Chapter 21

Gone Baby.

I felt like tears would burst out of control if I took my hands off, so I left my arms on my eyes regardless of my clothes getting wet.

After a while I heard the door open, I lowered my hand and turned my head towards the door.

A nurse, who seems to be helping the Doctor, came in with a bowl of medicine and a teaspoon.

“Help me give him some medicine,”

Felix raised from his seat and took the little boy in his

arms.

The little boy hung helplessly in his arms.

I picked up a handkerchief from the table pointed at by the nurse and put it around the child’s neck.

The nurse sat in front of him, scooped the medicine with a teaspoon, and put it in the little boy’s mouth.

“ Uququuuu”

The little boy spat out the medicine, perhaps because it was bitter.

“No, little boy, you have to drink this.”

I grabbed the struggling little boy’s arm and said,

“I made it sweet, but it must have been bitter.”

The nurse sighed and put the medicine in his mouth again.

The little boy spat out about half the amount that was put in his mouth.

“Ah.”

The three of us sweated heavily and focused on feeding the little boy.

The amount that the little boy actually ate was less than half the amount that the nurse brought.

After taking all the medicine, the little boy was laid back in bed, and did not immediately show any improvement.

Felix placed a towel on the little boy’s forehead to keep the temperature cold.

“We did everything we could.”

The nurse wiped the sweat off her forehead and packed the medicine bowl.

“May the Lord’s protection be with you.”

As she said, all that remained was the will of God.

She must have said it out of concern for the little boy, but her voice was full of worries.

And to me her voice sounded so irresponsible?

When I was about to say something, I was dragged helplessly by the strong force that pulled me.

When I came to my senses belatedly with a blank head, I was in Felix’s hot arms.

He clasped my shoulders tightly in his arms.

“You’ve seen the boy in good health, haven’t you? He’ll be soon healthy again like he used to be.”

Yes, the little boy was very healthy.

Every morning, he ate a lot of food, walk around the room all day until he was tired.

But no matter how healthy he was, the little boy is still a baby, and I don’t know how can the baby endure all this pain.

I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I shook my head and pushed Felix’s shoulder.

However, the more I did that, the more Felix put strength in the arm surrounding my shoulder.

“Trust me, The kid will be all right.”

Felix whispered softly in my ear.

His voice trembled similar to mine,

“So don’t cry, Elly.”

His words were like magic spells.

The magic similar to the one that bloomed pink roses even in the bitter winter.

Perhaps that’s why, as he said, I thought the little one would magically roll around in bed with a bright smile as usual tomorrow morning.

I nodded slowly and leaned my forehead against his shoulder

Apparently Felix said he couldn’t do anything about fever with magic.

And at the same time, he said he would somehow heal the kid, and asked me not to worry.

It was contradictory.

But his unique low voice made my heart believe it and it felt quite reliable.

I wanted to believe what he said.

On the other hand, I prayed sincerely to the absolute Lord who was watching us from up there.

‘Saint Mary.’

‘If it was your will to send the little boy to me, I would humbly accept it.’

Thanks to him, I was able to spend this holiday smiling without crying, like I did for the past 8 years.’

“So please, help me return him to his family as healthy as when the little boy came to me.’

Was it the power of medicine, or the power of Felix’s words, or the power of my prayers?

The little boy, who had only been suffering without a break, finally began to show improvement at dawn.

The fever went down, the pale face turned red, and the sound of breathing became normal.

I was nervous all the time, and when I relaxed, I lost all my energy

I sat on the floor instead of the chair and lay face down on the bed.

I refused Felix who told me to go to another bed and lie down, instead I sat near the bed where the little boy was and touched the little boy’s wet hair.

Not only did he lose strength in his body, but he also fell asleep.

Theld back my yawn and tried to open my eyes, but it didn’t go the way I wanted.

At one point, I lost my control and laid my head in the bed where the little boy was.

It was morning when I opened my eyes again.

Unlike yesterday, when the wind was fierce all night, the weather was sunny.

The sunlight coming through the window broke and my eyes frowned.

I examined the bed with my palm covering the sun.

If the child’s condition had worsened, Felix or the Doctor who came to see the child would have made a fuss.

So I thought that the little boy was fine.

Still, I wasn’t relieved until I checked him with my own eyes.

“…Little boy?”

I couldn’t believe what I saw in front of me.

I was still half-asleep, so I thought I was looking at something wrong, but it was the same even when | rubbed my eyes with both hands and looked at the bed again.

The bed where the little boy was lying, was empty.

My back got chill.

My heart started pounding like a drum in an instant.

“Yes…., Felix. ….He must have been with Felix.”

I tried to think positively.

For the past few days, when I woke up in the morning, the little boy had always had breakfast with Felix .

So even now, the little boy is probably in better shape and eating breakfast with Felix.

“Yes, he must be….”

I said, barely putting strength on my shaky legs, and got up and went out.

I looked round and round my head to see Felix or the Doctor

Felix was talking to the Doctor with a face full of fatigue in what appeared to be the Doctor’s office.

When they heard the door open roughly by me, both of their eyes turned towards my direction.

They looked surprised.

Felix, in particular, breathed heavily as if he had seen a ghost, and came up to me.

“Elly, what’s the matter? What happened to the kid?”

That word shook my mind.

I grabbed him roughly by the arm and shook him.

“Felix, the little boy……. didn’t you see the little boy?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? The little boy …. Wasn’t he next to you…”

One thing became clear.

The little boy was not with Felix.

I ran back to the room where I was sleeping.

An unpleasant feeling seized my whole body.

This time, I opened the door roughly and went inside.

“Little boy?”

There was no Bapubuu or mamumuuu that followed immediately whenever I called him.

Maybe it’s because he’s sleeping.’

I tried so hard to convince myself, and approached the bed, and lifted the blanket with both hands.

There was no one.

As if to tell me that there was a little boy on the bedsheet, a wet towel was just lying on it.

The place where the little boy laid his head was wet with water.

Next, I approached the table, removed the desk chair, and bent over the empty space.

There was no one.

I approached the door and examined the space behind it.

There was no one.

I approached the hanger and examined the floor, scratching through the clothes.

There was no one.

There was really no one.

‘If he’s not in this room, he’ll be in another room.’

I was in a hurry to leave the room.

“What’s wrong Elly..?”

Felix came into the room following me.

He opened his eyes in surprise at the empty bed.

I clasped his arm so hard and said to him.

“Felix, Baby….. the Baby is not here.”

That was enough to explain.

Felix, once again, glanced quickly through the room, turned around and ran.

I followed after him.

“Oh my! Does the baby have a fever again?”

The yawning nurse was surprised to see our serious expression.

As she said, it would have been serious if he had a fever again, but I thought it would be better to have a fever now.

“Did you see the Kid?”

The nurse tilted her head at Felix’s urgent question.

“Kid? Oh, that baby? Of course, when I went in to check the condition at dawn… …

she replied in a natural tone, and opened her half-closed eyes wide as if she understood the real meaning of Felix’s words.

“Isn’t he in the room?”

“No.”

“No way. Didn’t he fall down from the bed while rolling in his sleep?”

she asked in a dazed voice looking at me.

I looked her in the eye and shook my head firmly.

“I’ve looked everywhere in the room, but there is no sign of him. I was so tired that I fell asleep without realizing. When I woke up, he disappeared.”

“I stayed in the room until dawn, and he was there then. I was talking to the Doctor for a while after dawn, and I think he disappeared in the meantime.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll check through the doors and windows. I’ll go and look at the second floor, so guys keep looking at the first floor.”

The nurse pointed her finger at Felix and ran.

At the same time, Felix caught me running to look into the other room.

“I’ll look in the other room. You look at the room where you were sleeping.”

“Okay.”

I nodded at what Felix said and went back to the room.

The room was no different from before, as it indirectly told me that there was no child.

“Where are you, little boy?”

I still didn’t hear his bright answer this time.

Starting with the bed I looked at earlier, I searched all the small spaces in the room.

Somewhere in the corner of the room, I hoped that a little boy would curl up and jump into my arms, but no matter how hard I called him, I could not hear any of his babbling.

Even if I repeatedly sat on my knees on the floor and stood up, to the point where my knees hurt, I couldn’t see a single hair of the little boy.

“No.”