deformed bone

After so many years, Calvin can still clearly recall the feeling of wiping the skin on his back with tweezers holding a wet alcohol cotton ball-he always told himself that it was just an illogical imagination, in fact, when Dr. Holden When he finally decided to get the pair of huge wings off his body, his back was already swollen, and because of severe inflammation and infection, he had already fallen into a coma brought on by high fever before the operation began.It is absolutely impossible for him to have any impression of that operation, even if the operation he imagined appeared in his nightmares in countless nights, those wet, cold alcohol cotton balls are even more painful than the operation and the pain itself frightening.

"Are you ok?"

The bartender looked at Calvin with a pale face and asked, his expression was a little unnatural.

Normally, Calvin might be able to notice the well-hidden stiffness on his face, but the tiredness and headache accumulated during this period made Calvin lose part of his power of observation.

"I'm alright."

Calvin said a regular customer asked him for a glass of whiskey, and Calvin nodded curtly at the blurred man in the light before reaching for the bottle.

The bartender took the bottle before him. He poured the amber liquid into a small glass, ignored the old customer's dissatisfied muttering, and put the glass on the bar. Then, he stared at Calvin's face, He spoke again: "Uh, I personally think...you should really go to the lounge to take a break."

he repeated.

Calvin frowned slightly, and he barely pulled the corners of his mouth.

"I do not need."

"I think you should go."

The bartender said, some thin beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.

Calvin's movements froze for a moment, and his eyes stayed on the bartender's cold sweat for a moment, then he slowly stood up straight.

"Oh? Really? Lounge."

There was no wave in Calvin's voice, and the faint fragility that he leaked in front of the bartender before also disappeared from his voice.An invisible, cold and hard shell wrapped his whole body tightly and tightly.

The bartender gave him a guilty smile.

"Sorry... Calvin, but..."

"It's him?"

Calvin interrupted the bartender's defense.

The bartender's expression fell, and he opened his hand towards Calvin.

"Look, I told him long ago that I couldn't hide it from you—hey, listen, it's my fault, but you also know his temper, I really can't help it..."

The bartender's voice became smaller and smaller in Calvin's silence, and he felt deeply regretful that he really shouldn't have agreed to that man's plea—he thought Calvin would lose his temper at him and beat him up, but instead Unexpectedly, Calvin just kept a deadpan expression, looking at him so coldly, as if he was looking at those strange guests.

"...I really think you two should have a good chat."

The bartender's last words were almost as weak as melting on the tip of his tongue.

Calvin put his hands on his chest and raised his eyebrows.

"Is he in the lounge now?"

he asks.

The bartender jerked his head up and looked at Calvin in shock.

"Uh, yeah, I think he's here already...Well, he doesn't look too good, which is why I think you really should talk."

"Is that what he asked you to say?"

Calvin asked indifferently.

The bartender shook his head again and again: "For God's sake, no—I mean it, I..."

"Ok."

Calvin sighed.

He walked over the bartender's shoulder towards the staff area behind the bar.

"You will replace me on the night shift for the next two days."

he said to the bartender.

Of course, the late shift in a place like the Cross Bar is not a good job - but Calvin still clearly felt the bartender's relaxed state after hearing his words.

In the shadows, Calvin flashed a self-deprecating smile to himself.

He remembered the words that Dr. Holden always emphasized to him——

"Be tough, Calvin, you've got to be tough on yourself...and on everyone else."

In the last moment in that cold ward, the life support system blocked the wrinkled mouth and nose of the old man, and he stretched out his thin hands from under the pale green sheets.Calvin put his hand in the palm of his hand, and he saw the tears in Dr. Holden's cloudy eye sockets. Yes, the old man who had been suffering from illness for too long had already lost his vision at that time, but his His eyes were still full of worries about Calvin,

"Be brave, my child, be brave..."

These are Holden's last words to Calvin.

Calvin knew that until Dr. Holden's death, he still hadn't become the person who could reassure the other party.

In the staff aisle of the Cross Bar, Calvin suddenly stopped in his tracks. He took a deep breath and suppressed the sourness in his eyes.When he took another step, the breath on his body became more indifferent and sharp.

Then he came to the lounge, put his hand on the doorknob, and pushed open the lime-green plywood door silently.

Many people imagine the staff lounge of a cheap bar as a dump, where all sorts of nasty things are always going on, but in reality it's a slightly rundown clean space.On the wall facing the door, there is an employee code, which says "no injections in the employee lounge", "no non-employees allowed to enter", "no soiling the bed".There is a bright white fluorescent lamp on the ceiling, and the cool-toned light brightly shines on the small bed in the room that is as wide as one person, the sofa that has lost its elasticity and collapsed, and several wooden boxes.

Isa, a little ginger-haired girl, sits on a case of Monster energy drink and sticks a note to her homework.

Beside her, a haggard man was wrapped in an old squirrel-colored windbreaker, leaning on the sofa to sleep.One of his hands was dangling from the armchair, with a spent cigarette between his fingers.

It was a handsome man, maybe in his early thirties, with short black hair and deep Greek features - but, as the bartender had said earlier, he looked really "not good".

His face is blue, his face is full of stubble, his hair is greasy, and because of excessive fatigue, there are thick deep blue under the eyes, and two lines of sadness have been carved on both sides of his lips.

Honestly, maybe even the bums outside the bar, wrapped in ragged blankets and warmed by discarded paint cans, are healthier than he is.

Calvin approached the man.

Isa made a silent gesture to Calvin.

"He's been asleep for half an hour."

she whispered to Calvin.

Calvin patted Isa's hair.

"Would you like to stand outside the door for a while? Plug your ears and don't come in until I tell you to come in—of course, don't leave the door either."

Isa winked at Calvin.

"Well, I guess somebody's going to be unlucky?"

Calvin didn't answer her.