Chapter 22 Chapter 21 The Innocent Sick Child

The serum developed by Castel was tested in late October.In fact, it was Rieux's last hope.If the experiment failed again, doctors were sure the city would be at the mercy of the disease, and the plague would either drag on for months or inexplicably end on its own. On the day before Castell's visit to Rieux, the son of the examining magistrate M. Othon fell ill, and the whole family had to be admitted to the isolation ward.Mrs. Odon, who had just come out from there, had to live in isolation for the second time.The magistrate obeyed the orders issued, and sent for Dr. Rieux as soon as he noticed symptoms in the child.The Othons were standing by the child's bed when Rieux entered the room.Their youngest daughter has been separated.The sick boy was in a period of exhaustion, so he allowed himself to be examined without a groan.When the doctor raised his head, his eyes just met the judge's, and at the same time he saw the pale face of Mrs. Othon behind the judge.She covered her mouth with a handkerchief, and watched the doctor's movements with wide-open eyes.

The judge said calmly, "It's the disease, isn't it?" Rieux looked at the boy again and replied: "Yes." The mother's eyes widened, but she remained silent.The magistrate was also silent, and then he said in a lower voice: "Well, doctor, we must follow the rules." Rieux averted his eyes from Madame Othon, who kept her handkerchief to her mouth. He said hesitantly, "If I could just go and make a phone call, it could be done quickly." Mr. O'Donnell said he would take the doctor to him right away.But the doctor turned to Madame Othon and said: "I'm sorry. You'd better get some clothes. You know that."

Madame Othon seemed stunned.She looked at the ground, nodded and said: "Yes, I will prepare for that." Before saying goodbye to the Othons, Rieux could not help asking if they needed anything.Madame Othon continued to look at the doctor in silence.But this time it was the judge's turn to avert his gaze. "No need," he said.Then he swallowed, and said, "But please save my child." Segregation was originally a simple form, but later Rieux and Rambert organized it very strictly.In particular, they require that members of the same household must always be isolated from each other.In the unlikely event that one member of the household becomes unknowingly infected with Y. pestis, the disease should never be given a chance to spread.Rieux explained the reasoning to the magistrate, and the magistrate also thought it was very correct.But the way the Othons looked at each other, inseparable, when they parted, made the doctor feel how embarrassed the separation had made them both.Madame Othon and her little daughter could live in the isolation ward run by Rambert, but for the magistrate he had nowhere to go, except in the isolation camp which the province was setting up on the municipal stadium. Going to China—All the tents in the isolation camp were borrowed from the Highway Bureau.For this, Rieux expressed great regret, but Mr. Othon said that the rules and regulations were the same for everyone, and he should obey them.

As for the boy, he was sent to a ten-bed ward in the auxiliary hospital, which used to be a classroom.After about twenty hours, Rieux concluded that the child's illness was hopeless.The small body has been seized by the plague god's claws and has become unresponsive.A few small groin lumps appeared, but tormented the boy, immobilizing the joints of his emaciated limbs.He has long been beaten by illness.Rieux therefore wanted to test the serum developed by Castel on children.That evening, after dinner, they spent a long time administering the inoculation, but the child was unresponsive.At dawn the next day everyone went to the sick child to observe the results of this decisive experiment.

The child came out of his torpor, tossing and turning convulsively in the sheets he was wrapped in.Rieux, Castel, and Tarrou had been by his side since four o'clock in the morning, watching step by step the rise and fall of his illness.At the head of the bed was Tarrou, slightly bent and burly.Rieux was standing at the foot of the bed, and Castel was sitting next to him, seemingly calmly reading an old book.As the sky gradually brightened, other people gradually came to this ward, which was originally a school classroom.First came Paneloux, who went to the other end of the bed and stood opposite Tarrou with his back against the wall.There was an expression of pain on his face. The last few days of hard work had left his red forehead wrinkled.Then came Joseph Grand.It was seven o'clock, and the clerk was out of breath, and he apologized.He said that he can only stay for a while, maybe everyone has already figured it out.Rieux said nothing, and pointed to the child.At this time, the child's face was completely changed, his eyes were closed, his teeth were clenched desperately, and his body was motionless, while his head was turning back and forth on the pillow without a pillowcase.At the far end of the ward, the blackboard still hung on the wall, with traces of equations that hadn't been wiped off.When at last the morning light was bright enough to make the writing readable, Rambert arrived.He leaned against the end of a nearby bed, and then he produced a pack of cigarettes.But after he glanced at the child, he put the pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

Castel was still sitting, and he looked at Rieux from above his glasses: "Do you have any news about his father?" Rieux replied: "No. He is in the isolation camp." The child moaned on the bed, and Rieux gripped the rails of the bed frame vigorously. He watched the sick child intently. The child's body suddenly stiffened, and then he clenched his teeth again. His body arched a little, and his limbs gradually separated. .From the naked little body L covered with an army blanket, there was a smell of wool and sweat mixed together.The sick child's muscles gradually relaxed, and his arms and legs were also drawn towards the center of the bed. He kept his eyes closed and remained silent, and his breathing became more rapid.At that moment Rieux's eyes met Tarrou's, but the latter averted them.

They had seen the deaths of children, for months the plague of terror was indiscriminate, but they had never watched children suffer minute by minute as they did this morning. torment.Of course, it was always an outrage in their eyes that these innocent children were being tortured in pain.But at least until then, so to speak, they were outraged in the abstract, because they had never seen face to face for so long the death throes of an innocent man. At this time, the sick child's stomach seemed to be bitten, and his body arched again, and there was a shrill moan from his mouth.For a few seconds his body was bowed like this, and shivering and convulsive convulsions made him tremble, as if his frail frame had been held upright by the plague gale, and torn apart by the relentless attack of fever. Come.After the strong wind passed, he relaxed a little bit, the heat seemed to subside, he seemed to be abandoned on the wet and smelly beach, panting slightly, the temporary breath seemed to have entered a long sleep.When the scorching wave rushed over him for the third time and made him tremble a little, he huddled into a ball, and under the threat of high fever, he retreated to the inner bed, shaking his head frantically, and threw off the quilt.Big tears welled up from under red, swollen eyelids and began to trickle down leaden faces.After this bout the child was exhausted, curled up with his scrawny legs and arms that had been as thin as chopsticks in forty-eight hours.On this disfigured bed, he assumed a grotesque, crucifixion pose.

Tarrou bent down and wiped the tears and sweat from his little face with his clumsy hands.Castel had already closed his book and looked at the sick child.He started to speak, but had to cough a few times to get the sentence out because of a sudden change in his voice. "Rieux, the boy has not been in remission this morning, has he?" Rieux said yes, but he said the boy held on longer than was usually seen.Paneloux, who looked as if he was leaning against the wall, said in a low voice, "If the boy is going to die anyway, it will prolong his suffering." Rieux turned suddenly to the priest and opened his mouth to say something, but he was silent, evidently trying to restrain himself.He turned his gaze back to the child.

The ward is filled with daylight.In the other five beds, the patient was moving and moaning, but all stiffly, as if by agreement.There was only one patient screaming at the other end of the room, and at regular intervals he let out one small sigh after another, which sounded more like a scream than a whine of pain.Even the patient seemed less frightened than at first.Now, they have a willingness to contract the disease.Only the child was struggling desperately.From time to time Rieux took the child's pulse, not out of necessity, but to get out of his present state of powerlessness and immobility, and as soon as he closed his eyes he could feel the child's restlessness and his own blood. It feels like one.At that time he felt that he and the tortured child were inseparable, and he tried to support the child with all his unspent strength.But the beating of their two hearts was out of harmony after only a minute, and the child failed him, and his efforts were in vain.So he lowered that slender wrist and went back to where he was standing.

Along the limewashed walls, the sunlight fades from pink to yellow.Outside the glass window, a hot morning begins.Grand said as he was going away that he was coming back, but they were hardly heard.Everyone is waiting.The child had kept his eyes closed, and seemed calmer now.His two hands became like claws, slowly pawing the sides of the bed, and then raised them again to grab the sheets near his knees.Suddenly, the child curled up his legs and didn't stop until his thighs touched his abdomen.Then, for the first time, he opened his eyes to see Rieux standing in front of him.In his earth-gray sunken face, the mouth opened, and almost immediately a drawn-out cry, whose pitch hardly changed with breath, filled the whole ward suddenly with a monotonous, piercing sound. The sound of protest, it didn't sound like a single person's voice, but like the strange screams of all the patients at the same time.Rieux gritted his teeth, and Tarrou turned away.Rambert went to the bed and stood beside Castel, who at the same time closed the book that was lying open on his lap.Paneloux looked at the child's sickly, grimy mouth, which was making that ageless cry.The priest knelt down, and in the midst of the continual, indescribable wailing, he was naturally heard saying in a somewhat subdued but distinct voice: "My God, save the boy."

But the child was still screaming, and the other patients around him were commotioning.The moaning patient on the other side of the room picked up the pace of his groans, and eventually he, too, actually yelled, while the others moaned harder and harder.Painful wailing flooded the ward like a tidal wave, drowning out Paneloux's prayers.Rieux clung to the rungs of the bedstead, closed his eyes, and felt terribly tired and bored. When he opened his eyes again, he found Tarrou beside him. "I must go away," Rieux said. "I can't stand seeing these people any longer." But suddenly all the other patients fell silent.At this time, the doctor found that the child's cry had already become very weak, it became lower and lower, and finally stopped.The sick around the child began to groan again, but in a low voice, as if there were echoes from far away of the struggle that had just ended, because the struggle was over.Castel had moved to the other side of the bed, and he said, it's over.The child's mouth was open, but there was no sound. He lay among the tangled sheets, his body shrunk all of a sudden, and tears still remained on his face. Paneloux approached the hospital bed and made a gesture of blessing.Then he picked up his robe and walked out down the middle aisle. Tarrou asked Castel: "Do we have to start all over again?" The old doctor shook his head. "Maybe," said the old doctor with a forced smile, "after all, he has supported for a long time." But Rieux had already left the ward, and he was walking so fast and with such impulsive manner that the abbe put out his hand to grab him as he passed Paneloux."Never mind, doctor," said the priest. Rieux turned around with the same impulsiveness as before, and said roughly to the priest: "Ah! At least the child is innocent, you know that very well!" Then he turned and walked in front of Paneloux through the door of the ward to the end of the courtyard.He sat down on a bench among the dusty saplings and wiped the sweat that had trickled down his eyes.He wanted to cry out again, to untie the knot that was breaking his heart.Heat was slowly descending among the branches of the fig tree.The blue sky in the morning was quickly covered by a layer of whitish clouds, making the air even more stuffy.Rieux sat on the bench dejectedly, looking at the branches and the sky, his breathing gradually calmed down, and his fatigue gradually recovered. He heard someone behind him say, "Why are you so angry when you talk to me? I can't stand this kind of situation either!" Rieux turned to Paneloux and said: "Yes, please forgive me. Fatigue is a madness. I can't help it sometimes in this town." "I understand," Paneloux murmured. "Because it's more than we can handle, and it's irritating. But maybe we should love what we don't understand." Rieux stood up suddenly, stared at Paneloux excitedly, shook his head and said: "No, priest. I have a different idea of ​​love. I will never die loving a God who tortures children." creation." A shadow of pain flashed across Panelou's face. "Ah, doctor," he said sadly, "I have just learned what the grace of God is." But Rieux sat down on the bench again despondently.He was very tired again, and to the priest's words, he replied in a more moderate tone: "I know, that's what I lack. But I don't want to discuss these things with you. Now we are working together for a certain cause." , and this cause can bring us together beyond questions of reading or worshiping God. That alone matters." Paneloux sat down beside Rieux.He looked excited.He said, "Yes, yes. You are also working for the salvation of mankind." Rieux smiled slightly. "The salvation of mankind is a big word for me. I don't have such a high spiritual realm. I am interested in people's health, first of all." Paneloux hesitated and said: "doctor……" But he stopped talking.Sweat also began to break out on his forehead.He murmured "goodbye" and stood up, eyes shining.As he was about to leave, Rieux, who was in deep thought, also stood up, took a step closer to the priest and said: "Again, I beg your pardon. I will never lose my temper like this again." Paneloux held out his hand to him, and said sadly: "However, I did not convince you!" Rieux said: "What does it matter? What I hate is death and disease, you know that very well. But whether you like it or not, we are together to endure them and overcome them." Rieux, holding Paneloux's hand, said without looking at the priest: "You see, not even God can separate us now."