Đang tải thông tin quảng bá...
She Chose Her Student Over My Dying Grandma
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
At the engagement party, I had barely walked into the hall when I saw my grandmother, who had dementia, crouched on the floor like a dog. Sybilla Winfield's student, Malcolm Weiss, was laughing as he ...
Chương (4)
第1章
1: 1
At the engagement party, I had barely walked into the hall when I saw my grandmother, who had dementia, crouched on the floor like a dog.
Sybilla Winfield's student, Malcolm Weiss, was laughing as he tossed candy onto the floor and shouted at her.
"Crawl around the table once and bark twice, and I'll give you a treat."
"No hands. Pick it up with your mouth."
Grandma's knees were trembling with pain, but she still did as she was told.
She lay on the floor and picked up the candy with her mouth, like a dog, and Malcolm roared with laughter.
It was only when she saw me that she scrambled to gather the candy off the floor, one piece at a time.
She even forgot to stand. She shuffled over to me on her knees and held out her hands, offering them up like treasure.
"Nicky."
"Have some candy. Candy, sweet!"
I was shaking with rage. I rushed over and drove my fist into Malcolm's face.
But Sybilla stepped in front of him at once, frowning as she blamed me.
"Malcolm studies rehabilitation science. He was only running command training with Grandma."
"Besides, your grandmother can't remember anything. She'll forget in a few minutes."
"Do you really have to lose it at your own engagement party and embarrass everyone?"
Grandma didn't understand.
She only pushed the candy toward my mouth and repeated, eager to please,
"Eat it, Nicky."
"Eat it and don't cry."
She had already forgotten why she was kneeling on the floor, yet she still remembered that when I cried as a boy, one piece of candy was enough to comfort me.
I swallowed that dust-covered candy and didn't argue with Sybilla anymore.
I just helped Grandma up, and as we left, I sent a message to the wedding planner.
【Cancel the wedding in three days. Keep the deposit.】
They wrote back quickly, asking if I'd sent it by mistake.
I looked back once.
Sybilla was still checking the bruise on Malcolm's face. She hadn't even noticed that I'd already left.
I replied calmly: 【No mistake.】
This wedding I had spent an entire year preparing.
There was no reason to go through with it anymore.
1
After we got home, it took a long time of soothing before Grandma finally fell asleep.
At eleven that night, Sybilla came back.
She set a tube of ointment on the nightstand, sat down beside me, and softened her voice.
"Grandma's knees are just surface scrapes. A few days of ointment and they'll heal."
"Malcolm just took the game too far today."
"I've already reprimanded him. And I won't hold it against you for hitting him."
Sybilla poured me a glass of warm water, just like she always had, and explained patiently.
Every time we fought, this was how she coaxed me.
When Malcolm deliberately botched my injections a dozen times, jabbing the needle in crooked, she talked me down the same way, saying he was inexperienced and I should cut him some slack.
On the night of my birthday, Malcolm claimed something had gone wrong with the lab data and pulled Sybilla away for the entire night; when she came back, all she said was that it was his first time running a project on his own, and the pressure was too much.
But after every time, there was always a next time.
Sybilla probably really believed that as long as she softened her voice and coaxed me a little.
No matter how angry I was, I would end up finding her a reason to be forgiven first.
Seeing that I didn't argue, her expression eased.
"All right, that's the end of it."
"I know you won't hold a grudge against a young student."
She was waiting for me to say never mind, the way I always had.
But I only lowered my eyes and answered calmly,
"Fine."
Sybilla visibly relaxed.
Before she could say anything, her phone suddenly rang.
Malcolm's frantic voice came through the speaker.
"Dr. Winfield, my mom just got dizzy all of a sudden. I don't know what to do."
Sybilla stood up at once.
"Don't panic."
"Take her to the hospital first. I'm on my way."
After she hung up, she picked up the coat she had just taken off.
Before leaving, she still remembered to turn back and remind me,
"Get some sleep."
"If you look worn out on the wedding day, the photos won't turn out well."
I didn't remind her.
The wedding in three days had already been canceled.
第2章
2: 2
2
Sybilla hadn't been gone half an hour when Grandma started shaking in her sleep.
I threw her clothes on her and carried her down the stairs on my back.
She was all bones now, nothing left of her.
But by the time I reached the bottom, I was drenched in sweat.
At the hospital I did it all alone. Stood in line, registered her, paid, picked up the test slips.
By the time the results came back, my shirt was soaked through.
The nurse only told me,
"The neurology specialist's slots are all full."
"The best I can do is general clinic. There are more than twenty people ahead of you."
I lowered my voice and begged. "She just went confused out of nowhere, and she won't stop trembling. Could someone please have a specialist take one quick look?"
The nurse shook her head, sorry but firm. That was when a familiar voice came from behind me.
"Add a slot for Dr. Cobb's list, please."
Sybilla walked up with Malcolm Weiss and his mother.
She spoke to the nurse, polite as ever.
"This is my student's mother."
"I've already spoken with Dr. Cobb. Just send her straight in."
The nurse opened the exam room door for them at once.
I stood where I was, and all at once I was back in the year Grandma was first diagnosed.
For days I couldn't get a specialist slot, and finally I called Sybilla.
She knew that specialist well. She didn't say a word for me.
"It's because you're my boyfriend that I have to keep even more distance."
"A hospital has its rules."
"If everyone jumped the line through connections, what happens to the ordinary patients?"
I was disappointed, but I was still proud of her principles.
After that I went to the hospital at four in the morning and held my place for two full days before I finally got Grandma that specialist slot.
Only now did I understand. Those principles of hers were never something that couldn't be broken.
I just wasn't worth breaking them for.
Malcolm saw me.
Holding his mother up, he put on a troubled face.
"Nick, you brought your grandmother in too?"
"Why don't we give this slot to her instead."
"My mom's just a little dizzy. She can wait a bit."
But Sybilla frowned.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"This is the first time your aunt has had these symptoms. We have to rule out anything dangerous right away."
Only then did she look at me, her tone as calm as ever.
"Your grandmother's had this illness for years now. A little longer won't hurt."
"Wait outside for now. Once Malcolm's mother is done, I'll ask about getting a slot added for you."
I looked at her, and something in me made me smile.
"Fine."
Her face eased a little. "Good. At least you know what matters more."
So the "what matters more" she talked about had never been about who was sicker. It was only ever about whether the one hurting was Malcolm.
She helped Malcolm's mother into the exam room.
Malcolm walked in beside her and glanced back at me.
There was a smugness in his eyes he didn't bother to hide.
The exam room door closed in my face.
Grandma tipped her head up, dazed.
"Nicholas, let's go home..."
I gripped her cold hand.
"Grandma, a little longer."
"From now on we'll find a different home."
Two weeks ago the company had asked me to go overseas and take charge of a new project.
There happened to be a rehabilitation center over there that cared specifically for dementia patients.
I couldn't bear to give up seven years with Sybilla, so I'd never answered.
In that moment, I opened my email and pressed accept.
Then I bought two plane tickets for three days out.
One was mine.
One was Grandma's.
Until the day we left.
Seventy-two hours remained.
Three days from now was supposed to be the day I married her. Instead it had become the day she lost me for good.
第3章
3: 3
3
It was deep into the night by the time we finished at the hospital and got home.
I had just pulled the blanket up over Grandma when she called my name, clear as anything.
"Nick."
I froze.
It had been so long since she'd looked at me like that, fully aware.
She stared down at the gauze on her knee, silent for a long while, then asked in a trembling voice,
"Was today your engagement party?"
"Did Grandma... crawl on the floor and act like a dog?"
My throat closed up.
"No."
"Grandma was just sick. You didn't do anything wrong."
Her eyes reddened slowly all the same.
"I remember."
"All those people laughing. Someone filming me."
"Today was supposed to be a happy day for you, and I shamed you again."
She reached out and touched my face.
That hand was thin and rough, the knuckles badly twisted out of shape.
When I ran a high fever as a boy, this was the hand that carried me miles down the mountain roads.
When there was no money for school, it was Grandma who got up before dawn to sell vegetables, scraping together my tuition one bill at a time.
Back then she always said that as long as her Nick could have a good life, none of the exhaustion mattered.
Now she looked at her own shaking hands and kept apologizing to me.
"Grandma's old now, and my mind's gone."
"You have to take care of me, and people laugh at you because of it."
"If it weren't for me, you and Sybilla wouldn't have fought today."
"I never should have gone to that engagement party."
I crouched down beside the bed and held her hand tight.
"It wasn't because of you."
"You have never been a burden to me."
I told her that in three days we would leave the country.
There was a better rehabilitation center over there, and not a single person who knew us.
She listened for a long time, and finally gave a small nod.
"As long as Nick doesn't mind having me."
I thought I had comforted her.
But in the middle of the night, after I'd finished my work and pushed open the bedroom door, I found Grandma lying quietly on the bed.
She wore her cleanest clothes, her graying hair combed neat.
A row of empty pill boxes sat on the nightstand.
Blood pressure pills, painkillers, the medications for her chronic conditions. She had taken all of them.
She had even folded the empty blister packs one by one and put them in a plastic bag.
As if she was afraid of leaving a mess, of being one more trouble to me.
The tablet beside her was still playing the video from the engagement party on a loop.
When Malcolm posted it, he'd been smug enough to add a caption.
【Some people act all high and mighty every day. Bet you didn't know I trained his grandma like a dog.】
On the screen, Grandma was down on the floor like a dog.
In the comments, people laughed at the old woman for not dying already, and some said that a man bringing a grandmother like that into a marriage would sooner or later be dumped by the bride's side.
She had watched that video seventeen times through.
Something in my chest felt like it had been carved out while I was still alive.
A sheet of paper was pinned under a weight on the desk.
The writing on it was crooked and unsteady.
【Nick, Grandma won't shame you anymore.】
【Go and have a good life.】
I rushed to the bed and called out to her again and again.
Grandma didn't answer.
Her body had already gone cold, but her hand still clutched that last piece of candy.
As if even in the final moment of her life, she remembered to save it for me.
When the ambulance arrived, the medic took one look and shook his head, sorry.
I knelt by the bed and called for Grandma over and over, my voice soon so hoarse it wouldn't come out at all.
But the old woman who, no matter how many times she forgot everything else, always remembered to save me a piece of candy, never opened her eyes again.
Sybilla had said she would forget the humiliation and the mockery within a few minutes.
But that night, Grandma never made it to the next forgetting.
She swallowed every last pill and stopped forever on the clearest, most agonizing night of all.
第4章
4: 4
4
In the two days it took to handle Grandma's funeral, Sybilla never once showed up.
Getting the death certificate, calling the funeral home, choosing the urn. I did all of it alone.
Malcolm's feed, on the other hand, didn't go quiet for a single day.
In the photos, Malcolm was wearing the groom's suit that should have been mine, and Sybilla stood in front of him, head bent, fixing his tie.
The caption read: 【Nick's throwing a tantrum again and won't come, so I'm stuck trying on the groom's suit for him.】
【Honestly, my teacher has great taste. This suit fits me like it was made for me.】
Someone egged him on in the comments:
【If you didn't know better, you'd think you were the groom tomorrow.】
Malcolm answered right away:
【Shh, don't let Nick see. He takes everything so personally.】
I was at the funeral home, waiting to collect Grandma's ashes.
That was when Sybilla finally called.
"Nicholas, where did you go?"
"The suit fitting was set for today. Everyone's waiting on you."
I looked at the urn in the staff member's arms and said quietly:
"Grandma passed away."
The line went silent for a few seconds.
I thought she would at least ask how Grandma had died.
But when Sybilla spoke again, all that was left in her voice was impatience.
"Nicholas, I know you're still angry about the Malcolm thing."
"But no matter how angry you are, you can't lie about whether Grandma's alive or dead."
"She was perfectly fine two days ago. How could she just suddenly die?"
"When did you get so petty?"
I opened my mouth, but I didn't know what there was to explain.
From the other end came Malcolm's voice, laughter in it.
"Teacher, is Nick still mad at me?"
"Maybe I shouldn't try on the suit for him after all."
Sybilla's tone softened at once.
"Don't mind him."
"He's just small-minded, dragging Grandma into it to scare me."
"You two are about the same build. Go ahead and try it for him."
"Anything that doesn't fit, there's still time to alter it now."
Malcolm let out a soft laugh.
"After I've worn it, Nick won't turn his nose up at it, will he?"
Sybilla answered offhandedly:
"He's not that precious about things."
"At the wedding tomorrow, he can just put it on."
The call ended.
The staff member walked up to me at that exact moment.
"Mr. Delgado, please sign to collect the ashes."
"My condolences."
I took the urn.
It was very light.
The grandmother who had once carried me on her back for miles of mountain road, who sold vegetables to put me through school, who stayed by me for more than twenty years, was now only this light handful of ash.
I lowered my head and pressed my forehead against the cold lid.
I didn't move for a long time.
Back home, I started packing.
Grandma had few belongings.
A few old clothes, a wooden comb, and the candy she'd hidden under her pillow, saving it because she couldn't bear to eat it.
I packed them away one by one.
Passing the study, I saw Sybilla's computer was still on.
On the screen was Malcolm's graduation thesis.
【A Study on Reward-Based Command Training for Alzheimer's Patients.】
The folder held more than a dozen patient videos.
Some of the elderly were made to kneel over and over, some were baited with food into doing ridiculous things.
The consent forms beside the videos all bore the hospital's stamp.
But those crooked family signatures were plainly all in the same hand.
In the messages, there was a chat log between Sybilla and Malcolm too.
Malcolm asked: 【Teacher, what do I do if no patient's family is willing to sign?】
Sybilla replied:
【You shoot first. I'll fill in the authorizations and the ethics approval for you.】
【The defense is what matters. Don't let all that paperwork hold you up.】
So Grandma hadn't been some toy Malcolm picked on a whim.
He had used the same method for a long time, humiliating one helpless old person after another.
And Sybilla had known all along.
She had even covered up everything for him with her own hands.
I copied out all of it: the videos, the forged authorizations, the chat log.
Along with Grandma's medical records, the death certificate, and the video circulating online, I put it all into a document envelope.
The recipients were the hospital's ethics-review board and the university ethics committee.
After mailing out the report, I set the engagement ring and the house key on the table.
Then I picked up Grandma's ashes, dragged my suitcase, and headed for the airport.
I had once bought two plane tickets.
One was mine.
The other was Grandma's.
She was still flying abroad with me now.
She just couldn't sit in the seat I had chosen for her.
As the plane took off, the city's lights vanished bit by bit beneath the clouds.
Tomorrow was supposed to have been my wedding.
Sybilla probably still thought that as long as she stood in the hall and waited, I would surely show up.
After twelve hours of connections and flying, I finally arrived.
The moment my phone powered on, missed calls flooded in one after another.
The suit shop, the wedding planner, the hospital's ethics-review board.
And Sybilla.
Ninety-nine calls in all.
The last message was one she'd sent ten minutes ago.
【Nick, the wedding is about to start.】
【Where on earth are you?】