"Aunt Orlina is back? Didn't she go to see a doctor? Why is she back so soon?"
Beside the well in Francis's west district, several women were gathered around washing clothes. Just as one of them lifted her head and stretched her aching back, she happened to see Aunt Orlina hurrying over.
"Ah, it's nothing serious. I got some medicine and came back."
Aunt Orlina brushed her off casually, then hurried over to a thin, gaunt woman who had her head lowered, repeatedly beating clothes with a wash beater.
"Patricia, stop washing and hurry! Take Little Victor to the Church Hospital and find Arthur! Arthur might be able to cure Little Victor's illness!"
Aunt Orlina spoke urgently, her voice tinged with excitement.
The gaunt woman raised her face blankly. Before she could speak, the women beside her had already begun chiming in.
"Arthur? That name sounds familiar."
"Oh, isn't that the name of that barbarian foreigner? I heard it was given to him by Your Excellency the Bishop. What a waste of a good name."
"Doesn't Arthur treat livestock? Can he treat people?"
"He might not even be able to treat livestock properly. Everyone says he can treat animals, so Judy specifically carried her old hen over to him. And what happened? It was useless! It still wouldn't lay eggs."
"Patricia, if you ask me, stop torturing yourself. Look at everything your family has gone through these past two years. You've sold off everything. Why not just have another child?"
"That's right. The Church Hospital, private clinics, holy water rituals—what haven't you tried? Could that barbarian foreigner really be more capable than all of them? Going there would just be a wasted trip."
The women washing clothes together chattered away, offering their "kind" advice.
Little Victor's situation was truly pitiful.