Miles, a man living amidst poverty, is hit by two significant and heartbreaking events - his wife Skyler's potential lung cancer diagnosis and his mother's confirmed cervical cancer. Torn between his obligations and his conscience, he tries to make...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
1
Miles received the chest X-ray results for Skyler, and it left him stunned. Skyler had a nodule on the lungs larger than a centimeter, with an 80% chance of it being lung cancer, according to the doctor.
Miles squatted in a corner, lit a cigarette, but didn't smoke it for a long time, just letting it burn on its own. When there was only a small part of it left, he took a deep drag. Miles flicked the cigarette butt on the ground, then stood up, forcefully crushing it with his foot.
He told Skyler's father-in-law that he needed to go back to his hometown. Ignoring the disapproving look from his father-in-law, Miles grabbed his car keys and walked out of the hospital. He was afraid of being stopped by his father-in-law. Or maybe, stopped by the claws of his conscience.
Miles' mother was surprised by his sudden return, repeatedly asking why he came back at such an odd time. Miles avoided the question each time. When she couldn't get a reasonable answer, she just informed Miles that she had surgery scheduled for next week.
Miles was initially shocked. He asked what illness required surgery, and his mother calmly replied, cervical cancer, in the middle to late stage. Miles was taken aback. He frantically asked when she found out and why she didn't tell him earlier. His mother, still calm, said that when you have an illness, you treat it. Besides, there's your father to think about.
This infuriated Miles. His father had left his mother when Miles was seven, involved with a widow in the village, leading to their divorce. Despite living in the same village for so many years, there had been no contact between them. Now, with his mother's illness, his father suddenly appeared. Was he here to mock, or to comfort the patient? Who knows?
His mother remained as calm as water, unaffected by Miles' anger. Wearing reading glasses taped on one leg, she put the thread in her mouth, moistened it, threaded the needle, combed the needle through her gray hair, and then earnestly darned a pair of black-and-white old cloth shoes.
Watching his mother, who was seriously ill, still appearing calm and composed, Miles felt a deep pain radiating from within. His mother had suffered for most of her life, enduring years of poverty. Just when life improved after he got married and had a child, she was struck by this terrifying illness. His mother was not even sixty yet, still relatively young.
Miles squatted on the ground, hands on his head, shoulders trembling with sobs. After crying for a long time, he gradually suppressed the grief welling up inside him. He pinched his blocked nose, stood up suddenly, and was hit by a sudden dizziness. Swaying left and right, Miles saw Skyler's face in the unexpected burst of stars.
Skyler, only twenty-eight, having such a deadly disease like lung cancer, isn't it even more worthy of sympathy and sorrow?
2
In the middle of the night at 2 AM, Miles's phone rang. It was a call from Skyler's cousin. He asked Miles if Skyler was his wife. Leaving your wife when she's sick, isn't that unacceptable? Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning for doing this?
