Ch 24 At the Military Hospital
Winter roads at the front were always like this—the black soil turned inside out from beneath the ice and snow by bombing was quickly ground into muddy bumps by tank tracks and countless pairs of military boots. The trucks of military hospital were driving along this exceedingly muddy path following behind the major troops.
The tortured wounds on his back forced Wang Yao to lie head down on the stretcher for the most time. He was more relaxed than other injured soldiers, always staying inside the medical tent as being told to, or transferring with their truck. He crossed both arms on the pillow as to slightly elevate his body, looking upon the land which was occupied not so long ago but had been taken back by their own people. His heart was suffused with a tender but malencholic tranquility, causing him to often lose himself into the hazy and obscure oblivion like an infant.
When the truck drove by the woods of Bereza, a hot flush of blood poured from his heart up to his face. For a moment, he didn't know what to think, so he dived his face into his crossing arms. But a small naughty voice in his head kept reminding him of that night, when Ivan reluctantly removing the indulging lips from his, he was so shy and bewildered and burried his steaming hot face in Ivan's chest, making him looked like he was being quite forward.
"Was I not weak enough that night?" Wang Yao blamed himself with shame, his face still burried inbetween two arms. He felt that what tossed him up and down was not the bumpy truck driving on muddy road, but an emotion interwoven with sweetness, trepidation, melancholy and powerlessness. It surrounded him tightly like Ivan's embrace that night. He could not struggle.
For a long time, he had always been struggling. It was exactly what he said to himself during the mission: the big devil sneaked into his heart and unfolded the softest part that he had tried to conceal since he joint the army. Eventually, that night when Ivan's hand covered his mouth with all his tenderness and affection but stubbornly unyielding, he gave in.
"I am loving…" he remembered how he replied to the German major and smiled happily like he did during the interrogation.
When December was going away, the battleline had been pushed forward afar. In the past ten days since the important triumph, both sides fell back into a stalemate. And so, the military hospital resided in a place some twenty kilometers away from the troops.
Compared to those who were knocked over by land mine, shot by bullets or blasted by artilleries, his torture wounds weren't that severe afterall. And thanks to his good health, the head nurse claimed in a recent dressing change that he could go back to his unit after three days. "You're in love, aren't you? Little guy?" the head nurse asked him abruptly. Wang Yao asked her why she said so with embarrassment and she winked at him proudly as a woman who knew every nuance of this sort of problems. "Because you look like drunk these days. If it wasn't that I couldn't smell alcohol from you, I would almost tell the chief physician on you."
Since he was sent to the military hospital, Wang Yao only drank once, out of a symbolistic gesture. It was two days ago when an army chief came and awarded him a medal: due to significant contribution of the "crane" in reoccupying the Rogachevo—Bereza region, all living and deceased members of the squad received awards. According to army's tradition, Wang Yao must put the medal inside the vodka and bottom up. "Drink, young man. Hope this won't be the last one."
Wang Yao cautiously drank this vodka of remarkable significance. The medal's sharp corners touched his lips and reminded him of his first time drinking vodka: he was embarrasingly choked, Ivan tried very hard not to laugh and pat his back to help him breathe…
Wang Yao walked out of the tent, near him lied an oak tree torn upside down by bomb. He swept away the snow on the trunk and sat on it. He discovered a heart shape etched on the bark and on the inside were two squiggly letters of "И" and "Я"*.
Perhaps in the peaceful times before this war, a happy couple came here and probably believed as they may that love would last as long as this oak tree, thus carved the first letters of each other's name on the bark. Wang Yao stared at this small mark for a long time, as if dreaming, until a handful of snow melted from his squeezing palm dripping through his fingers.
"Va—nya!"
He heard someone calling.
"Va—nya!"
He didn't raise his head, only his eyes still gazing in deep trance at the two letters beneath the glistering snow water.
"Comrade, have you seen Vanya?" he heard the voice was of a nurse from the hospital. "Vanya Timofeev, the guy with shoulder wounds. I don't know where he wandered off this early morning."
"There are too many people called Vanya in Russia." anwered him mindlessly. The nurse grumbled something and left, but he could still hear her loud voice calling, "Va—nya! Where on earth are you?"
"Va—nya!" he called out inside his heart. "Vanya! Where on earth are you? Have you really existed?"
It was around this time that Natasha came. She was here to run some errands and to visit Wang Yao on the way. He invited her to sit on the tree trunk—and discovered that she looked especially radiant with joy today. As he recalled, Natasha was a serious girl—but as she laughed at this moment, she looked so much like her good humoured brother.
Natasha had good reasons to be happy. First, her brother returned safely from the inauspiscious mission and was awarded. Second, her hometown was reoccupied—she even went home and spent a short time with her papa and mama. Third, the superior approved her brother's application of transferring to the infantry unit—without his steed, rider Braginsky qualified himself as a scout with his performance in the mission.
Wang Yao quietly listened to the girl's enthusiastic report until Natasha mentioned that German major and his mistress with plain dirision that his face suddenly changed.
"Natasha, dear girl, can we please not talk about that?"
"Then we won't. I almost forgot the most important thing—to send you regards from everyone of the infantry reconnaissance unit." She snatched a piece of neatly folded paper from her pocket and put it into his hand, continued with some slight ridicule, "This is the star chart drawn by that smart astronomer of ours. It's the stars of the night when brother and you returned…"
"Has Toris recovered from his cold?" asked Wang Yao as he gratefully studied his friend's elaborate and professional strokes.
"He was suddenly fine the night you returned! He was so certain that the stars that night were of good fortune and made this out and asked me to bring it to you. He said that it would bless you to return to the base in time, but who would've thought you recovered so quickly!" Natasha laughed out loud like a little girl. The unusual sight startled Wang Yao, "Universty student of astronomy? He's more like a superstitious astrologist from the middle ages to me!"
"Natasha!" said Wang Yao with a serious face, "You know, Toris is a great guy…"
"There are lots of great guys. Brother. you. Everywhere at the front there are great guys."
"But there's only one who consider you as his loved one…"
Natasha suddenly got up. She was playing with her blonde braids uneasily and the small beautiful face tensed up like the Queen of Spade.
"Let me ask you…a person's words and acts in the most vulnerable moment…do they count?"
Wang Yao was astonished, his eyes became obscure in an instant, "Wasn't I vulnerable enough that night?" He didn't even notice when Natasha left.
But Natasha didn't hitchhike back to the base immediately. She mindlessly wandered outside the hospital, the tips of her braids were sweat soaked in her restless hands.
The loved one! The loved one! Wang Yao mentioned it to her just now. Not long ago when she was most upset and vulnerable, she thought about it herself too. And it seemed that she even buried herself in Toris' arms with tears and all. Well, whoever offered those arms to her, that awkward behavior was undignified for her composure.
These hassles only brought headaches. Then she shall stop thinking about it and have some fun! Natasha was always good at enjoying herself. So she hummed a cheerful tune, placed her hands on her waist, tapped her heels, twirled nimbly, artfully raised her beautiful head, eyes swept across the imaginary audience, and started dancing a dance she learned before the war.
How much she put on airs in daily life was as much as how sincere and childly when she danced. It was as if she was not sufferring in the front, but living as how she planned out before the war, already getting into the music school. She had all planned out. Wang Yao would return to their troop on December 31. It was right around new year and maybe they would have a celebration. By then, she could bring out the dance she practiced today and let everyone see what a nice girl she was…
She even felt that her destined loved one already came to her side, dancing with her. So, at the end of the dance, she decided to add a move from duo—reaching out one hand like a haughty queen, waiting for the imaginary knight to kiss the back of her hand.
It was perfection—only that she heard a loud laughing in despair—the head nurse leaned on the tent, laughing breathlessly with her hands covering her stomach.
"Ha ha ha! Our Natashenka is showing off her favorite act! Oh dear Juliet, who's the Romeo of your heart?"
Natasha regreted over and over afterwards: she should had rolled her eyes at the head nurse and left in dignity. But when she heard "Romeo", her face blushed irresistibly. In the mischievous laughings of nurses and soldiers, she ran to the road, stopped a car heading to the front and flee the scene.
*: Ivan and Yao's names are spelled as "Иван" and "Яо".