I stepped back and lowered my voice before responding to him, “I’m going to sleep, let’s talk tomorrow if there’s anything.”
The words fell, there was a long silence outside, as if people had left the building, but I noticed that the shadow under the door, never moved half a point.
In between waiting, Dennis changed his mind and turned back, he intentionally controlled his footsteps, and I leaned towards him when he came to my side.
It’s just a door away, but it’s like the three of us have a life that can never be crossed.
It took a long time for Hank to find his voice again, “Get some rest, and I’ll do what you want tomorrow.”
After saying that, the shadow under the door shifted and disappeared in the direction of Hank’s room.
It wasn’t until the footsteps disappeared that I breathed a sigh of relief and muttered to myself, “Grant my wish … Hank is ready to take me to see the baby?!”
Dennis’ low voice came from overhead, “Still think he’s your Santa Claus?”
The tone, oddly enough.
“Did you already know there was something wrong with Hank?” I asked.
Dennis did not reply directly, went to the window and lit a cigarette, swallowing clouds in the whistling wind, as if there was something unspeakable.
“If you don’t say, I won’t ask.” I walked over, closed the window, and turned my head to remind him, “Smoking already hurts your body, and you want to breathe your own secondhand smoke?”
Dennis froze for a moment, then pressed the cigarette out on the window sill and tossed the bulk of it through a gap in the air leak.
“No more smoking?” I was a little surprised and reassured, “Don’t worry about getting caught, I’ll just open the window for some air when you’re gone.”
“No more smoking.” Dennis finished lightly and digressed again, looking at me with interest, “If you had to choose between me and my son, who would you choose?”
This is the last situation I want to imagine, I did not expect to ask out of Dennis’s mouth, after a brief surprise, I looked at his serious look, did not hold back a laugh, “Dennis you know, you are now especially like, hot young love, have to fight a high and low, well… You are even worse than them, you even eat the jealousy of your own son.”
Dennis was bored, resentfully withdrew his eyes and laughed to himself, “I know the answer, it’s the same as I thought, no surprise.”
I laugh, “Who do you imagine I would pick?”
“Not me anyway.” Dennis shrugged his shoulders with a disappointed and aggravated look, “But you know what Clara, no matter who you’re compared to, I’m going to pick you.”
He looked like he was saying a joke, a hangdog look that made it hard to know whether to be happy or not.
After saying that, he didn’t wait for my reaction and started climbing the window by himself, “See you tomorrow.”
Then it jumped up and disappeared into the night.
I went to the window, looked around, did not search for his figure and other movements, and waited a while longer before closing the window.
…
The following day.
I got up early and cleaned myself up because I wanted to see my kids.
After breakfast, Hank took me out.
Thinking it would be another long drive, the car ended up stopping after driving into the city for less than ten minutes.
Hank opened the car door and got out, followed by me, followed him into a nearby watch store.
The store seems to have been open for a long time, with an old but storied sign at the entrance and twelve wall clocks in the window, presumably showing the same time in different time zones.
When we passed by the counter, an old gentleman was wearing professional equipment to overhaul his old watch, and he looked so focused that he didn’t seem surprised by our arrival.
And Hank, directly ignoring the old man, walked straight to the inner room, his steps were so big that I had to jog to keep up.
After turning a few directions in the room filled with clocks of various colors, the view finally became spacious. The room was filled with wine on both sides and a set of European style velvet sofa in the middle, which was very elegant.
Hank walked to the wine rack, casually drew a bottle of wine, the air stagnated for a moment, the wall directly in front of me, suddenly slowly moved to the side, a little bit to reveal the door of the secret room behind.
I looked at all this dumbfounded, it turns out that the wine is not decoration, but is the key to open this inner room.
With two rows of wine racks and hundreds of bottles, it would take hundreds of tries even one by one, not to mention, who would focus on the objects that abound at first glance?
“Follow me.” While I was dazed, Hank had already walked in. I froze for a moment and hurriedly lifted my feet to walk over, passing the living room with my eyes stealing a glance in the direction of the bottle of red wine.
Although Hank moved quickly and I wasn’t able to remember exactly which bottle it was, I was able to remember the general direction and come back when I had the chance, so I wouldn’t be too overwhelmed.
I thought I would see the child immediately, but I didn’t expect to see an underground factory when I entered.
Our position, suddenly became the second floor of the high, at our feet, is one after another in silver protective clothing, is operating on the assembly line of workers, and the assembly line is placed, is a pile of bottles and jars, because too far away, I can not just guess by guessing what products.
“This way.”
Hank’s voice pulled me back to reality, and with heavy curiosity, I followed him anyway.
Finally, after turning a few corners, I could hear the cries of babies from afar.
Just as I was getting excited, I noticed something was wrong.
There is a child’s cry here, yes, but, more than one.
The closer I got and the more clearly I heard, the more certain I was that there was more than one child here.
Sure enough, after Hank pushed open the door, I was proven right.
The room is regularly lined with more than ten incubators, which are placed in the recently born child, because there is no mother around to take care of, the vast majority of children are wah wah wah crying, the scene is chaotic and heart-wrenching.
My first reaction was to rush in and find my own child, however, after looking around, I didn’t see my baby or Dennis’ baby at all.
“What does that mean?” I questioned Hank, standing in the middle of the holding tank.
“You want to see the baby, I’ve brought you here now, what’s not to like?” Hank’s words were indifferent, as if this seemed to be a matter of course to him.
I had a sense of humiliation that I had been tricked and gritted my teeth in anger, “You know that’s not what I meant, what I want to see is my own son, tell me, which one is it here?”
“Hmph,” Hank laughed mockingly and paced inside with his feet up, teasing the child seemingly in a kindly manner while saying in a cloudy voice, “Every child here is experiencing the pain of separation, Clara, I’ll give you a chance now, choose one from here and take it away, I’ll let you go How about that?”
“Let me go?” At this point, I don’t think he’ll be so kind, “What are the conditions?”