Chapter 20 twenty

Summer-like weather has come and gone, the leaves on the trees are turning yellow and starting to fall after a cold rain in mid-October.After school Ellie started bringing home the Halloween decorations she had made at school and told Gage stories about the headless horseman.Gage happily muttered the name of someone called Brian all night.Rachel couldn't help but giggle.That early fall was a good time for the Lewis family. The work at Lewis's school has also become an intense and enjoyable routine.He treated the sick, attended school council meetings, wrote for the student newspaper, advised schools to institute confidential treatment for venereal disease, and warned students to take flu pills, since the Type A epidemic was likely in the winter.He participates in medical symposiums and also chairs such symposiums.He also went to Providence the second week of October to attend the New England Convention on Medical Problems in Colleges and Universities, where he presented a paper on the details of legitimate student medical treatment, in which He also cited the example of Pascoe, but under a pseudonym.The paper was well received.Louis is starting to budget for his medical care for the next school year.

Louis's evening schedule has also become a routine: play with the kids after dinner, then have a beer or two with Chad.Sometimes Rachel would go with Mrs. Dandridge when she was free to watch the kids for an hour, and sometimes Norma would sit with them for a while, but most of the time it was just Louis and Jud. people.Louis felt comfortable with the old men, and Chad would talk about the history of Luther House over the past 300 years as if he had lived it all himself.He never rambled on when he talked, and Louis never got tired of it, though more than once he'd seen Rachel yawn with her hands over her mouth.

Louis is mostly crossing the road to his own house by 10pm, whereupon he's likely to make out with Rachel.Rarely had they made love so often, nor had it been so successful and joyful since they had been married for a year.Rachel said it was something in the deep well water, Louis thought it was the Maine air. Pascoe's death on the first day of fall semester is beginning to blur in the memories of the students and Louis himself, and his family is no doubt still grieving.Luis had spoken to Pascoe's father on the phone, and he could feel the tear-stained, grief-stricken look on Pascoe's father.Pascoe's father called just to find out if Luis had done everything he could to save his son, and Luis assured him that everyone was doing their best; of course Luis didn't tell him about the chaos, the blood-soaked carpet And that Pascoe was dying the moment he was brought into the infirmary, though Louis thought he'd never forget that.But for those who thought the Pascoe incident was nothing more than a fatal accident, Pascoe has faded in the memory of these people.

Louis still remembers the dreams and sleepwalking scenes that followed that night, but now it seems like it happened to someone else, or like a TV show.Like the time he went to a whore in Chicago six years ago, "it was something unimportant, like a passing cloud, but it left a cacophonous echo. He didn't want Pascoe at all anymore." Said or didn't say anything before dying. There was a big frost on Halloween night.Louis and his daughter started the festivities at Chad's house, and Elle pretended to be a witch and ran around on a broomstick in Norma's kitchen, giggling happily and saying solemnly, "I'm the one people have seen Cutest witch, isn't she, Chad?"

Chad lit a cigarette and said approvingly, "Yeah. Louis, why isn't Gage here? I thought you guys came with a make-up for him too." Louis and the others had planned to bring Gage over, and Rachel was looking forward to this day in particular, because she and Mrs. Dandelitz made a funny mask for Gage, but Gage had bronchial cold. At 6 o'clock, Louis listened to his lungs and felt that something was still abnormal. Then he looked at the thermometer outside, and it was only 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Louis refused to let him come.Disappointed, Rachel agreed. Ellie promised Gage to bring him some candy back, but her exaggerated sympathy for her brother's inability to go made Louis wonder if Ellie was really upset that Gage couldn't make them dawdle or It's with her that it attracts attention.

Ellie said in a tone that is usually spoken to those who are terminally ill: "Poor Gage." Gage didn't know what he would lose, and he was still sitting on the sofa watching TV, lying on his stomach while typing. Sleepy cat Church. Hearing Ellie's words, Gage said without interest: "Ellie, witch." Then he went on watching TV again. Ellie said again, "Poor Gage," and sighed, which reminded Louis of crocodile tears, and he couldn't help laughing.Ally grabbed his hand and started pulling him and said, "Come on, Dad, let's go, let's go."

Louis replied to Chad, "Gage has a strep throat." Norma said, "Yeah, it really shouldn't be, but next year he'll be stronger. Come on, Allie, open your pockets, oh!" Norma took an apple and a candy from the candy plate to give to Ellie, but the candy and apple fell out of her hand.Louis, startled at the sight of her claw-like hands, stooped to pick up the rolled apple, and Jud picked up the candy and put it in Ellie's pocket. Norma said, "Oh baby, let me get you another apple, that one broke." "It's not broken," Louis said, trying to put the apple in his daughter's pocket, but Ellie covered her pocket with her hands and walked away.She looked at Papa like he was crazy and said, "Papa, I don't want a broken apple. It's got brown spots all over it. Fuck it!"

"Ellie, damn it, you're so rude!" Norma said, "Louis, she's telling the truth, don't scold her. You know, only kids tell the truth. That's why they're kids. Those blemishes should go away." "Thank you, Mrs. Crandall," Allie said, giving Louis a defensive look. "You're welcome, honey," Norma said. Chad accompanied them into the foyer.Two children pretending to be little devils approached and came to the sidewalk in the yard. Ellie recognized two children from the school and led them back to the kitchen.For a brief moment, it was just Chad and Louis on the porch."Norma's arthritis is getting worse," Lewis said.

Chad nodded, stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, and said, "Yes, it gets worse every fall and winter, but this time it's the worst." "What did her doctor say?" "Nothing. He couldn't say anything because Norma hasn't been to the doctor." "What? Why don't you go?" Chad looked at Louis, looking helpless in the headlights of a car waiting to pick up two kids dressed as little devils.Chad said, "I was going to ask you sometime, Louis. But as a friend I'm too embarrassed to push. Can you check her out?" From the kitchen came the yappy sound of two kids dressed as little devils, and then Ellie's clucking sound, which Ellie had been practicing at school for a week, and everything sounded good , full of the spirit of Halloween.

Louis asked, "Is there something wrong with Norma? Chad, is she afraid of something else?" "She's been having chest pains all the time, and she's never going to the doctor again, so I'm a little concerned," Chad whispered. "Is Norma worried?" Chad hesitated and said, "I think she was a little scared. I think that's why she didn't want to go to the doctor. Just last month, an old friend of hers, Betty, died at the State Medical Center of cancer. She was the same age as Norma, and Norma was a little intimidated." "I'm happy to check her up, she's fine at all," Louise said.

Chad said gratefully, "Thank you, Louis, if we find out that she's having a seizure one night, I think—" Chad stopped, head tilted oddly to one side, eyes on Louis. Louis couldn't remember how his mood changed at the time, trying to analyze the situation just made him feel dizzy, all he can remember is that the curiosity at the time immediately turned into a feeling that something terribly wrong happened. .He looked at Jud, startled them both, and hesitated for a moment before he recovered.All I could hear was the "hoo hoo" cry of the two imitating little devil children in the kitchen, which suddenly turned into a "woo hoo" terrified cry.Then a child screamed.Ellie's nervous screams came: "Dad! Dad! Mrs. Crandall fell down!" "Oh, God," Chad whispered in pain. Ellie came running up the porch, her black dress flapping, her broom clutched in one hand, her face livid and drawn out with fright, looking like a dwarf in the terminal stages of alcoholism.Two children pretending to be little devils ran out after her, crying. Jud sprinted through the door, surprisingly quick for a man in his eighties.No, not agile, almost effortless, Chad called his wife's name as he ran. Louis bent down and put his hands on Allie's shoulders and said, "Allie, just stay in the hall, you know?" Ellie whispered, "Dad, I'm scared." Two kids pretending to be imps scuttled past them, calling for their mother as they ran down the driveway, pockets of candy pinging. Louis ran to the front hall and into the kitchen, and Ellie was calling him to come back, and Louis ignored his daughter. Norma lay on the linoleum beside the table, surrounded by apples and candy.Apparently she knocked over the candy dish while holding it in her hand and it fell beside her like a little alien flying saucer.Chad was wiping one of his wife's wrists, and when he saw Louis coming, he looked up nervously at Louis, and said, "Help me, Louis, save Norma, I think she's dying." "Move her out of the way," Louis said, and he knelt down, with his knees on an apple, and he felt the juice squeeze out, through his pants, and suddenly the kitchen was filled with the smell of apples. It happened again, Pascoe-like tragedy was about to happen again, Louis thought.But he quickly dismissed the thought. Louis felt for Norma's pulse, which was weak, thin and rapid.Not throbbing, but cramping.Extreme arrhythmia, imminent myocardial infarction.Louis unbuttoned her dress, revealing a yellow ribbon. He turned her head on his side and began to give her CPR on his own pulse rate. He said, "Jud, listen to me," Chad replied. : "I'm listening." "You take Ellie across the street to my house. Be careful, don't get hit by a car. Then tell Rachel what happened, tell her I need to use my first aid kit, not the one in the study , but the one on the high shelf in the bathroom. She knows which one it is. Tell her to call the medical center in Bangor and get an ambulance." "The medical center in Bucksport is closer to here," Chad said. "No, Banger's came sooner. Go ahead, don't call, let Rachel call. You get the first-aid kit, I need that first-aid kit urgently." Chad was gone, and Louis heard the door shut.He was alone with Norma now, and the house smelled of apples, and seven bells came from the living room.While he was doing cardiopulmonary pacing first aid, he thought: push hard, relax, take it easy, do it carefully, for God's sake, don't crush her old bones, don't crush her lungs.Louis thought again that if Rachel knew what was going on here, it would worry her for a while. Norma suddenly let out a long breath, her eyelids trembled, and Louis suddenly felt a cold and terrifying feeling.She's about to open her eyes... oh god, she's about to open her eyes and start talking about pet cemeteries. But Norma just opened her eyes and looked at Louis with a bewildered look that seemed to know him, and then closed her eyes again.Louis was ashamed of his own thoughts, and it was not himself to have that sense of stupid horror.At the same time, he felt a burst of relief, and his heart was full of hope.There was pain in Norma's eyes, but not sharp pain, so Louis's first deduction was that Norma's attack was not particularly severe. Louis is panting heavily and sweating now. Only the medical staff on TV are relaxed when performing cardiopulmonary pacing first aid. In fact, this kind of heart massage consumes a lot of calories to do it well and stably. And tomorrow his arms and shoulders must be hurting too. "Can I help?" Louis looked around and saw a woman in a brown sweater standing hesitantly in the doorway, one hand clenched into a fist on her chest.Maybe, Louis thought, the mother of the two kids pretending to be little devils. "No." As soon as Louis had finished speaking, he added, "Yes, please help me wet a cloth, then wring it dry and put it on her forehead." The woman went to do it.Louis looked down and Norma's eyes opened again.She whispered, "Louis, I fell and I think I might have passed out." "You have a bit of coronary heart disease," Louis said, "but it doesn't look serious, Norma, you need to relax now and stop talking." Luis took a break and started taking Norma's pulse again. Her heart rate was fast and unstable. It was normal for a while, abnormal for a while, and then normal again.Louis listened to the pounding of Norma's heart, which, though abnormal, was stronger than a heart attack. The boy's mother took a damp cloth, put it on Norma's forehead, and walked away hesitantly, when Chad returned with Louis' first aid kit. "Louis, what's going on?" "She'll be fine soon." Louis looked at Chad, but actually said to Norma, "Is the ambulance coming?" Chad said, "Your wife called them, and I didn't delay there." Norma whispered, "I... don't go to the hospital." Louis said: "No, Norma, go to the hospital, five days of observation and treatment, and then you can go home safe and sound. If you want to say something else, I will let you eat all these apples, including the belt Nuclear together." Norma smiled weakly, then closed her eyes again. Louis opened the first-aid kit, rummaged for a bottle of quick-acting heart-relief medicine, poured out one pill, and capped the bottle.The pill was small, the size of a white crescent on a fingernail, and Luis squeezed the pill between his fingers and said to Norma, "Norma, can you hear me?" "can." "I want you to open your mouth, I'm going to put this little pill under your tongue and you hold it until it dissolves, it's a bit bitter, but it's okay. Okay?" Norma opened her mouth, and a rotten smell from wearing dentures came out.Seeing her lying on the kitchen floor, surrounded by apples and candies, Louis thought that maybe when she was young, she would have a mouth full of jade-like teeth, her firm chest attracted the attention of many young people nearby, and her heart would be like Jumping as healthy as a foal.Thinking of this, Louis couldn't help but feel sorry for the old lady. Norma took the pills under her tongue. The pills were bitter, and she couldn't help but make a grimace, but it didn't matter, she wasn't as powerless as Pascoe.Louis thought Norma had at least one more day to live.Norma's hand snapped in the air, and Chad took her hand lightly. Louis stood up, found the overturned fruit plate, and picked up the apples and candies on the ground.The woman who brought the Wimbledon, who said she was Mrs. Buddinger, helped Louise clean up, then said she'd better get back in the car, her two boys terrified.Louis said, "Thank you for your help, Mrs. Buddinger." Mrs. Shidinger whispered, "I haven't done anything. But I'm going to pray tonight and thank God you're here, Dr. Creed." Embarrassed, Louis waved his hand away. Chad looked at Louis, and his eyes regained their composure, and the brief moment of panic and fear passed, and he was composed again.Chad said intently, "I'm praying too, thank God and thank you. I owe you, Louis." "Don't say that, Chad," Louis said to Chad, waving goodbye to Mrs. Buddinger. Louis picked up an apple and ate it.It tastes good, and Louis feels good about himself: Well done Louis, you won tonight.While thinking, Louis devoured the apple. Chad said, "I really do, Louis, and when you need help, be the first one to come to me." Louis said, "Okay, I will." The ambulance from Bangor Medical Center arrived 20 minutes later. As Louis stood outside watching the hospital health staff put Norma into the ambulance, he saw Rachel looking out the window from the living room. He waved to his wife. Rachel waved back. Louis and Chad stood together, watching the ambulance speed away with lights flashing.But the car didn't honk. "I think I have to go to the hospital now," Chad said. "Chad, they won't let you see her tonight. They're going to do an EKG and put her under intensive care. No visitors for the first 12 hours." "Louis, will she be all right? Will she be all right?" Louis shrugged and said, "No one can guarantee. It was a heart attack, but anyway, I think she will be fine, and with medication, she may be better than before." "Yeah," said Chad, lighting a cigarette. Louis smiled and looked at his watch. He was surprised to see that it was only 7:50, but it seemed a long time ago. "Chad, I want to go take Ellie to the next Halloween event." "Yes, of course, you go quickly. Louis, tell her to let her get more gifts." Louis replied: "I will." Ellie was still dressed as a witch when Louis came home.Rachel tried to get her to wear sleepy goggles, but Elle was determined not to, thinking the game might still continue, although it was interrupted by Norma's heart attack.Ally clapped and squealed happily when Louis told her daughter to put on her coat. "Louis, it's so late, you still let her go out?" Louis said, "Let's drive. It's okay, Rachel, she's been looking forward to the Halloween games for a month." "Okay then..." Rachel agreed with a smile. Seeing that her mother agreed, Ellie yelled happily and ran to the closet.Rachel then asked, "Is Norma feeling better?" "I think better." Louis felt tired, but feeling good.He went on: "Had a heart attack, but it wasn't serious, and she'll have to be more careful in the future. But one has to realize at seventy-five that you're never going to be able to pole vault anyway." "You're so lucky to be there, almost divine." "I think it's luck." Louis saw Ellie running over and said with a smile, "Are you ready, Witch Hazel?" Allie said, "Get ready, let's go-go-go!" An hour later, Elle and Louis walked home with half a bag of candy.Although Ellie protested a little when Louis finally stopped working on the game, it wasn't too much of a protest, and she was tired.On the way, Allie asked, "Dad, did I give Mrs. Crandall a heart attack? Just when I didn't want that broken apple?" Louis looked at his daughter, startled, and wondered how children could come up with such amusing, slightly superstitious ideas.Step on the cracked dirt and break your mother's back.Either love me or hate me.Dad's belly, Dad's head, laughing in the middle of the night, Dad went to Xitianwai.These children's Halloween songs reminded Louis of pet cemeteries and vague grave circles.He wanted to laugh at his own thoughts, but couldn't. Louis said to his daughter, "No, honey. You were in the house with those two little devils—" "They're not little devils, they're the Puddinger twin boys." "Well, when you were in the house with them, Mr. Crandall told me that his wife had some chest pains. In fact, you did a lot to save her, or at least didn't make things worse. worse." This time it became Ellie who was taken aback. Louis nodded and continued, "Baby, she needed the doctor's help most at that time, and I was the doctor. If it weren't for you to play Halloween games for her, why would I be there?" Ellie thought about these words for a long time, then nodded and said matter-of-factly: "But she may die anyway. People who have a heart attack usually die. Even if they survive, they will soon die." It's going to have heart attacks over and over again until finally... boom." "I ask you, where did you learn these words?" Ellie just shrugged her shoulders—a shrug so much like Louis that Louis found it funny. Allie asks Louis to help her carry the candy bag into the house, a sign of trust in Louis, who silently thinks about his daughter's attitude towards death.The thought of the death of Churchill the cat had made her daughter almost hysterical in horror, but now she seemed to calmly think that the death of Norma, who was like a grandmother, was a natural thing.What did she just say?Would have heart attacks over and over again until finally... boom. The kitchen was empty.But Louis heard Rachel walking up and down the stairs.He put Ellie's bag of goodies on the counter and said, "Ellie, it's not necessarily what you said it was. Norma's heart attack wasn't serious, and I was able to treat her right away. I miss her heart. Without much damage, she—” Ellie agreed, almost cheerfully: "Oh, I know, but she's old, and she's going to die soon anyway. So is Mr. Crandall. Daddy, can I have an apple before I go to bed?" ?” Louis looked at his daughter thoughtfully and said, "No, honey, go upstairs and brush your teeth. Louis thought: Who would ever really understand children? After everything was tidied up in the house, Rachel and Louis were lying on the bed, and Rachel asked softly, "Does Elle feel bad, Louis? Is she feeling down?" Louis replied, "No, she's calm. Let's go to sleep, Rachel, shall we?" That night, while the Lewis family was asleep, Chad was awake in his bed.Another great frost fell during the night, and the wind rose the next morning and blew the dead brown leaves off the trees. The sound of the wind woke Louis up. He stretched his arms in a daze, and heard the slow, dragging footsteps on the stairs again.Pascoe was back again, Louis thought, only two months had passed since then.When the door opens, he sees a horrific carrion: the gym shorts are covered in mold, all the flesh has rotted away, leaving only holes in the bones, and the brain is rotting and mushy .Only those eyes were alive and shining.Pascoe probably won't talk this time, and his vocal cords must have rotted away, and he won't be able to make a sound anymore.But his eyes, those eyes would signal Louis to follow him. "No." Louis said, taking a breath, and the footsteps died away. Louis got out of bed, went to the door, pulled it open, his lips pulled back, a terrified look, goosebumps all over his body.Pascoe would be there, arms raised, greeting passengers like a long-dead conductor. None of those things, as Chad said.The porch was empty and silent.Only the wind.Louis walked back to the bed and fell asleep again.