Love, or hate. It sounded simple, but how could it be that easy?
I said, “Mario, can you promise me that Clarie will grow up safe and sound?”
He nodded and calmly, “Yes. She is my daughter, I will take good care of her, give her all love and care.”
I did believe him.
So, I nodded.
Would the driver call the police? It didn’t seem likely. I was a bit rash. I should have told Leo before I came. Otherwise, if I died, I was afraid my body would rot and no one would know.
How ugly the decay was!
Seeing me stare at sulfuric acid, he smiled, giving a kind of wanton smile, “I gave you the choice to die the same way Irene did, and you deserve it.”
Looking at him, I was a little angry, “So as far as you’re concerned, I’m still getting preferential treatment, right?”
He raised his eyebrows and said, “At least it’s ritualistic. Do it!”
I was not afraid of death, but I was not willing to let myself die in this way, so I had not started.
He was a man of great impatience. When I didn’t respond, he just got up and went to the table.
He picked it up, looked at me darkly, raised his eyebrows, and said with some impatience, “You want me to do it myself?”
I saw something hideous about him. Instinctively, I took a step back and looked at him, “Mario, you have a way back!”
“Aha!” He burst out laughing, then looked at me with a ghastly face. “Clara, you’re scared.”
Duh, no one was not afraid of this situation.
Step by step, he approached me, and I unconsciously stepped back.
“Mario, the dead cannot be brought back. The living is precious.” I spoke out of instinct.
He smiled grimly and didn’t listen to what I said.
He had wrenched the lid off his hand and was holding it close to me.
Looking at me, he said grimly, “You look a lot like Irene now. She was as bitter and struggling as you were when she left. I thought at the time, she must really want to live, but she just couldn’t find a reason. Tell me, why can’t I be her reason for her to live?”
I looked at him, stepping back step by step. But I was blocked by the old stuff behind me, and there was nowhere to retreat.
He looked at me like I was a clown. He threw sulfuric acid at me in a ghastly way.
Almost at the same time, I instinctively raised my hand to protect my face, but I couldn’t completely block it.
I was flung into the arms of a man. Almost at the same time, I heard the sound of rotting flesh and smelled something disgusting.
I heard a man’s voice in pain. Then a crowd of people came in.
When I recovered, I realized that the acid thrown at me by Mario had been blocked by Dennis.
I looked at Dennis’s face, almost as white as paper.
The strange but disgusting smell made me open my mouth, but unable to say a word.
I watched as he fell to his knees in front of me and was whisked away.
My head was buzzing, I couldn’t say a word, and I didn’t know what to do.
In the hospital.
There were doctors and nurses walking in front of me. The pain of hindsight came, and I knew that my face seemed to have been burned by sulfuric acid.
“The burns were small and involved the ball of the right eye. Fortunately, the cornea was not damaged and would not cause blindness.” It was a doctor in a white coat who had just dressed my wound.
He obviously knew I was awake, so he explained the situation to me. I thought about his words and knew that my face was probably hurt, and my eyes were inevitably hurt.
But why didn’t I feel pain at first? Maybe it happened so fast, and I forgot it hurt.
The doctor left and the nurse gave me an injection. She took my hand and patted it several times, but couldn’t find the vein, so she looked up at me and said, “Miss, I need you to make a fist.”
I made a fist, and she looked carefully at the back of my hand. Then, presumably finding a vein, she took the slender needle and dipped it.
Staring at her going in, I put my face aside and my muscles began to ache. Honestly, I was afraid of pain.
“Okay!” Probably seeing my expression, the nurse reminded me when she finished.
I relaxed and glanced back at the needle that had been stuck in my left hand. I could see the blood vessels on the back of my hand bulging and I felt pain.
I could not help saying, “Hello, is it the wrong vein? The blood seems to be flowing backwards.”
Not that I was being ridiculous, because in the infusion tube, it had gone from white liquid to red.
The nurse looked back, froze for a while, tried to pull out the needle that had been inserted, and there was blood flowing out.
She cleaned the wound with iodophor and said, “Hold it.”
I lifted my right hand and pressed it, thinking how complicated human veins were. They were all used to carry blood, but if we made a mistake, it would be a mess.
Probably because of the mistake, my hand swelled where I had been pricked with a needle. There was no blood, but the bruises on the back of my hand were a little harsh.
I threw the swab in the trash. The nurse also noticed the swelling bruises on the back of my hand. She frowned slightly, a little apologetically. But she didn’t say she was sorry.
She just took my hand and looked at it as if she was going to go on. I looked at the back of my hand and felt sorry for myself.
So, I said, “How about right hand this time?”
It was hard to find my blood vessels before. My left hand was swollen now, and if she did it again and made a mistake, my hand wouldn’t be able to take it.
She nodded, looked down and patted the back of my right hand as before, and asked me to clench my fist.
Fortunately, this one went well. When the needle went in, nothing happened.
The nurse picked up the medicine, looked at my swollen left hand and said guiltily, “I’ll get you some ice later.”
I nodded and looked at my hands. My eyes were a little hazy because one of them was bandaged.
Seeing with one eye always made me feel very blurry.
Leo came in and passed the nurse. It was inevitable that he would be looked at because he was handsome and young.
Leo was probably used to it. He came into the room and looked at me with worried eyes. He looked me over, then his eyes fell on the back of my hand.
He said, “How did it happen?”
I said, “Mainly because my hands are too white to find blood vessels.”
He scowled slightly, then looked at me and said, “How do you feel?”
I didn’t answer his question, “Did you find Clarie?”
He nodded, “Yes. Nova Pearson caught Dennis’s eyes. When he found Clarie and realized something was wrong, he came back to the factory looking for you.”