Tęsinys apie tikrą meilę…

Chapter 7

 

Larry opened his eyes and did not understand where he was: white bed, curtains, night lamp and a girl wearing a white robe and a hat. Larry was about to get up, but stinging pain nailed him to the bed. Then he recalled of the race and the crash.

“My leg,” Larry said in a strangled voice, “my leg hurts…”

The nurse turned around and cast a look at him. “Oh, our handsome man has woken up already. Well,” she stood up and came closer to Larry, “what is it?” 

“How is my leg? Is it very bad? How soon can I get up?”

The nurse was a little upset. “I’ll call up the doctor. He wanted to examine you, so will be able to ask him this question.”

“Thanks, nurse. I can wait.” Larry smiled. “I feel quite well. I just want to know, when I will be able to get out here.”

He did not have to wait long. A minute later, a tall and stout man entered the room. He wore serious expression of his face, one hand in the pocket of his robe while he was twiddling with a pencil in the other. He was obviously bothered with something.     

“Well, how is my patient doing?” he asked in a heavy and rasp voice. 

“I feel a terrible pain in my left leg, I must have got it wounded very heavily today.”

“You have got injured, but not today. A week ago,” the doctor corrected. 

“How could it be a week ago? I remember it very well that I have been brought here straight from the track today.”

“Don’t worry, it’s very natural after getting such a heavy trauma and narcosis.”  

“What trauma? What are you talking about? I just broke my leg and that’s it,” Larry did not give up. 

The doctor took off his glasses, wiped them out, put on again and fitted behind the ears. “You see,” he obviously did not know what to start from, “as far as understand, you have not been informed yet…”

“Informed of what?” Larry got even more surprised.

“The thing that…”

The doctor fell silent. Larry understood that he had temporized over something. 

“What is this ‘The thing that’…” Larry got angry, “come on, say it quickly…”

“We had to amputate your left leg.”

“What?“ Larry threw away the blanket and screamed, “What have you done to me? I just broke my leg and now… Get out of here, all of you,” the guy‘s eyes filled with tears. “What am I going to do now?”

The doctor stayed. So did the nurse.

“Please, take it easy,” the doctor said kindly, “We had no chances to save your leg. You are lucky that you survived. You will have a prosthetic appliance and no one even notice this. You can be proud of your faithful and beautiful girlfriend, who keeps coming every day. You have your mother too, so don‘t give up. Sometimes there are much worse outcomes. For instance, you friend was a total misfortune.”

Larry was so upset that he was almost skipping the doctor‘s words, but he did fix the last ones. “What‘s wrong with him? Where is he?” Larry got worried.

“He is buried already. He died straight away.”

“Is Arnold dead!” The news about his friend’s death had struck him dumb. In a moment a glimpse of Arnold face and the sound of his said words passed through in front of Larry… Larry turned, his eyes narrowed. All of a sudden, he started smiling, but there was chaos seen in his eyes. “No, it can‘t be true… You must have made a mistake…”

The doctor nodded to the nurse giving a sign to prepare some stuff for him. Then Larry fixed his frightened look on the doctor‘s eyes. “I was told that everything was fine… You are kidding me! This is impossible…”

“The doctor doesn‘t lie, young man,” the nurse interfered and cleaned a spot on his arm with disinfect, “You‘ll get better after I make this injection.”

“No, please, don‘t… I will make it … Simply, I can‘t believe so far that Arnold is dead.”

The doctor tried to comfort Larry. “Such is life,” he said. “We have to put up with everything and go through life with our heads erect, take it or leave it…”

Larry recalled Arnold’s words, when he said that a man must go with his head erect even through a cabbage field… He sighed. Arnold was my best friend, Larry thought, and even could not be at his funeral… And Edna was left alone with her daughter. Oh Lord, why did it have to happen? Arnold is gone… I have lost my leg. What would Eva say to this? Does she now about it already?

The doctor was satisfied that his patient calmed down without any medicine. He was about to leave, when the door opened and Eva came in.

“Come on in,” the doctor encouraged her. “Your friend is very sensitive, I think, he needs you very much. Here is your girlfriend,” the doctor said to Larry. “I‘m handing you over to good hands and leaving for now.”

Larry set his look on Eva. She was so beautiful and unrepeatable like on that day in the concert; just she had a small bundle in her hands instead of roses. She came up and sat down on the chair. She took out some fruits and placed them on the hutch. She had so much to tell him that she did not know where to start.  

“This is for you,” she slightly opened her mouth trying to give a smile. 

“Thanks, you shouldn‘t have bothered… The food here is good,” Larry tried to joke.  

“Vitamins will make no harm to you.”

“You see, what has happened. We have agreed to meet at the cafe right after the race, and actually, we met in the hospital. A week later…”  

“Stop it, don‘t say so,” the girl said, hardly keeping her tears away.

Larry looked down and paused. “I doubt if you are going to stay with me…”

“Of course, I will,” Eva did not let Larry to finish the sentence. “I know that you have lost your leg and it doesn‘t matter to me. I love you very much.”  

“I love you too, Eva, but I am a handicap now and who knows how I can live on.”

“First, we‘ll get married as we have agreed and then we‘ll see, okay?”

“Really? Do you really want this?”

“Yes, Larry, I do. Do you agree?”

Oh, Lord, Larry thought. She is so brave. Not every girl could do this. She is an angel… “I do, but if you do this just because of a pity… I don’t need any sacrifices.”

“Do you doubt me?”

“No, but I am sorry. I will have a prosthesis, which is not a leg.”

“Don‘t get upset, Larry, we will make it. I want to be with you and I love you very much. In three days, I will bring a notary public with me. You can inform your mother, if you like.” Eva leaned over and gave Larry a kiss.

“What would I do without you, Eva”

“I don‘t know what I would do without you too. I guess, I wouldn‘t make it…”

The door opened. Eva turned back and saw the same women with who they had stayed in the waiting room.

“This is your mother,” she said “if I am right. I better go and leave you both alone.” She stood up and gave him a smile. “Take care.”

The mother cast a look at Eva on her way. “Who is she?” mother asked in discontent. 

“Mama, don‘t be afraid, she is my girlfriend and we will get married in three days.”

“Are you nuts?” his mother got angry. “Don‘t even think of it! Just over my dead body! Some upstart has set her heart on our wealth!” Mother was furious. She got on her feet.

“Come on, mama, I don‘t feel well and you want to finish me off…”

“I mean only well for you. I‘ll have a word with this bird,” she threatened, leaving the ward.

“Mama, wait,” Larry called, but he could not stop her. She did not turn around and closed the door behind her quickly.

Larry could hear his mother‘s fierce words in the corridor. The voices fell silent. He felt such a pain, that he could hardly press the signaling button with his shaking hands. The doctor and the nurse ran down in a second. Larry was pale and shaking. 

“The ampoule,” the doctor ordered, counting the pulse. 

Larry could not calm down. Mother will ruin my life, he kept repeating in his mind. Mama, why are you doing this?

“You cannot worry so much,” the doctor was trying to calm him down. “You are doing harm to you. You gave to take it easy, everything will e fine. Try to get some sleep now. You need some rest. No more visitors, Karen, at all!” 

When the doctor left, the nurse sat at the table and started taking some notes. Though the medicine had reduced some pain, his soul still hurt. Larry knew that he was powerless to change anything.  He tried to get asleep, as the doctor recommended, but he could not. Even sedatives did not help. Of course, he had stopped shaking and started feeling better, but his mother’s attach against Eva gave him a hard time. He sods with anger and wanted to bawl her out for her mean behavior. Larry was looking through the window, watching the nurse’s face lit up by the night lamp and was deep in his thoughts. Why is the mother so cruel? Doesn’t she understand that it’s so hard for me now and I need a close friend? Eva is exactly the right person. My mother doesn’t know her at all, then how can she make so unreasonable and non-weighed decisions.  She is torturing not Eva, but me… Doesn’t she understand that? What has happened to her and why is she like that? Or she has always been like this, just I haven’t noticed? Larry was still in his considerations. He had a lot of questions and he wanted to have them all answered at once. But he had to wait till the next day.

 

●○●

Eva returned home hardly taking her breath back, as if she had been running trying to escape something. She did not cry, just was biting on her lips till it hurt. 

“What happened?” her mother got scared, when she opened the door and saw her daughter‘s appearance. “Why are you so pale?”

“She turned me away…”

“Who is? Where from?”

“Larry‘s mother has turned me away from the hospital. She said she wouldn‘t like to see me again. She strongly demanded to leave her son alone.”

Eva‘s mother got almost tumbled down due to the amount of information she had received. “What son? What mother?”

“You don‘t know anything about it… She wants to get me apart from Larry!”

“Would you, please, explain what you are talking about?” she strongly required after she got back to her feelings. “I don‘t understand here anything at all…” 

Eva gave the whole story in full details. She spoke silently and evenly. Her eyes were feverish. When telling the story, she did not look up at her mother, just took back her breath from time to time, as if climbing a steep scarp. That time Eva did not hide anything away from her mother and told everything in a row. She did describe Larry‘s mother like a witch, but from her words, it was clear that the woman was cool tigress, which cared just about her home and wealth. 

Eva‘s mother listened to the story saying not a word. He face did not reveal her feelings. She knew that it was important to stay calm and not to show any worry to Eva. Finally, she stood up. “Nothing serious has happened! Wait a second, I‘ll wash my hands and we‘ll have a talk.”

How come nothing happened, Eva thought. Why does she say so? Doesn‘t she know what it means to love somebody and that I‘m in an invidious situation? The mother of the man I‘m in love with hates me. Why does my mother say that nothing serious has happened? Only then did Eva come back to her feelings. That was the first time she mentioned about Larry… She told everything she had been hiding away all the year. Eva got scared.  

Mother came back and sat down on the sofa.

“Come, Eva,” she kindly invited, “Sit next to me.”

Eva obeyed and got next to her mother. She looked straight in the eyes. “What should I do, mama? I love him so much…”

“I understand, sweetheart,” mother comforted her. “But I still say that nothing terrible happened! Don’t look at me like this. The main point now is to give think correctly in order to avoid doing something irrecoverable. Do you understand?”

“I don‘t know how I should behave now…”

“May be entering a college would be the best solution now.”

“Do you think it‘s the way out?”

“You don‘t like my ides, do you? Let‘s think you would forget all this over this time. For now, you could spend some of your holidays at you aunts. That‘s a lovely place.  You‘ll be alone there and have a chance to think all over. You need time daughter. This is your life. My biggest desire of all is to see you happy.”

“I know, mom.”

“Very well, Eva,” mother said, having got easy a little. “And in the meantime, it would be good for you to get some sleep.”

“But I’m not tired…”  

“It‘s all right, you need to get some rest,” mother stroke Eva‘s hair. “Take a pill of my sedatives.”

Eva went to her room. Her mood was so terrible, but, anyway, she felt some relief, since she told everything to her mother. Life did not seem so tragic. Mother can be kind and high-minded.

 

●○●

In the morning, Larry‘s mother turned out in the ward and stood trembling at the doorway. Her son in bed looked so tine and helpless. Just his eyes were shining distinctly in his lean and pale face. His eyes contained it all: hope and love, waiting and despair. And fear was overwhelming everything. Mother came closer to Larry‘s bed and sat down on a stool. Then she took her son‘s bloodless hand – cold, with exposed veins – caressed it, and felt the whole body trembling. It seemed that she had never experienced that many of contradicting feelings that filled her heart. They even were strangling her. The woman tried to give a smile, but it was just an unsuccessful grimace. She wanted to say something, but the words stuck in her throat. She kissed his warm and manly palm and cried, shedding her salty repentant tears on Larry‘s hands.

The guy was silent. He could still feel spite somewhere down in his heart, but his anger was scattering away. Larry understood that there was nothing what he could change and he needed to live on. 

“Did you come here to shed your tears?” Larry said in disappointment. “I have enough of my own. First of all, you have to think twice in order not to be sorry for your deeds later on.” 

“I‘m sorry, son, I didn‘t mean it.”

“If you did not mean it, why did you do it then?”

“I don‘t know her at all, and I thought,” she hurried to explain herself, “that she needs your money more than you… And what would you think if a girl you don‘t know at all wants to get married to your son who is fighting for his life? Wouldn‘t it raise any suspicion?”

“Mother, but it‘s already a year that we are friends and I know her very well…”

“How could I know about it?”

“How, how… You could have asked me. But you rushed out like out of the fire and ruined my life, which is far away from being sweet.”

“Don‘t feel sore about it, she will come again.”

“No, mama, I know her better. She‘ll never set a foot in here again.”

“Then you will see each other when you are back from hospital…”

“Who knows, mama, who knows,” Larry questioned that

“I will help you. You‘ll see, you will get her back.” 

“All right, enough of it. Did you talk to the doctor? When are they going to let me out?”

“Yes, I did,” mother confirmed being happy that Larry had changed the subject, “if everything goes all right, you will leave this place in a month…with prosthesis.”

“Excuse me for disturbing you,” the doctor joined their conversation having just entered the ward. “We have to take this young man to the procedural cabinet. I‘ll check the healing. If everything goes fine,” he addressed to Larry, “you‘ll go home in a month.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Larry said disillusioned, “if only it would mattered to me…”

Mother felt uncomfortably. She understood that her son had been crushed. Since he is telling this to the doctor, she thought, this means that he is in great suffer indeed. “I‘ll go now,” she said sadly, “I‘ll come to see you tomorrow.”

Larry did not respond. He was indifferent to everything. 

 

●○●

Eva‘s mother sat closer to the phone. There was no doubt that Rita would take a good care of Eva like of a little kitten. She loved her niece. Eva would change the environment and would be able to prepare for the entrance examinations and, hopefully, she would forget about that unlucky love story.

“I‘ll come to your place around eight o‘clock,” her sister promised. “You just look after her that she would not disappear.”

“There is no need to worry. She doesn‘t want to go anywhere.”

Rita was there not at eight, but at six o‘clock, as if she wanted to catch over the aircraft’s. Eva‘s mother had not yet been back from shopping. Eva opened the door. The aunt entered the flat as if she had been invited to the wedding celebration.

“Come, I need your help,” the aunt said, having set free Eva from her embrace.

“What help?” Eva automatically asked, though she knew that her aunt would never come without fairing.

This time she had brought half of a ham and two liters of wine, this was so firmly corked that they had hard time opening it.

“The lamb was straight from the oven, when I packed, and the wine comes from Nora. Would you like to try it?”

Eva did not want to, but she couldn‘t refuse to her aunt. The aunt was already running the kitchen.

“Then let‘s have a snack!” her aunt suggested. “This is not a lamb. This is a true honey! I almost fainted on my way to here – it smelled so good and I was so hungry…”

“I‘m not hungry, Eva said calmly.”

“Then watch me eating.” And Rita got to the lamb with such an appetite that she seemed to leave nothing over in half an hour. “When lamb is cooled then it‘s the best,” the aunt said. “Juicy skin is the best part.”

In a few minutes, Eva was gnawing the crispy skin. The aunt was right, Eva thought. It‘s very good indeed. This is much better than the chuck lamb that mom used to prepare sometimes.

“I didn‘t notice how the time flew on the way to here,” the aunt said. “The way is beautiful! Have you been to the rose valley?”

“Yes, sure, together with you…”

“And have you seen the roses blooming?”

“No, I haven‘t ever!”

“It‘s worth going there before the dawn, at sunrise.”

“Let‘s go then,” Eva suggested. 

“Just on one condition – I need more of a smile and I don‘t like sour faces!”

“I don‘t promise, but I‘ll try…”

The next morning both of them got ready and Eva‘s mother saw them to the car.

“Rita, drive safely,” Ada silently asked her sister.

“Don‘t worry, you can trust me.”

The sisters took an opportunity to exchange a few words, when Eva was loading things to the trunk. 

“My poor girl… She is so young and her pain is so big. I hope she will be able to forget about all this when she stays with you. It would be very good, if she could pass the exams.”

“I think she will be a success, Ada. She is a smart girl.”

“She is, but love has taken over her mind. It‘s good that Robert doesn‘t know about it. He is so proud of his daughter…”  

Eva set comfortably in the car. She was ready for the trip. “Quickly, aunt,” she urged, “otherwise I can change my mind.”

“Okay, Ada, I‘m in a rush. See? Eva is champing. I promise to scatter away all miserable thoughts from Eva‘s head.”

“I hope so, Rita. Take care of her.”

Rita did not need to be hurried up again. Both waved farewell to Ada and the car finally moved. 

Despite the early morning, the road leading out of the town was packed with cars, mostly trucks smoking pother. But it became empty right behind the crossroad, where the road branched to the suburbs. The morning shined with all its shimmer straight though the windows.

“Hey, girl, head up!” the aunt encouraged.

“Why?” Eva asked, getting awake from her oppressive thoughts. “I‘m all right,”

“There is no chance for you to cheat me… Get that Larry out of your head… There is no sense to think about him!”

“I‘m trying,” Eva answered, but tears had flooded her eyes already.

“Listen to my advice. Its all your fault.”

“Me?” Eva was surprised.

“May be not you, but…” Rita‘s face got convulsed.

“His mother is a true egoist,” Eva said darkly.

“There are all sorts and conditions of men in the world! There is no way you could reorganize it,” Rita lectured.

 

The car whizzed along the serpentine road. The summer greenery was still very fresh. Eva kept silent, but her long face betrayed her thoughts. The aunt was nervously pressing the levers. The car climbed a steep hillside and then was getting downhill. It seemed they had got into a different world. There were endless green hills stretching on the right side.

“Eva, darling, cheer up! Don‘t you be so sad…”

“All right, all right,” Eva promised and started looking around, however, thoughts about Larry did not leave her in peace. If not Larry‘s mother, we would be together now…

“It is beautiful, isn‘t it?”

“Yes, aunt, the views are just perfect…”

May be I shouldn‘t have run away, Eva was considering. Larry cannot be blamed that his mother is such a person. My Lord, what I have done? He is probably waiting for me, and I‘m going away and leaving him alone. Eva put her head in her hands. Her cheeks were so hot, as if she had sit at the fireplace.

“What is it, Eva? Enjoying the view?”

“Uh-huh,” Eva turned away to the window and she could hardly hold back her tears.

Soon Rita made a turn to a narrow country side road. The car submerged into the sea of roses. Eva watched the view without daring to make a slightest movement. She did not like roses, but this glamorous beauty of them had charmed her…

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

“There are such a lot of them,” Eva whispered, “awful lot…”

“Are you okay? You are so pale,” the aunt got worried.

Eva spontaneously touched her cheek. “I feel a little giddy.”

“May be you are allergic?”

“I wouldn’t think so…”

“Anyway, we’d better get out of here.”

Rita sprightly turned around the car and pulled out of the rose cloud.

“What is wrong, Eva? It was your own decision to go with me,” the aunt was still asking, since Eva’s mood worried her very much. 

“I imagined I would be able to leave all the problems behind, but you cannot escape yourself.”

“And you don’t try to escape, you life is just starting, and you are mourning for yourself already. Everything will be all right. Now you have to get ready for entrance examinations.” 

The car made a turn back to the highway again and was flying at such a speed, as if devils had been chasing it. In an hour, they got off in the aunt’s yard and Eva could catch her breath.

Thoughts about Larry were chasing her for more than one day. She was not able to forget about him and even more, she realized that she did not want to get apart with him. Eva understood that after she had learned the tasks and prepared for the exams, only then would she be able to return home. She made her decision. She got herself free out of all the thoughts that had troubled her and got down to the studies. Each day she used to start from reading, then at lunch she used to enjoy dainties prepared by her aunt, and then hurried back to her quiet room. 

 

●○●

Larry was sad. Eva never showed up at the hospital not just the next day, but also the next week and the week after that one… Why does she torment me like this? Was our love just a game? Had my mother insult her so much? Larry had a lot of questions that he could not find answers to. Why did my friends never visit me? Are there none of his friends left? May be they don’t feel comfortable to come here? Perhaps it’s even better that they don’t come, because this sympathy hurts so much. But Eva… She was the only one that he was waiting for. There were so many memories that bind them together… Recently they spent the most of their time together … Was everything lost?

Dark thoughts had left him in peace neither during days, nor at nights. It was so short before that life had smiled at him: friends, concerts, admirers… Emptiness and uncertainty were the only things left for him. Larry could not understand why the destiny had punished him so ferociously.  Those were his days wistfully passing by and he wanted to escape the four walls of his ward as soon as possible… He was willing to find Eva and to apologize for his mother. 

 

●○●

On that Saturday morning, Eva had started studying, when her aunt showed up on the doorway.

“Look at you! You are all buried in the books!” Rita was surprised. “I haven’t realized that you are working so hard.”

            Eva rose her head. She was satisfied.

“I thought you were just dreaming all days long hiding here by yourself,” Rita continued.

“What are you talking about, aunt,” – Eva discomfited, but soon she understood Rita‘s trick and boasted, “Few more day and I‘ll have repeated everything twice!”

“So, does this mean that you have definitely made up your mind?”

            Eva did not expect that question. She was studying and did not think of anything else but that.

“You may not answer… I can see all this myself. Just you can‘t study so hard! You need to take some rest also. You spend all your day inside breathing dust… You need some fresh air.”

“I don‘t…”

“What does it mean „don‘t“? Don‘t argue with me, go outside right now!” Rita said that in such a tone that it was senseless to keep on arguing.  

Eva reluctantly left the house. Right away, she submerged in thicket of flowers and greenery. Summer scents pleasantly exited her nose and whisper of many-colored blossoms was sad, homesick, but still pleasing.  Eva was diving among the flowers and remembered of Larry… She was thinking the only man that she missed. Blossoming fields and dark forests separated her from him. Lying on the grassland she watched the blue sky, floating gray clouds, she pressed scenting leaves to her lips, thirsty of and longing for love, and whispered love words to them. She recalled those hours when Larry hold her in his arms, touched her lips, face; she could hear his heart beating and him breathing. She thought of herself then flowering and radiant with joy… The aunt‘s voice brought her back to senses; she was called for lunch. That day Eva could not find strength to continue studying.

Next day, her aunt almost forced Eva to accompany her and to visit a Russian Orthodox Church.  Lingering duskiness and piercing silence prevailed there, so that Eva could hear her own breathing. There was not a single person in the church. A couple of thin candles were burning in a dark brass candlestick. Somebody has lit them on, but we‘ll never find out, what was the intention. Eva kept looking at the pale flames for a long while and their reflection was shivering on her face and in pupils, as if whispering something in their magic language. She listened to the silence. Her face was getting more and more sorrowful. When the aunt had finally cast a look at her, Eva‘s face seemed to her tormented all to pieces and stressful.

Eva shivered and raised her red eyes. “Where do they sell candles?” she asked unexpectedly.

“At the entrance,” the aunt asked surprisingly. “Why?”

“But there is nobody there…”

“Doesn‘t matter,” her aunt said and tried to explain, “people leave some money there and take the candles.”

Eva went there and returned nervously pressing a nice white candle in her hand. Rita was so surprised that it even took her breath away. There were no believers in their family. Neither their mother not grand parents believed in God. She herself used to light up a candle just at funerals or celebrations. The girl lit up a candle and carefully attached it to the candlestick. Then there were three flames already fluttering in the church dusk. In the candlelight, Eva‘s face became softer, pleasant and peaceful. Soon they left the church. 

“Why did you light the candle?” the aunt could not wait longer, “This means an application to the God.”

“I do believe in God.”

“Are you sure?”

“No doubt!”

Eva was striding away along the shady path. The aunt was not in a hurry to catch up with her. Let the girl calm down, she thought. When the two reached the street, Eva burst into tears. What is it that makes her heart ache? Rita thought.

“Come on, don‘t cry,” the aunt gave a hug to her and pressed against herself, “or I would not hold back my tears… Come, we‘d rather have something for a snack and have a talk.”

They went to the closest cook shop. Eva calmed down a little. She even ate with an appetite. 

“I am going back tomorrow,” she informed unexpectedly, “My poor mother must be missing me.”

“I‘ll take you home.”

“I could go by train as well…”

“Don‘t even think of it,” her aunt objected, “I have to deliver you to your mother, otherwise she would never talk to me again.”  

 

●○●

The next day Eva returned home. Eva’s parents could see that their daughter was fresher than before. Though, it was not true in fact. Thoughts about Larry did not let her in peace day and night. Each day she looked through her window hoping to see Larry‘s car. She was waiting for Larry to show up. Eva was expecting for a miracle, but the phone was not giving a sound and there was no knocking on the door. She had lost the slightest hope and she had almost resigned the thought that Larry would never call and never show up.

I shouldn‘t have left, Eva decided. Larry must have got angry to death at me, since he is not looking for me. Did he forget about everything that has been between us? We got along very well… We could understand each other…

Suddenly Eva turned pale. Saving idea had come to her mind and brought her back to life. Yes, yes, she was comforting herself, Larry must be still in hospital, and I am waiting for him to show up here! What am I thinking about? It‘s not everything that is lost! I will see him right away! Eva immediately got dressed. 

There were a lot of people at the reception. Eva was searching with her eyes for the same pleasant doctor, who took care of Larry. 

“Good day,” Eva heard a pleasant and familiar voice and turned around. The very same doctor stood in front of her. “Who are you visiting this time?”

“Good day, doctor, I was looking for you.”

“Did you? I haven‘t seen you for some time… You never came up since the day I let you to talk with your friend…”

“I came now. Is he in the same ward? Have you applied prosthesis for him?”

Eva surprised the doctor, and he answered them not on the spot. “We have made a prosthetic appliance for him; just he was walking with difficulty, when he was still here. But everything needs time, as well as some effort and support. I hope, you can understand, can‘t you?”

Eva understood. The thought pierced her mind. Larry is at home already… And he did not try to find me… “When did you let him go home, doctor?”

„Two weeks ago, if I remember correctly.” The doctor thought it over and confirmed, “Yes, tomorrow will be two weeks.”

Eva could hardly hold her emotions. Why has he behaved like this? Why has he pushed me away?

“Lady,” the doctor cut off her thoughts, “he has missed you very much. I guess, he would very happy, if you pay him a visit…”

“Thank you, doctor,” Eva stretched her hand to say goodbye, “I will do this. Thanks for your care. Goodbye.” 

“Good luck for you both.”

After she left the hospital, Eva was gasping for air. It‘s been two weeks that he is back… I myself came back home a week ago, but Larry did not give any news about himself… How come? Eva walked her head down watching shoes of by-passers splashing pools away. Rain was soaking her hair, face… She kept thinking about Larry all the time. When Eva came back home, she was still waiting for his call, looking through the window still hoping to see Larry‘s car. He will not call me, Eva made a sad conclusion towards the evening.  Probably, Larry got under his mother‘s influence letting her step over our love. Still and all, I will have to forget about him and all that we have had in common.

Eva had lost all and any hope and had almost resigned herself to this loss, however, there was a tiny hope still smoldering on the bottom of her heart.  For one more week, she had been expecting for a miracle, but since Larry had not given any message, she left for the entrance exams. She entered the college and did not return to the town. 

…… bus daugiau……