Chapter 3 third chapter

Harim 682 is a big, sturdy man, about fifty years old, with well-developed chest and arms, and a thick layer of fat growing between the muscles and the skin.Schelling studied him carefully through the window of his hospital room, and immediately felt that he and Harim could get along well. "I've always had a preference for... well... big guys," the psychologist explained to Kylaritan and Cupillo, "because I've been that way most of my life, you know? Of course, I'm not that strong compared to him." Schelling smiled happily He smiled, "The meat is piled up on my body. Of course, except this place." He patted his head as he spoke... "What does this Harim do?"

"Wharf porter," Kylaritan replied, "has been on the docks in Joller for thirty-five years. In a lottery draw, he got a ticket to the opening of the mystery tunnel. Wife and children went. Yes, he was injured to varying degrees, but he was the most serious. This made him very embarrassed, a strong and big man, would actually collapse completely." "I'm quite aware of that," Schelling said. "I'm going to think about it. Let's talk to him right now, shall we?" They entered the room. Harim had sat up, looking listlessly at the swivel spotlights on the roof, the multicolored lights illuminating the wall opposite the bed.He looked at Xie Lin with a pleasant smile, but when he noticed that the lawyer Qiubilo was following the dean, his face darkened, turning into a glacier.

"What's he for?" Harim asked. "Another lawyer?" "Not at all. This is Schelling 501, from Salo. He's here to help you recover." "Well," Harim snorted heavily, "another genius! How many good things have you done for me?" "That's true," Schelling said. "The only person who can really help Harim recover is Harim himself, right? You understand this and I understand it. Maybe I can make everyone in this hospital understand it too." ’” he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.The fat body made the bed creak. "At least the bed here is authentic, though. It would be nice if it could hold both of our weights at the same time... Don't like lawyers, do you? Neither do I. You and I are soul mates."

"They can't do anything other than create pain and misfortune for people," Harim said. "They are full of bad ideas, and they can get their help by making you say things against your will and inducing you to say whatever you want. In the end, use your own words to punish you and exonerate them. Anyway, that's how I see it." Schelling looked up at Kylaritan. "Is it necessary for Chubilo to participate in this conversation? I think the conversation will go better without him." "I have the right to participate in any..." Cupillo's tone was stubborn.

"Please don't..." Kylaritan interrupted him, with a more forceful tone than Sven, "Sherin is right, three people coming at once today is too much for Harim. Besides , You all heard what he said." "This..." Chubilo said, his face a little embarrassed.But quickly turned around and left the room. Schelling surreptitiously gestured to Kylaritan to take a seat in the far corner.Then he turned to face the patient on the bed, and smiled sweetly: "It's hard, isn't it?" "Let you hit the mark." "How long have you been here?"

Harim shrugged. "I think it's been a week or two, maybe longer. I don't know, I'm just guessing. Since..." He fell silent. "Is it the Joller Centennial Expo?" Schelling asked after him. "Yes, since that ride." "It's been a week or two," Schelling said. "Really?" Harim's eyes widened immediately.How long he lived in the hospital, he didn't want to know. Schelling immediately changed tack and said, "I bet you never thought that one day you'd tell yourself you'd love to go back to the pier. Right?"

Harim smiled and said, "How dare you mention this! Oh, I can't wait to carry the rattan box tomorrow." He looked at his hands: big and strong, with thick fingertips that have been smoothed, One finger is bent from the injury. "Lying here all day, the muscles are constantly slack. By the time I can go back to work, I am no longer a good player." "Why are you lying here? Why don't you get up, put on your clothes and get out of here?" Kylaritan uttered a warning from around the corner.Schelling motioned him to be quiet with his hand. Harim gave Schelling a surprised look. "Get up and go out?"

"Why not? You are not a prisoner." "But if I do that...if I do that..." Harim the dock worker trailed off. "What if you did that?" Schelling asked. Harim frowned, bowed his head and remained silent for a while.He wanted to speak several times, but swallowed it again.The psychologist waited patiently.Finally, Harim finally said in a tense, hoarse, half-depressed voice: "I can't go out. It's because of... because of... because of... the darkness." He struggled to get out. "Darkness?" Schelling repeated. The word hung between the two of them like something tangible.

Harim was terrified by this, even a little embarrassed. It occurred to Schelling that, among people like Harlem, the word was rarely used as a polite term.In Harim's opinion, the word, if not obscene, could not escape the connotation of profanity.In Kargesh, no one wants to think about the word darkness.The less educated people are, the more afraid they are to think about it, and fear that one day those six friendly suns in the sky will suddenly disappear for no reason and be replaced by extreme darkness.This idea makes people avoid... let alone associate it with those two words. "Yes, darkness," Harim said, "and my fear is... If I go out, I may be in darkness again. That's the problem. Darkness, endless darkness again."

"His symptoms completely reversed over the course of a few weeks," said Kylaritan softly. "It was the opposite at first, and it was impossible to get him in the house unless he was sedated. That is, it was obvious at first." The claustrophobia, and then over a period of time, it turned into open phobia. I think it's a sign of recovery." "Perhaps so," said Schelling, "if you don't mind..." He turned to Harim and asked softly, "You were one of the first people to go through the mysterious tunnel, weren't you?" "On the first day," Harim's voice sounded slightly proud, "there were city lottery tickets sold. Probably a million tickets were sold, and a hundred people won, and a free tour of the Mystery Tunnel. I was the fifth winner, and I Went with wife, son, two daughters. That was the first day."

"Can you tell me briefly about the tunnel?" "Well," said Harlem, "that's..." He paused a little. "You know, I've never been in the dark, never. Not even in a dark room. I'm not interested in that. Great, there is always an ever-burning light in the bedroom. After I got married and got my own house, I still installed one in the bedroom as usual. My wife felt the same way. Going through darkness is not in line with common sense, nor in line with my original intention.” "But you still drew the lottery." "Yes, just once. Let's treat it as entertainment. You know what I mean? A special experience, or a vacation. Such a large exposition only happens once in five hundred years, doesn't it? People rush to buy Tickets. I figured it must be unusual, there must be something nice. Otherwise, how could they have built it? So I bought a ticket, I won a prize, everyone on the pier was jealous, they all wanted to win, Some even offered to pay for my lottery ticket...'No,' I said, 'this ticket is not for sale. I have a wife and children, and here is our lottery ticket...'" "You must be very excited about going through the tunnel?" "Yes, of course!" "When did it start? When did you take the car? How do you feel?" "Hmm..." Harim said.He licked his lips, and his attention seemed far away. "There's a lot of cars of this size that have nothing in them but slatted stools. They don't have roofs, you know. People get in, six people to a car, except ours, which is five people, because it's It’s a complete family, no need to add a stranger, the car is basically full. The next thing I heard was music, and the car began to slowly enter the tunnel at a very slow speed, not at all like a car on a highway, it was crawling .Soon into the tunnel, and...then...' Schelling waited a while longer. "Go on," said Harim, seeing that there was no sign of going on. "Tell me about it. I'd like to know what's going on inside." "And then there was darkness," his voice was hoarse, his hands trembling in memory, "you know, the moment you enter the tunnel, it's like someone threw a huge hat on your head, and everything turned black all of a sudden Now." His trembling hands shook even more. "I heard my son Tenet laughing. The kid is smart, and Tenet is smart. He thinks darkness is obscene, I assure you, So he thought it was funny. I told him to shut up, and then one of the daughters started crying, and I told her it was okay, there was nothing to be afraid of, it was only a quarter of an hour anyway, and it should be treated as entertainment, not something scary. Then… …Then……" There was another silence.Schelling didn't rush him this time. "Then I felt darkness come over me. Darkness replaced everything...darkness...you can't imagine what it's like...you can't imagine...how black it is...how dark...dark...dark ..." Harim suddenly shuddered as if in a convulsion, and burst into tears. "Darkness... hey, this damn darkness!" "Hey, don't be afraid, there's nothing to be afraid of here. Look how beautiful the sun is! There are four suns today, Harim, man, don't be afraid..." "Let me handle this," Kylaritan said.As soon as he heard the cry he ran to the bedside.Holding the shiny syringe in his hand, he tapped it into Harim's strong arm, and the crying died down immediately. Harim regained his composure quickly, and he fell back on the pillow, smiling absently. "We've got to leave him," Kylaritan said. "However, I have hardly talked about..." "He won't be awake for hours, now, we can go to lunch." "Lunch, all right," Sherin said absently.To his own surprise, he had no appetite at all.He could hardly remember ever feeling like this. "Is he one of the fittest patients?" "Also the most stable patient." "So, what about the rest of the people?" "Some were very nervous, others had to be sedated half the time. At first, as I said, they refused to enter the house from the outside. When they came out of the tunnel, if they didn't suffer from acute claustrophobia, everything seemed to be fine. It's normal, you understand? They refuse to enter the premises ... any premises, including palaces, mansions, apartments, suites, sheds, shacks, stilts and tents." Schelling was deeply moved.He's been healing the sick who are hurt by the dark, which is why they asked him to come here.He had never heard of such a serious patient. "Aren't they going inside? Where are they sleeping?" "In the open air". "Has anyone tried to force them into the house?" "Oh, I tried, of course I did. At this point they'd be hysterical, some suicidal...they'd run up to the wall and bang their heads hard. And so on. Once inside, there were no special tights or injections. Sexual sedatives cannot keep them in." Schelling shook his head as he watched the big porter drift off to sleep. "What a poor fellow". "That was stage one symptoms. Harim's symptoms were stage two... open phobia. He's adjusted to being here and all symptoms have reversed. He knows the hospital is safe and the lights are on 24 hours a day. Even though he could see the sun through the window, he was still afraid to go outside. He thought it was dark outside." "But that's ridiculous," Schelling said. "There's no darkness outside." As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a little silly. Kylaritan, though, saved him face. "We all know this, Dr. Schelling, and no sane person would think so. But the problem is that people who have been traumatized in the mysterious tunnels are no longer sane." "Yes, that's what I thought," said Schelling shyly. "You can go see our other patients later today," Kylaritan said, "and maybe they'll give you a wider perspective and help you look into this. We'll take you to the tunnels tomorrow." ...we've closed it. Of course, while we know it's difficult to do so, the city elders are eager to find some way to reopen it. Big investment, I know. Shall we have lunch first, Doctor? " "Lunch, good."Schelling repeated, feeling less and less appetizing.