Chapter 40 He Needs a Ring
"There is nothing wrong with his vocal cords. His ability to speak last night was probably the result of excessive emotions that broke through his psychological defenses."
The doctor threw away the cotton swab in his hand, and carefully listened to the sound of Leo's chest with a stethoscope, and finally concluded that
"If this stimulation therapy is useful for him, you can try it more often. After all, his vocalization problem is mainly psychological. At this time, ordinary treatment methods may not be as good as one stimulation."
Want a few more stimulations... Irene's heart was slightly moved. How about asking Lucas to act out a few scenes?
When Irene's eyes rolled around, Leo knew she was up to no good. Thinking about what had upset him last night, Leo sulked and tightened his grip on Irene's wrist as if in a warning.
"Don't be so petty" - Irene clearly understood this from Leo's eyes.
Tsk, Irene curled her lips, thinking that despite her young age, she was quite lenient.
But in the end, she suppressed the urge to find Lucas. She couldn't bear to see Leo cry again. After all, if Leo cried, she would be the one who suffered.
Irene asked the doctor, "How does the common treatment work? Do I still come to you for voice training as before?"
"Voice training still needs to be done. In addition, he should observe how others speak at home, mainly the operation of the mouth, lips and tongue when speaking."
Seeing Irene's confused expression, the doctor gave an example to explain:
"It is very likely that he has forgotten how to speak, rather than being unable to speak. So when he is severely stimulated, he will utter a few words, but once the stimulation is over, he will forget the feeling of speaking."
"Observing the movement of other people's mouths when they speak will help him wake up his memory of speaking. You can also try to teach him to speak and let him see clearly how the lips and tongue move. Repeating this several times may have some effect."
The doctor spoke a lot in one breath, and was so tired that he picked up the cup and drank several sips of water.
Leo, who was sitting on the stool, was thinking of something. His eyes flickered a few times, and a strong excitement shone in them.
Irene nodded as if she understood. She originally wanted to ask how to observe the functioning of the mouth, lips and tongue, but then the doctor pressed the bell on the table and the patient who had been waiting at the door for a long time walked in happily.
Their consultation time is over.
No matter what era it is, doctors are always the busiest. Irene looked at the old doctor with gray beard with admiration. He is already at retirement age, but he still insists on seeing 40 patients every day, and even does not charge consultation fees for particularly poor families.
It can be said that a doctor has a kind heart.
If Leo was cured here, she would definitely give the doctor a banner.
I just don't know if sending silk banners was popular in the 19th century. If not, then I'll just think of her as starting a trend of the times, Irene thought happily.
As soon as they left the clinic, Irene pulled Leo in the opposite direction of the house.
This is the direction to the church night school. Leo's Adam's apple rolled twice and he seemed a little nervous.
"Let's go, next stop - church!" Irene pulled Leo and said in high spirits, "Let's go sign you and Hannah up for night school."
But setbacks often come first.
"Sorry, we don't accept disabled people here," the nun said with a solemn look as she stamped a red seal of rejection on their registration form.
Irene hurriedly explained: "He is not mute, he just can't speak due to psychological reasons. We have the doctor's medical records here."
As she spoke, she was about to take out the doctor's examination results.
"There is a church school for special education nearby. Let me give you the address," the nun quickly wrote down a line of address and handed it to Irene.
"I've already told you he's not disabled. What do you mean? If you don't want to accept him, then don't. We don't want to spend money on you," Irene said as she was about to take Leo to the next church school. She didn't believe that among so many schools, none of them would accept Leo.
"No school will accept him, even if he is not disabled," the nun raised her voice, her tone was extremely cold, "We can't even teach the local, normal poor people, let alone foreigners who can't speak."
"Why are you still discriminating like this?" Irene couldn't understand.
"Because this is our parish, we have an obligation to make the people of this parish live a better life, not foreign mutes. But you can ask the black girl you mentioned to come directly. We still have vacancies in the class for teaching free blacks to read. There are four classes a week, and each class costs five cents."
Hannah's coming brought Irene a little comfort, at least her trip was not in vain.
But the nun's words were so harsh, wasn't it because Leo couldn't speak for the time being? There were so many foreign immigrants in the Confederacy, why didn't we see them discriminating against others?
Irene pulled the corners of her lips, and a huge feeling of powerlessness surged in her heart.
Leo quietly held Irene's hand, and stroked the back of her hand with his fingertips for a few times, with a soothing meaning.
Irene had never realized that Leo might face discrimination before. It was not a big deal that he just couldn't speak. He could still write if he couldn't speak.
It was not until now that she suddenly realized that, except for her, no one seemed to have the patience to watch a little mute write something on paper.
If she were gone, who would look after her Leo?
Irene was immersed in her own frustration and didn't notice that Leo smiled at the nun while she lowered her head, and a large bill folded into a triangle appeared on the table in front of the nun without anyone noticing.
The nun's brows relaxed instantly, and she took the money while collecting the report.
Leo held Irene's slender wrist loosely. Of course, he had to study, but not in night school. He didn't want to be separated from Irene, but he didn't want Irene to think he was ungrateful.
Therefore, the best solution is for the nun to refuse to let him attend night school. In this way, Irene will most likely take the initiative to take over the task of teaching him, and he will be able to occupy more of Irene's time.
And Hannah wouldn't be at home to interfere with their time together, which was good. Leo was very satisfied with the solution he had come up with.
As expected, he visited several church schools near their house yesterday afternoon while Irene was working.
Money is indeed useful, even if it is black money that cannot be circulated in the market.
Leo's smile was lighthearted, but wouldn't this kind of dirty money be a perfect match for those greedy people?
After all, greed always comes to fruition, doesn't it?
Irene was depressed all the way, and when she got home, Leo comforted her and wrote:
"It's okay. I don't have to go to school. I can study at home. If I don't understand something, you can teach me."
Irene felt very distressed by the boy's considerate and obedient appearance.
"I won't let you suffer any loss. You must have what others have," Irene thought for a moment, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
Leo had a bad feeling in his heart.
"How about I hire a tutor for you to help you with your grammar problems?"
Irene felt that she was simply too good at being flexible, and this helped her avoid the problem of Leo not being able to keep up with the class progress due to his weak foundation.
Hannah still had to go to a church school. She couldn't even read the most basic words, so she had to go to the church school to take literacy classes for half a month.
And it was only when Erin was drinking last night that she realized that Booker still had a certain impact on Hannah. She was afraid that Hannah would be left with psychological trauma because of this. At this time, being exposed to more new environments could help her get out of the shadow of accidentally killing Booker as soon as possible.
There is a separate literacy class for blacks in the church night school. Although it is established based on discrimination between blacks and whites, for Hannah, meeting more people of the same nationality as herself might help her make new friends.
Erin tried hard to pave a path for both Hannah and Leo - a path without her.
But it is not easy to find a tutor. Irene found an agent who is responsible for helping to find suitable tutors. However, after meeting several, none of them seemed suitable. Even if the other party agreed, they would refuse the job after a while for various reasons.
"Forget it. It seems that I am the only one who can teach you now. Just make do with it for a few days. I will find another tutor when I go to Rochester." Irene slumped down on the stool dejectedly. "I will help you with your grammar every day after I finish my work."
She hastily added: "I'm not a professional either, I can only say try to make as few mistakes as possible."
"Nonsense, Irene is obviously very, very talented and knows everything."
The young man smiled at her in a flattering manner, his beautiful eyebrows curved into a crescent, and he looked extremely happy.
A little bit cute.
Once busy, time seemed to pass especially quickly. Irene made clothes during the day and taught Leo grammar at night. Lucas also had someone send her a stack of newspapers - newspapers and periodicals shipped from Paris, which recorded the preferences and dressing habits of upper-class ladies in recent years. She probably took time to read through them several times.
Leo is very smart and often understands things quickly, which reduces a lot of pressure on Irene to teach him. However, all this pressure will eventually be returned to her when she goes to bed at night.
Although Leo said that he was helping Irene relax her tired body after a day of work.
But it is unclear who is actually relaxing.
The dress was rushed out the day before the party, but Irene was not very satisfied.
"What a beautiful dress. Isn't it exactly the same as the design? Why is Miss still not satisfied?" Hannah asked Lucas beside her puzzledly - he came to their small rental house early this morning to help Irene with the final finishing work.
Lucas bit a cigarette, squinted his eyes and looked at the white dress on the stage, looked for a long time and said:
"It's too white, as if paint has solidified on it. It's unnatural and lifeless."
Irene took over the conversation and said briefly, "This dress is dead."
Hannah listened to Irene and Lucas' discussion in a daze. She looked at the light and soft long dress in front of her, almost at a loss.
What are they talking about? Why is this dress dead?
He was not the only one confused, but also Leo who was standing behind Irene. He listened to Irene and Lucas discussing the brightness of colors and naming a bunch of fabrics he had never heard of, such as Chinese crepe, suede, silk chiffon... as well as various artworks and sewing techniques. They were chatting enthusiastically.
Here it comes again, the feeling of being excluded. Leo suppressed his displeasure. He knew it was his jealousy at work. He knew that Irene was just working, but the feeling of not being able to keep the person he loved firmly within his safe area was too terrible.
He had nothing, and it was not easy for him to have Irene. Irene was the only light in his painful and boring life. If even this only light source did not belong to him alone...
The skin seemed to be cut inch by inch by a knife, and bright red blood slowly overflowed, splashing onto the ground.
How to completely own Irene.
How to completely own a woman.
There was only one worldly way - he had to marry her.
First came the proposal, and he needed a ring.
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