Chapter 31 thirty-one

Winter is over.Ellie's thoughts of Santa returned, at least temporarily, mainly because of the footprints on the mantelpiece.Gage happily opened his presents, stopping from time to time to taste those wrapping papers that seemed to have a special flavor to him. Before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the two children showed that they thought the box was more interesting than a toy. up. The Chadian couple came for a drink on New Years Eve.Louis examined Norma in his mind. He noticed that her face was paler than before, and she seemed a little translucent. Louis remembered that his grandma would say that Norma's appearance indicated that she was beginning to weaken. Maybe this word was used well. .Her hands seemed suddenly swollen and deformed by arthritis, as if they were blotchy with measles.Her hair looked less, too, and the Chads came home around 10 o'clock, and the Louise family watched the TV and ushered in the new year.This was Norma's last visit to their home.

During the winter vacation, the days are mostly snowy or rainy.The weather is getting warmer, so the heating bill for the home is not much, but the weather is always gloomy and depressing.Louis basically stayed at home and did some work. He built some bookshelves and closets for his wife and assembled a Mercedes-Benz model car in the study. By the time the school started on March 23, Louis was happy to be back at school up. The flu finally started, and less than a week after the spring semester started, many people on campus were infected; he was on the go, working almost 10 hours a day, sometimes 12 hours a day, and was exhausted when he got home , but the mood is quite happy.

The warm weather lasted until January 29, when a snowstorm fell.The weather was a bit cold for a week, with temperatures below freezing.One day, while Louis was examining a young man's broken arm, a volunteer nurse poked his head in and said Rachel was calling him. Louis went into his office to answer the phone. Rachel's cry came from the phone. Louis was startled. He thought, it was Ellie, did she fall off the sled and broke her arm?Or shattered skulls?He thought again of those crazy boys who fell off the sled and hurt themselves.So Louis asked, "Rachel, something happened to the baby, didn't it?"

Rachel said, "No, no." She cried even harder. "It wasn't the kids. Louis, it was Norma. She died about eight o'clock this morning, right after breakfast."Chad said he came to see if you were home and I told him half an hour ago you left for work and he - oh Louis, he looked so lost, so dazed...so old...thank god Ellie was at school Go, Gage is still young and doesn't understand..." Louis frowned. In addition to the bad news, he found himself trying to understand the meaning of Rachel's words.Because now I have encountered this kind of death again.People can't stop it, it's God's will.Death is a secret, a horror that cannot be known to children, must not be known to children, just as Victorian ladies and gentlemen believed that sex life was dirty and private, and children should not know it.

Lewis said, "My God, is it a heart attack?" "I don't know," Rachel said.She stopped crying loudly, but her voice was hoarse, sobbing, "Louis, can you come back? You're his friend and I think he needs you." You are his friend. Louis thought, a little surprised, oh, I'm his friend.I never thought I'd be close friends with an 80-year-old, but I think I'm his friend now.He later realizes that, considering what the two of them have done together, they better still be friends.Thinking about it, he guessed that Chad might have considered them friends for a long time.In that place Chad had stood by his side, and no matter what happened afterwards, like the dead mice, the dead birds, Louis felt that maybe Chad was right when he decided to take him to the cemetery and bring the kitten back from the dead...or, no If it is right, at least it is sympathetic and compassionate.Now it was time for him to do what he could for Chad, and if it meant Louis could be Chad's best friend when his wife died, he would be.

"I'll be right back." Louis finished and hung up the phone.