Chapter 4 third quarter

Fer is an old friend of Jean-Marc's, whom they met in high school.They share common views and get along very well.They kept in touch until that day.One day a few years ago, Jean-Marc suddenly decided to break up with him and stop looking for him.When he knew that Vau was seriously ill in the hospital, he did not even think of visiting him; but Chantal insisted that he should. The situation with his old friend seemed worrisome: he remembered that Foo had been a delicate boy in their high school days.He is always so perfect, with a natural gentle temperament.It made Jean-Marc, who was standing next to him, look like a rhinoceros.This indescribable femininity, which made Fern look younger then, aged him now: his face was eerily small and wrinkled like a withered leaf.His head resembled that of an Egyptian prince mummified decades ago.Jean-Marc shifted his gaze to his arms: his right arm was immobilized with a needle in a vein, and his left arm was gesticulating constantly to emphasize what he was saying.Watching him gesturing in the past, Jean-Marc has always felt this way: Compared with his petite body, Fo's arms are too slender, really too thin, just like the arms of a puppet.That day, that feeling was even stronger.For his childish gestures were out of proportion to his serious subject; Foo was describing the course of one of his stupor.The coma lasted for several days until doctors revived him. "Have you heard the accounts of those who were brought back from the brink of death? There was a tunnel ahead of them, and there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The beauty there fascinated them deeply. But I ask you Swear, there's no light at all. What's worse, I haven't lost consciousness. You know everything that's going on around you, you can hear everything that's going on around you. But they—the doctors—are not conscious To this point. They speak freely in front of you, even the ones you are not supposed to hear. They declare you dead, your brain has stopped working."

After a period of silence, he continued: "I'm not saying that my consciousness is perfectly clear. I understand everything, but everything is slightly distorted, like a dream. I Having the same nightmare over and over again. In real life, nightmares end quickly. Because once you start shouting louder, you wake up. But I can't. It's the worst Yes; I couldn't cry out. Couldn't cry out in a bad dream." Again he fell silent.Then he said: "I was never afraid of death before. But now, I am afraid. I can't get rid of the terrible feeling that people still have consciousness after death. After death, people will enter an endless nightmare. .That's scary enough, enough." He stared blankly ahead, as if he was still recalling that terrible dream. "Forget it, let's talk about something else!" He suddenly changed the subject.

Before Jean-Marc came to the hospital, he had been sure that neither of them could escape the shattered memories, but when he met Foo, he said some words of reconciliation to him insincerely.This concern about death makes other household topics meaningless.Whatever Fon tried to change the subject, it always came back to his tormented body.Jean-Marc fell into depression.But there was nothing phony about the frustration.