Uncle Kok

Kok, Emelyn's brother, was quarreling with his wife inside their house. The house had almost been wrecked by them: furniture was knocked over; doors and windows were broken; a big picture was torn down from the wall of the living room, its frame smashed on the floor, but still they yelled at each other. He went out into the yard to smoke his pipe against the front doorframe. Kok seemed very anxious about something, like an old man who has lost the keys he needs for his own house. His wife's voice drifted toward him from somewhere in the house. She said, —You know how I suffered for all these years?. . as if she were singing. It wasn't clear whether she suffered or not. There was a lot of noise inside that house, coming through every crack and joint. But it sounded like laughter. —Yes . . . yes, said Kok, and there was silence again. Then he went back into the house and sat down in one of the chairs where he would have to look at her face for some time before he could speak. Because she had gone so far as to break everything she could see. Her things were scattered everywhere, broken dishes, books, toys, cutlery, clothes, and pictures. All the doors were wide open, but no light came from within. His eyes wandered around the room, which was full of darkness, and he saw the broken picture hanging crookedly from the wall with a piece missing from it, a chair standing upright beside another broken window, and a pile of broken glass lying on the floor, while the walls were littered with paper, scraps of cloth, and bits of wood, and in the corner near the window stood a table covered with dirty plates and cups.

They argued about one thing: whether they should adopt their nephew or not, the newborn baby of Emelyn and Hobb.

"My sister Emelyn is dead, and my brother-in-law Hobb is missing. How the hell can I leave their kid there and not take care of him?"

On the night of Emelyn's death, Hobb was so devastated that he fell to the ground, and when he came back from fainting, he found that he had lost consciousness on the right side of his body and was unable to speak clearly. The doctor told him that this was paraplegia due to a stroke. He could only move his left hand and left foot, and while walking with the cane he used to lean heavily upon it. When he tried to talk, he could only manage to utter one syllable at a time, and sometimes even that took a great effort. He could barely hear what people were saying and often asked them to repeat themselves. Most days he slept until noon, and during that time he dreamed or was in a state between sleeping and waking. He began to feel more and more uneasy. And then he started having nightmares. In those dreams, he always felt as though someone else was holding his head up and forcing him to walk. He woke suddenly from one such nightmare one morning, feeling as if he were choking, and he vomited violently, coughing and retching. A moment later, he heard voices outside, calling urgently. He walked towards that voice and never came back, and no one saw him or could find him. He was just gone. Some people in the clinic said that he probably died because of fright, but others thought otherwise. They believed it must be related to the illness itself since paralysis was usually accompanied by pain, and Hobb did not complain once. Although there were different speculations, they all agreed that he had lost his mind.

"Take away your kindness and weigh your ability! We have three children to feed; my parents are so old, and also need our care; I have a lousy young brother who asks for money all the time; you have almost ten employees in your little workshop to pay every month. How much money does your little shitty workshop make a year? Now you have to bring your nephew here to raise, can you afford it? Can't you understand that we cannot do anything without earning a penny first? You don't think that it costs us a fortune to raise him up? If we take him in now, we won't get enough to eat ourselves." Bessy was really a sharp tongue.

"You have a point, but I can't just leave my nephew alone because of what you said, can I?" Kok looked helpless.

"So? You can't even take care of your own family, how can you have the heart and extra money to take care of others?" Bessy blamed.

"I think I have to take care of him, otherwise my conscience will be upset." Kok didn't want to make concessions yet.

"Well, if you must bring him into this house, then I will divorce you. I'll go back and take care of my parents and brother, and you take care of your three children and your crummy workshop all by yourself!" With a wave of her hand, Bessy turned and left.

Kok disagreed with his wife, but if he did leave her, the family would be torn apart, and his three children would be hurt and poorly cared for. This dilemma left him in a dilemma and uncertainty. He couldn't decide what to do.

In a trance, he unknowingly made his way to the clinic. Standing outside the window, he looked at his nephew who was crying loudly on the bed, and his heart was in a terrible state. 'What a poor kid!' he thought. Thinking of his deceased sister, his missing brother-in-law, and looking at his nephew crying in bed, his tears fell uncontrollably.

In a tearful haze, he suddenly saw a nurse walk into the room. She gently picked up the crying baby, soothed him gently, then took out her breast and put the nipple into the child's mouth, and the child immediately stopped crying. The nurse was a beautiful girl with long hair tied back in two ponytails and wearing a white uniform, a red cape, and white shoes. She was not young but rather middle-aged, and her face was round and soft.

"Oh, aren't you a wonderful boy?" she talked to the baby, and smiled tenderly, while her breast swayed under her uniform. "Don't cry, don't cry. Are you thirsty? Do you want to drink something?" As soon as the baby suckled, his cries subsided, and after a while he was full. The nurse put the baby down on the bed, put his hands together and rubbed them, and sang to him. Soon the baby relaxed and fell asleep.

Looking at the scene, Kok felt his heart hurt. He wanted to go inside the room and hold the baby. Suddenly an idea popped up in his mind. And so he walked into the room and approached the nurse.

"Excuse me, I wonder if I might ask you a favor," he said.

"Yes?" The nurse raised her head and looked at him. She looked back at the baby sleeping in the bed and immediately made a "hush" gesture, then pointed her finger at the door, indicating that they should go out and talk so as not to disturb the baby's sleep.

Kok was about to say something, but he was too embarrassed. The nurse went into the corridor and closed the door, following Kok. "Please come into this office," she said.

They sat down in chairs opposite each other. The nurse had a gentle look, and she seemed to be in her thirties. Her skin was smooth like a porcelain doll's, and she had a very pretty face. There was no hint of tiredness in it. Her eyes were large, black, and shining. There were two small lines on either side of her lips. Her neck was long, like the necks of those statues of goddesses. When she was younger, she had been a beauty, but her face was still lovely, like that of a woman who had never had any children.

"I know you. You are that baby's uncle, his mother's brother, right?" The nurse stared at Kok's face, which made Kok lower his head like a baby who had acted up, without any idea how to start the conversation.

Seeing Kok didn't say anything, the nurse continued, "We've heard what happened to this baby's family, what a poor kid! I guess you should be the only relative of him now, right? We've been waiting for you to come and take the child home."

The nurse's words made Kok feel ashamed, and even more afraid to open his mouth.

After waiting for a while, Kok still did not say anything and the nurse thought he was sad, so she continued, "I feel so sorry for this little baby, so I tried to take care of him. Fortunately, I also have a little baby, just born, so I can feed him with my milk. But this is not a solution for long, so I hope you can pick up the baby as soon as possible. . ."

"I'm so glad you're doing this for us. Thank you for everything you're doing for us," said Kok, finally, gathering up his courage.

"No need to thank me," she said. "If it's just feeding him, it's no problem for me. But if he needs to be taken care of all day long, it's impossible for me. So I'm waiting for you."

"I'd like to ask you a favor. I really have no other choice. I'm wondering can you take care of him for me for a while... " Lest she disagreed, Kok added hurriedly, "I can pay you."

"It's really not the point whether I get paid or not," the nurse replied, smiling. "But why me?"

"Just saw you take care of the baby so carefully and tenderly, just like his mother, so..."

He wasn't able to finish his sentence before being interrupted by the nurse again. "I see! You must be confronting something."

"Yes! I really want to take care of him, but I can't. You know..."

The nurse bowed her head, not answering his words, as if she was thinking about something.

"If you can't help me, I'll have to send him to the orphanage."

"You can't do that! You know how the orphanages are there. This baby is so young, and he will not get good care there. How could you be so cruel as to send him there? I can not bear to imagine he, without good care, is crying in that orphanage." At his mention of the orphanage, she snapped up, retorting.

Kok stared straight at her, without speaking.

"Since you have money to pay me, why don't you employ a nanny in your home to take care of him?"

Kok kept silent and swallowed hard, his expression showing his inner struggle, pain, shame, and worries.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't say such things. I'm sure you have your reasons." She sighed and lowered her eyes, looking at the floor. "I would like to do what's best for him."

"Thank you," Kok said, his heart filling with joy. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name yet."

"Suomi, it is."

"Ms. Suomi. Thank you! Thank you so much..."

Before he could finish his sentence, suddenly the sound of a baby crying came from the next room, which made Suomi stand up immediately and rush to that room, leaving Kok sitting there alone. ''What a kind woman!' he thought to himself. His heart felt so warm and happy.

He got up to leave, walked out the door, then suddenly came back, fumbled for a silver coin, and gently placed it on her table. Then he turned around and left.

When he reached home, the whole family was gathered in the living room: his wife Bessy and their three kids. They were taking dinner with sullen expressions on their faces, like zombies. Seeing him return, Bessy stood up quickly. "Where have you been?" shouted Bessy.

''Nothing. Just go to the market for business.'' Kok was just too tired to speak one more word, going into the bedroom and lying down.