Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:43:34 +0800 From: Johnny Kape Subject: Love Needs Learning, Chapter 3 Before this chapter: This story, well, is _NOT_ a pure fiction. Some parts of this story, some words spoken by the characters, even some places in this story were true. They are parts of my childhood memory. However, all the names, and all the sex descriptions and actions were made up. Hope you like this story. Again, I wrote this story in my own language first, then tried to translate into English. Great thanks to Matthew Templar, who helped me with my English, and helped me walk through a hard time during the days I wrote this story. I don't know how to show my appreciation to him, so I can just say "thank you, Matt". I recommend everyone to read his stories, especially 'One Gift To Give', which I like very much. He and his stories are listed in the prolific writer list of Nifty, except his new story 'Julian and Roman', which was just done a few days ago. All story writers like to receive your feedback, and I am no exception. I'd love to hear from you about your thoughts, comments and criticisms. I'll answer all emails. Thank you. -- Johnny Kape Love Needs Learning -- Chapter 3 At 8:00 am, I transferred the job record notebook to Wang, who was the next guard on duty, and started my patrolling job. After everything was done, I decided to go home first, before visiting the boy at the hospital. I took a shower, and ate something for breakfast. I pulled my old paper box out of the bottom of my bed, and picked some old comics and novels which I liked the most, but hadn't touched for a long time. I thought for a while, and took my CD walkman with me. I also picked some classical music CDs. I put everything into a backpack, and then rode my motorcycle to the hospital. I took the elevator to the 6th floor, and walked into the surgical ward. I stood in front of the boy's room. The door was open. I peeked inside the room. I was actually afraid to meet his mean father again. Phew! Only the boy was there. I walked into his room. The boy was not sleeping. He just watched the ceiling and seemed not to care about anything anymore. "Hello, here I come." I smiled. The boy looked at me. "I brought you something." I took a chair and sat beside him. The boy sat up, and looked at my backpack. I took my CD walkman out. "If you feel bored, you can listen to some music. But... I found that I only had some classical music CDs. I don't have any pop music. Would it be too boring for you?" The boy shook his head, and gave me a smile. His smile made me feel relieved. "You have a wonderful smile," I said. "Oh, I still don't know what your name is." I looked at the card on the wall. "Don, Ming-Jun. Well, good name. Do you have any nickname?" The boy shrugged. "Well, my nicknames were quite fixed. Fattie, piggy, porker, boar, or their combinations like fat pig or something similar." I shook my head. "Not good nicknames. Do you have an English name?" "Fred." "Good, let me call you Fred. Okay?" Fred did not respond. I took the old comic books out. "Here are some comic books, but they are very old ones. I don't know if you like them or not. If not, I'll take them back home." Fred's smile was bigger. "You like them too?" "Oh, a long, long time ago. I loved these comic books, but they had been in my paper box for a very long time. This morning I took them out of the box. Do you want me to leave them with you?" Fred nodded. "Here are some more novels. They were my favorite ones in my childhood," I said. "Sometimes I still read them, to recall my childhood." A short silence. Then Fred asked, "Did you have a happy childhood?" "Did I have a happy childhood?" I scratched my head. "Good question. I don't know how to answer it. Hmm... When I was a boy, my father worked very hard to raise me, but we were not rich, just okay. My grades were not good, but I read a lot of extracurricular books, novels, and of course, comic books. My father was very strict with me, and I was punished very often too. Well, my childhood was quite normal, I guess." "Oh." Fred didn't speak anymore. I asked him carefully, "Are you very unhappy?" Fred didn't answer me. I gave up. "Alright, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to. Do you want to listen to some music or watch TV?" Still no response. After nearly one minute, Fred finally said, "I think that I have never been happy." "Have never been happy?" I was surprised. Fred shook his head and said, "No, never." "How come?" Fred shrugged. "Nobody cared about me." "Well, hmm, your father looked mean, I agree. But how about your mom... Oh." The nurse's words suddenly called to my mind. His mother died because of complications giving birth to Fred. I scratched my head. "Sorry, I shouldn't have talked about this." "That's okay." Fred shrugged again. "Who took care of you when you were a baby?" "My aunt. She passed away too." Why did I always touch his tender spot? I was a bit angry with myself. "Then you should have some good friends, right?" "They treat me like a friend only when they need someone to paint a poster, or when they have questions on their homework." Hey, what was I trying to do, pour more oil on the fire? I wish I could kick myself. "So it seems that you are very good at painting." This topic should be a lot safer! When I spoke of painting, Fred's eyes gleamed with amusement, but the shine vanished very soon. He shrugged. "So so." Come on, would this topic hurt him too? "Why, you didn't look very happy speaking of painting." "Well, my daddy doesn't like me to paint." "Why?" Fred shrugged again. "He feels that painting won't help me with my future." I felt that I started to understand why Fred had tried to commit suicide three times. I sighed deeply. "All right, I surrender. I just want to find something happy for you to recall, to make you happier. I give up." I raised my both hands, making a gesture of surrender. Fred laughed. I sighed with relief. I finally made him laugh. I was so proud of myself. Hey, I'm so good a babysitter, huh? All of a sudden, tears dropped through Fred's face. He started to weep. I was thrown into a panic. My pride was all gone in a nanosecond. "Hey, what's wrong? Don't cry. Did I say anything wrong?" Fred didn't answer me, but was still crying. I didn't know what to do. I patted his head, and wiped the tears from his face. "If I hurt you, or said anything wrong, I apology. I'm sorry, okay? Don't cry. If your daddy came in now, he might kill me and throw me out of the window." Fred laughed out with tears again. I took some tissues to wipe his face. He was still sobbing, and after a while, he said, "He doesn't care about me at all." "All right, all right. Stop crying, okay? Did I say something wrong?" Fred shook his head. He seemed to be calmed down a bit. "I just thought that, I don't remember the last time I laughed. Suddenly I felt so sad, so I started to cry." "You almost scared me to death." I patted my own chest heavily, with a 'phew'. Looking at my action, Fred laughed again. "Actually, you have a wonderful laughter. Don't think those sad things anymore, okay? Smile, my good boy." Fred lowered his head without replying. "Well." I patted his shoulder. "I'm one of the guards in your building. I was on duty the whole night, and now I have to go home to sleep. You can keep these comic books, novels and CDs. You can give them back to me when you are out of the hospital, or anytime you like. Okay?" "Yeah, thanks." I stood up, and gave Fred a smile. Fred looked at me. Tears were still on his face, but he seemed like he didn't want me to leave. I walked out of the ward. The nurse I met yesterday nodded to me, and gave me a sweet smile. -- To be continued.