Chapter 7
I shook my head.
“No, I’m not going back.”
As a doctor with Doctors Without Borders, I no longer belonged to any one country. Where could I go back to?
Unless it was the day when the war was over, when there was no more war–torn place
that needed us, only then could l go home.
And before that, this vast world, any place could be my home.
“I really know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have lied to you, shouldn’t have been so presumptuous as to have a child. Now I’ve paid the price. Kieran’s condition is very poor, the doctor says it might be just these few days. Jude, how am I supposed to live alone with a child? You said before you would protect me for life.”
I forcefully pulled my hand out of her grasp.
“We’re already divorced, Ottilie. How you live your life from now on is your business. I have things to do. It’s dangerous here, you should go back to the States soon.”
With that, I turned and walked towards the camp.
“If you won’t go back, then I won’t go back either. I’ll stay here with you, and when you’ve finished what you want to do, we’ll go home together”
I didn’t want to respond to her words.
But after just a few steps, I heard Ottilie answer a phone call, apparently from the hospital back home.
“What did you say? Kieran is dead?”
“I’m coming back right now, you must wait for me to get back!”
Just at that moment, two bombers suddenly flew overhead.
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Hearing the familiar roar, I instinctively threw myself on top of Ottilie, knocking her to the
ground.
Ottilie screamed, “Jude Wilson, are you crazy?”
Her voice was soon drowned out by the explosion not far away.
The entire ground seemed to shake with it, and the yellow earth kicked up by the bombs
fell on both of us.
I ignored her rebuke, slowly raising my head to look around before quickly getting up from the ground.
Ottilie was clearly shocked by the sudden attack, sitting dazed on the ground without
reacting.
I turned to look at her, then pulled her up again.
“Let’s go inside for shelter first.”
I had already become accustomed to these life–threatening bombings, but for her, it was something she had never experienced before.
She trembled, her lips quivering. “Am I… am I going to die here?”
I pressed my lips together, and after a long while, finally spoke:
“Later, I’ll ask the team leader to find someone to take you back. Don’t come here again in
the future.”
Ottilie’s face was covered in dust. She gripped her phone tightly, silent.
Soon, the team leader found some locals to come over.
The man was driving an old pickup truck, calling for Ottilie to get in quickly.
As she was leaving, I slipped two extra bills into the driver’s hand, urging him to make sure he got her safely to the airport.
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Even if the affection between us had come to an end, I couldn’t stand by and watch a living person die.
Ottilie didn’t say anything, seeming to still be in shock from earlier.
When I looked back, I only saw her quickly jumping into the car.
I tugged slightly at the corner of my mouth, as if I had already guessed her reaction.
After returning to the camp, my previous colleague came over to gossip.
“Was that beautiful woman just now your girlfriend? Coming all this way to find you, that’s true love. Unlike my girlfriend, who broke up with me as soon as she heard I was going
abroad to help, and found herself a pretty boy!”
“But why didn’t your girlfriend come back with you?”
I quietly put away the lunch box on the table and spoke casually:
“Not my girlfriend. Ex–wife.”
My colleague was stunned for a moment, then didn’t ask any more questions.
Soon, I had put this incident behind me.
Until two years later, when I had a chance to return home by coincidence.
Now, I had a deeper and higher understanding of the entire medical field, and this time, I
was returning with my girlfriend.
We met at a station. She was disfigured protecting me, and I promised to take care of her for life.
As we got to know each other, I also became clear about my own feelings.
I think, perhaps heaven saw how lonely I was and specially sent this fate to my side.
This time, I will surely cherish this relationship well.
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On the day we returned, the director of the central hospital came to the airport to pick me up personally.
He looked me over with a face full of relief.
“You’ve gotten much darker, and thinner too. These past two years must have been tough on you out there.”
Such ordinary words of comfort, yet they shook me deeply.
I held back the sting in my nose and opened my arms to embrace the director.
After just a few steps, I saw Ottilie not far away, holding a young boy’s hand.
She must have gotten the news of my return from somewhere and had also come to the airport to see me.
But in just two short years, she had changed quite a bit. She was no longer as fresh and beautiful as before, but instead seemed to have aged considerably.
She didn’t come forward, and I just looked at her expressionlessly.
My girlfriend beside me sensed something and took the initiative to hold my hand, interlocking our fingers.
“What’s wrong? Is that your ex–wife? Do you want to go over and say hello? She looks like she has a lot she wants to say to you.”
I looked away and shook my head gently.
“There’s nothing to say.”
From the moment I left that full–month celebration banquet, Ottilie and I had become strangers, with nothing left to say to each other
I turned away and got into the car.
The car hadn’t gone far when I received a message from Ottilie.
