, you Not a nice guy." She moved away from him and put her hands on the stroller.

Mosca came back and left her.He said: "What do you think I should do?" "I know her wish, you take the child back to the United States, let him live a safe and happy life and grow up healthily." Mosca replied simply: "We are not married, so the children are still German. It will take a long time." "Well," she said eagerly, "I can take care of him until you get his removal done, what would you like to do?" Want to leave, but also feel a headache. Mrs. Sanders said dryly, "Do you want me to adopt him?" He glanced at the sleeping baby, feeling nothing.He took out a signed check from his pocket and threw it on the table, "I don't know what will change in the future." He said and walked towards the door. "When will you see your son again?" Mrs. Sanders asked angrily with a look of contempt on her face.Mosca turned to face her. His headache seemed to be pounded by something heavy, and he wanted to leave, but Mrs. Saunders's expression made it harder for him to bear. "Why don't you tell the truth, why don't you say what you think in your heart?" He didn't realize that his voice was getting louder and higher, and his voice was getting hoarse. "You think it's my fault? Do you think she died because I didn't do my best to save her? Tell me, why are you so angry? Why are you staring at me like you saw a beast? You think this American killed her." Another German. Don't pretend to be angry about this kid, don't pretend to be deaf, don't lie, I know what you believe." For the first time, Mrs. Saunders took a closer look at Mosca's face, peering into his eyes, which were sallow and black, sad and very ill.His lips were purple and white with anger. "No, no," she said, "I never thought so badly of you." As she said it, she began to realize that there was some truth in what he said. Mosca had restrained his anger and said calmly, "I want to prove to you that you are wrong." He turned and rushed out of the room, and she heard him running down the stairs. He rushed out into the street; lit a cigarette, looked up at the cloud-filled sky, and walked down Kufsteinstrasse.He was almost finishing his cigarette when he started walking towards Metzstrasse, his dormitory.The headache made his eyes fire and the veins in his neck tensed.He looked at his watch: it was only three o'clock, and there would be a long wait before Yergin's affairs could be dealt with.