Devoted Love, Mr. Hayes’ Darling Wife

Albarran Bail walked up to Paula Rouco, stared at her and asked, word for word, “Oh, Paulita, when was the first time you saw the little bean sprout?”

“I … I met her at school a few months ago, the day before … the centennial celebrations at Imperial College. ”

Albarran Bail: “And where do you remember the second meeting?”

Paula Rouco struggled to remember and answered slowly, “I … was on the set of a recording I went to for a television program for The Guardian.”

Albarran Bail: “But the little bean is a girl, why did she get on the recording set? And why would she go to Imperial College?”

“Maybe… it’s where Little Beanstalk’s mom works.”

Albarran Bail: “But why is Little Beanstalk’s mom at Imperial University if she’s a crew member on the set?”

Paula Rouco’s lightless eyes, with a hint of defeat, “I … I don’t know.”

Albarran Bail observed her lazy, helpless look and patiently followed her lead, “Paulita, there are no small bean sprouts in this video, why can’t we all see them but you?”

“…” Paula Rouco, frozen in her wheelchair and wearing a thin blue striped hospital gown, shook her head.

She looked up and saw the little beaner standing in the corner inside the consulting room, carrying a small red backpack, just watching her.

Albarran Bail followed her gaze to the empty corner and asked, “Paulita, what are you looking at, is that the little beaner over there?”

Paula Rouco nodded with a pale little face, keeping her gaze on that corner.

Albarran Bail asked, “Paulita, this is a hospital, a consulting room, no one can enter except the patients and the doctors, but how can a child be here, a little bean sprout? Paulita, don’t you think it’s strange?”.

Paula Rouco just shook her head, unable to answer.

Albarran Bail recalled that Severo Laris had told him that Paula Rouco had told him that the little bean sprout was seven years old.

Albarran Bail asked, “Paulita, the little bean is seven years old, isn’t she?”

Paula Rouco nods her head.

Albarran Bail asked again, “If la brotadita is seven years old, why doesn’t she go to school, how did she come to La Ciudad Santa and how does she know where the hospital is where you live. paulita ah, it’s not weekend, it’s weekdays, why hasn’t la brotadita gone to school like the other children?”

Paula Rouco’s mind was swirling very slowly and, after a good while, in the face of Albarran Bail’s questioning, she was unable to decipher it, she had no idea and shook her head.

Seeing that nothing could be asked and that the patient was visibly tired, Albarran Bail ended the consultation and asked the doctors to take Paula Rouco back to her room.

Some of the other complementary physicians asked, “It seems that Paula Rouco is not well treated.”

Albarran Bail sighed, “The patient is now completely unaware of her hallucinations and delusions, and she has a disorder in her thinking.”

“But right now we can’t ask anything at all about Paula Rouco, and we are in a state of bewilderment about treatment options.”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

Albarran Bail pursed his lips, reflected for a moment, and said, “I’m going to call a meeting with the patient’s family.”

Especially Severo Laris, about whom he had always held something back, was so sure as to what was going on between him and Paula Rouco, that Albarran Bail was as sure as Severo Laris was undecided.

…

Severo Laris stood outside the room and looked inside at Paula Rouco, sitting there alone and helpless.

Her gaze, dull and drab, was lifeless.

A nurse approached with the medicine and, seeing Severo Laris standing in the doorway of the room, could not resist reminding her, “Professor Laris, you really must not be here, Dr. Bail has instructed that if Miss Rouco sees you standing, it is not conducive to treatment.”

Severo Laris looked at the haggard girl in the room, the corners of her eyes slightly reddened, unable to say a word.

When the nurse saw her silence, she couldn’t help but say, “Professor Laris… please cooperate, Dr. Bail will surely blame us if you do. ”

Severus Laris took a deep breath, raised his wrist to his watch and said, “I’ll watch her for another ten minutes like this and promise not to let her see me, please.”

The nurse was stunned, she did not expect such a proud and clear man to ask her, a little nurse, with such a pleading look.

The nurse left him alone, but took the medicine and went into the room.

As soon as the door to the ward opened and Paula Rouco turned her head slowly and haltingly to look at the ward door, Severo Laris, who was on the other side of the door, stepped aside to avoid being seen outside.

The nurse entered and reminded him in a soft voice: “Paula Rouco, take your medicine!”.

The nurse handed her the medicine and opened her mouth, indicating that she should learn how to do it.

“Ah… open your mouth.”

Paula Rouco obediently opened her mouth and the nurse inserted the medicine and handed her a glass of water.

Paula Rouco drank the water and swallowed it bitterly.

After taking the medicine, the nurse again instructed her, “Ah – open your mouth, I’m going to see if it has gone down.”

Paula Rouco opens her mouth for the nurse to check.

The nurse checked and was satisfied to see that indeed the medication had been swallowed and was not hidden under the tongue.

“Paula Rouco has been very good today, here is your candy from Dr. Bail, take it.”

The nurse places a cellophane wrapped fruit candy on a medical tray in Paula Rouco’s hand.

The pretty, gentle nurse smiled at her like a loving sister. Seeing her onion-white hand squeeze the fruit candy tightly, as if she wanted to tear it from the cellophane but could not peel it off due to the stiffness of her fingers, Paula Rouco squeezed the fruit candy and raised her hand toward the nurse.

The nurse smiled gently and patiently and said, “You can’t peel it, I’ll help you.”

Paula Rouco’s pretty, slender hand opened and the water candy fell into the nurse’s hands, who peeled off the paper and put the fruit candy in her mouth.

Paula Rouco opened her mouth and took the candy to her mouth, it was sweet.

She smiled at the nurse.

The nurse reached out and stroked her head, “Eat the candy and be a good girl and take a nap.”

Paula Rouco nods and just sits there, like a helpless child.

By the time the nurse turned to leave with the tray, Paula Rouco was struggling to get up but couldn’t sit up, and called out to the nurse with lazy diction, “Nurse…”

The nurse turned to look at her, “What is it?”.

“Do I have … really … I have a disease?”

The nurse froze, then smiled kindly and said, “You’ll be fine, and when you’re better, you won’t need the medication.”

Outside the door, Severo Laris stands, fingers clenched, blue and white knuckles visible.

On his face, tears rolled and burned his heart.

Albarran Bail had finished eating and was about to go to the living room in his white coat to check on Paula Rouco.

At the entrance to the room, Severo Laris was seen.

Albarran Bail pursed his red lips and put his hands in the pockets of his white coat and said, “In Paula Rouco’s current condition, it will be at least six months from hospitalization to the end of her treatment, are you going to be here every day, day and night, watching her?”

Severo Laris made a lump in his throat and said in a deep voice: “Every day, I only see her for an hour.”

Albarran Bail: “Ten minutes, no more. Not only are you not going to help Paula Rouco’s treatment by being here, but in case Paula Rouco sees you, can you restrain yourself from walking in on her?”

Severo Laris swallowed saliva, looked at Paula Rouco in the room, who could not move freely, and asked with a frown, “Before she came to the hospital, she was very mobile, why has she come to the hospital for treatment and instead cannot even peel a candy by herself?”

Albarran Bail looked at the people in the ward and explained, “The drugs used to treat psychiatric conditions act by depressing the nerves, and when the nervous system is depressed, the brain’s ability to manipulate it is temporarily diminished, hence the mobility symptoms.”

Severo Laris looks eagerly inward and asks, “Will it always be like this?”

“This is the time when the medication dosage is at maximum, and when she gets less sick, or realizes she is sick, we will reduce the dosage at our discretion, and by then this slowness will be much less. As soon as she is well and off the medication, the slowness will disappear with her.”

Severo Laris closes her eyes, finally unable to bear the thought.

Albarran Bail reassured her, “All the painful symptoms you see in her now are only temporary, and as long as she cooperates with treatment, realizes that the little flare-ups are the product of her fantasy, and knows how to distinguish between illusion and reality, the difficulties will be solved.”

“But, Severo Laris, let’s talk.”

Severo Laris: “Talk about what?”

“Talk about who the little beaner is and talk about something from the past between you and Paula Rouco that I don’t know yet.”

…