As if to soothe and silently comfort her.
"Don't be afraid."
The doctor spoke softly.
"It's all over."
The child blinked.
The tears on her lashes fell away.
Her pale face was heartbreaking to see.
The child slowly nodded.
Just as the doctor thought this was the child's response to her earlier words, "Don't be afraid. It's all over"...
The child spoke.
"Dad, Mom..."
The child's voice had grown much hoarser. "I think something happened..."
"You think?"
The doctor was glad she'd finally "pried" the child's mouth open.
She suppressed her delight.
She'd caught two rather strange words.
Why say "I think"?
"I don't know..."
The child shook her head. "Everything went dark before my eyes..."
"I smelled something really awful."
"I also heard... the sound of something flowing..."
"Mom was holding me very tight."
"I couldn't breathe."
"I fell..."
"It hurt..."
The child looked dazed.
"...I passed out."
A bewildered look appeared on the child's face. "When I woke up, I was in the hospital."
She saw the glaring white lights.
She smelled the even stronger stench of disinfectant.
Then she heard Grandma's loud cry.
"Lele!"
That cry seemed to break through the thin veil separating her from the outside world after she woke.
All the sounds around her flooded her senses, clearer than before.
She tried hard to turn her head and look at Grandma.
For the first time, she saw an expression like that on Grandma's face.
She couldn't tell whether Grandma was crying or smiling...
Grandma seemed to want to hug her.
But her hand stopped in midair and didn't move any farther.
She was confused.
Many doctors and nurses came in afterward.
They surrounded her.
Her ears rang.
Before her eyes, everything looked like a