49 Chapter 49 - The Sound of a Crying Baby (1/2)
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
Somebody was shouting.
Juho was looking at the stroller that was still coming down the hill. A stroller coming down a hill was not a problem in and of itself. However, this was different. A stroller was rushing down the hill on its own, away from someone.
No one was holding the stroller's handlebar. No one was around the baby. The stroller was plunging down the hill, and with an ominous sound, it finally fell.
'Thud.'
It was hard to tell if the sound had come from the stroller or from his heart. Thud. The stroller that had been plunging down the hill toward Juho had suddenly changed its course toward the right. There was a wall there, and the stroller didn't seem sturdy enough to protect the baby from the cold concrete wall.
'I hear it.'
At that moment, he had heard the sound of the baby. It hadn't been the sound he remembered. The baby inside the stroller had been wailing. He saw the baby's red lips through the stroller's translucent cover.
He had run towards it without hesitation, getting closer to the baby. However, he wasn't fast enough. He had to be faster or he wouldn't be able to save the baby. At that rate, the stroller would ram into the wall. The sound of the baby's wail distracted him.
'Who was screaming earlier? It was probably the mother,' he thought. Her scream overlapped with the voice in his memory. ”I'm so sick of this!” His heart was pounding. 'What if the baby gets killed? What if the stroller rams into that rock solid wall?'
”Get the stroller!”
He recognized the words that jumped out of his mouth. ”Get it!” Who was he shouting to? He saw the baby's hands reaching towards the sky and lept. He fell on his side, holding the stroller. Then, he felt a strong impact against his back.
”Gah!”
”Wah! Wah!”
He felt dizzy and he was breathing raggedly. His heart was pounding, but he heard a cry.
'A cry. The baby's alive. The baby's not dead.'
He picked up the stroller. The baby was covered in a bundle of cloth, and there were no apparent injuries.
”My baby!”
The mother rushed down the hill toward the baby, who was still wailing. Juho leaned against the wall and collapsed.
”Thank you! Thank you so much.”
”Oh, no. The stroller fell. You should go to the hospital to make sure the baby's OK.”
”Yes, of course. Thank you. Goodness, I can't thank you enough.”
He heard her thanks from the distance. His ears were ringing. It almost felt like he was under water, and he felt sluggish. When he snapped out of it, both the mother and the baby were gone, and he was standing on an empty hill by himself in a dazed state.
”I wonder… if the baby's going to be OK.”
He looked at his hand. It was bleeding. The small wound was throbbing painfully. His palm started to heat up. It was slightly itchy and painful at the same time.
oon and slowly, he went on his way, his pace picking up gradually. 'I must write!' His mind commanded him, 'You must write, now!'
He looked through his pockets, but there was nothing. No pen, nor paper.
He looked around. There was no paper, anywhere. 'I have to write before this feeling fades away.' He couldn't find the tools he needed and clenched his hands into fists. The wound was still throbbing.
He ran through the hills with every bit of strength he had, up and down.
Gasps of warm air came out of his mouth.
'I have to go write. I have to write out what I'm feeling. I have to start my story while this feeling is still fresh. I have to write it out while it's still raw, before I start trimming it with rationales. I have to embody this feeling in my writing.”
”Ah!”
He tripped on a rock on the ground, but thankfully, he didn't fall. Juho restored his balance and continued running as fast as he could. Doing all of that just to write.
He was running out of breath and he felt water going into his nose. The water that surrounded that world was going into his body. The screams of the mother were still lingering in his ears. The fear of death was still raw in his mind. The wailing of the baby was still haunting him.
He finally arrived home and slammed the door open, taking his shoes off in a hurry and running into his room. 'Pencil, pen, it doesn't matter. Paper, paper, paper. Quickly, fast!'
”Sigh.”
Juho swallowed anxiously. His mouth was dry. He needed to drink something. There was a water, a deep ocean, and he had to pull what he was looking for out of that it. He had to dredge it out. It had to come up nearly to the surface.
”Mother, baby, wailing, distance, death, wall, scream, hills.”
'It needs to be more specific.'
”The mother looked young. She had a mole… two moles under her eye. She was red around her eyes and so were her eyes. Her hair was short, and she didn't wear any makeup. She was panting. Her chest was moving up and down. Her hands were shaking like her voice. She was wearing a navy blue shirt with blue jeans and sandals. Her lips were dry, and her tongue was red.”
'More.'
”What about the hill? There were six telephone poles. There were also red bricks, a gray wall and the asphalt. Residential area. It wouldn't have been weird if somebody had been watching. It wouldn't have been weird to take notice after hearing either the baby or the mother.”
It was exactly like how he remembered. He might not have been the only person who heard the scream. Of course, the people in that neighborhood probably heard it too, even if they had covered their ears. That's sound. One can't simply ignore it because he or she doesn't want to hear it. It's not like eyes. The ears listen until the very end.
”A little more, just a little more.”
He moved his hand frantically. A trail of blood followed his pen.
*
When she came home from work, she realized that all of the lights in the living room were switched off. 'Juho must be home by now.' She walked in as she switched on the lights.