2
THE CHINA MAIL SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 19, 1940.
WHEN the hands of the clock
crept past twelve Christine. again tiptoed into Dicky's bed- room. He must be asleep by now. she thought, but he was not-not asleep and yet how little awake; just ying so still, so fat, so small under the covers, that only the dull glimmer of his open eyes pro- claimed any life.
Even as she bent over him, put her hand on his waxen forehead he did not smile, or stir or speak; just lay in that dreadful' apathy that was driving her to despera- tion. She said:
"Shut your eyes, darling. Try to Fleep"
THE TURNING
POINT
By
Douglas NewTON
it was
He did not shut his eyes, dil hot as wOT By no SIRIE did be show that he had heard or under- stood She thought. "Even at 1 did hang his stocking and put the loys on the table he would not know and Fin so dreadfully the hald on life. "It Mr. Logan comes his every feature, as he that memory might be revived, did something utterly into activity. It's not much, but ridiculous with Dicky's Christmas toys. Dicky gave ¿ revdy little chuckle, saw Christine,
Dicky's last, desperate every movement and in
*
Yet she could not bring herself it may be the turning point. to run even that risk. Those toys 1 mean, once the little beggar sits were to be part of the shock thất, up and takes an interest in any they hoped, would arouse him thing. youth should do the
They and Tom, if she could only be certain of Tom.
rest
gasped out.
"And he is devoted 10
his
+
*That. to
013
She turned on legs that seemed father. as leaden as the rest of her ex- hausted body, moving across
too. I'm counting the dressing room, Only then did that, There's nothing so remark- a sound from the bed, able as the swing back of children, but so faint that only anxious ears. Recoveries can be startling-but they need a focussing point. You're sure your husband will get leave?"
she hear
knew it for a whisper.
"Yes, Dicky?" she asked bend- ing eagerly.
He said it in a way that told her that if Tom didn't then nothing A ghost of a word floated up to could save Dicky, and she had answered passionately: "Oh, quite sure. .Tom nover falls US-
her: "Bells!"
"Yes, it's past twelve," she told never!" him.
"Christmas Day""
That was true. Tom was al- ways so splendid that way. le made it an article of faith to keep Well not quite. Not until all promises--especially to Dicky we've done our Christmas Eve He would move heaven and earth peep.” she said desperately, know- to come, as he said he had, espe- ing too well what his next word cially after she wrote again tell- had would be: but it came: "Daddy?" ng him all that Dr. Maule
said, urging him to come as early
got here?"
1.3
"Mummy. Isn't Duddy a one!" With a singing heart she went Christine cried from જ્ઞ tight back to her room,
bathed and throat: "Tom, Tom, my dear. You dressed with all the slow luxury that had been denied her during Her husband looked up, a queer, her spell of anxiety. Ate a real veiled, warning look, as though to
breakfast at last. our moment.
Every now and say, "This is not Dicky alone counts." She heard then she stopped to listen to his voice as in a dream, saying Dicky's volce. It seemed stranger cheerfully:
this
young
"Didn't I promise feller-me-lad that not even em- battled rhinosophants could keep me away from him and Christmas pudding?"
Dick
"Or-or crocolators," she heard Tom's gurgle with joy at use of their "secret" language. A frail and thin gurgle, yet already how different from his voice of a few hours ago.
It was no longer flat and dead. It was alive.
She could only stand, swaying "Give pour Daddy a chance," as possible--before Christmas Eve and staring and absolutely stupid the tried to make it it natural if it could be managed. Knowing under the load of relief that filed laugh. "He's got to have his sleep, Tom, she had been sure he would her to the point of weeping. and he's got such a huge, long do it.
And yet he hadn't way to come, too. But when it's come. Hadn't even answered her. real morning, when you've slept your sleep into day. Dicky. it'll really make quicker-
Try
"Oh, Tom, How? How?" she began. A silly thing to say. He'd Oh, whatever the reason, why slipped in while she was asleep. Daddy hadn't Tom come, or wired? With of course, using his key. Seeing closed eves she drove her clench her lying exhausted, he had ler. ed hands into her pillows, send- her undisturbed while he tip-toed "Trying to try," the dry little ing out her spirit in a passionate into Dicky. That was his way whisper rattled, "It won't come clamour to her husband, demand- always; so thoughtful, so quick to If Daddy
ing his coming, commanding it understand, SO practical. She with all her will before it was too changed her question quickly to
"When?"
the third-her
ย
heart
"Milk, my dear. At once!" she gasped. "Tom-that's the first ime he's asked for something for
weeks."
"When we men
get
every time, and it was certainly more animated. Tom was wonder and trust. He had kept his promi- ful. He had justiñed all her hope
ise, and Dicky was going to get well.
~After that he wanted to..., play...... with Tom again, and Tom për- suaded her to go and: rost.." ~ It seemed selfish of her, but Dicky was so entirely centred on Tom, was 60 manifestly improving, while she was still a so terribly weary that she gave in. She shut herself in her room to sleep until ten time--and woke at seven, ¡
1
She could not believe the clock at first, and when she did she hùr- ried into Dicky's bedroom over- whelmed with contrition. It was dark, there was no sound in it ex- cep: Dicky's breathing. She called "Tom" softly, but there was no answer. She clicked On the screened night lamp and saw he wasn't there.
Sure that he had taken the chance to stretch his legs while Dicky slept, she was not even up- set when she found he was not in the flat. She merely busied her- self getting dinner ready--whiên, at least, they would be together. Her ear on the alert for any sound of his coming back or Dicky's heard awakening, and when she the boy move she went into him.
She heard him yawn, a delici- ous, natural yawn. He said in
"I'm something of his old voice: terrific hungry-Can I have some- thing-an' a big drink-?"
"Of course dear-what you like?"
would
"Cake, an' chicken and almost anything. Daddy says I've got to cat like a trooper, so's to be quite well when he comes again."
.
"Comes again?" she gasped. "Comes really," he said quite calmly. "This was only a sort of pretend time, you know,"
"Pretend," she caught up to say, as
riaturally could, "Daddy's gone then?"
herself she
As
He played quietly, gently, un- derstandingly with all the toys, never exciting the child. He knew exactly when to stop and what to do when he did. She slipped in "Had to be back," Dick said. in mid-morning with a suggestion "But he'll be here about not over exerting Dicky, to soon, an' there's no need about again quite find Dicky placidly lying on his worrying: It'll be for a longer and
hands back, both his small
in gorgeouser time then-and real Tom's big brown one, his face serene and listening. Before she could speak Tom said:
**
"Real?" she gulped, yet Dicky didn't seem light-headed. more "We are about to travel, per normal than ever in fact. She flying bd. to Africa, where the switched on the room light. He Ibo-lberi hunt, lions in a strange was more normal. As Dr. Maule
made and dening manner
which had said, Tom's coming had
all the difference-only· what did he mean by "real" or by Tom's going back like this?
ind ca es, my dear, that this is the moment for you to go out and get involved in a purely male if not a spot of fresh air rather than be
cannibalistic episode.'
It was
visible
It was glorious out. She stroll- ed in the park with a sense of delicious freedom. She was even able to take her first peep at the snops, or what the Christmas shopping had left in the unshut- "I'll see what secrets the larder tered ones.
She knew everything has for you," and went out into was going to be right and it was, the hall, snatching the telegram When she got back Dicky was from the table, bursting it open. asleep, really deeply and soundly It was from a hospital, it read asleep, breathing normally and with a colour already showing in
his face.
She wanted to hug Tom for that his glance and everything, but warned her. Dicky's spindly fin- gers were gripped tight on his hand, any movement might wake him. She made a mocking grim-
Regret to say husband, T. Logan, met with accident: not serious but will prevent taking his leave for some weeks.
Cradley, M.D.
She glanced wildly round the room, and the first thing she saw "Try enormous hard," she urged late.
His eye winked sagely, then his was the plate of cold chicken she swiftly, fearing. fearing
head drooped and his lids closed had cut for Tom's lunch. that promises about Daddy might be Exhaustion must have made her
over his eyes, and "Hours an' hours an'. hours ago,"
she knew where she had set it on an occa- more dangerous than not. "Shul sleep. A thunder in her ears, a
that be meant to Dicky's voice ecstatically answer-
tale-tell sional table-and it hadn't even eyes, boy. Poor Mummy's got to whirring of a bell, crashed through ed for him. "An' terrible disc Dicky to sleep, as he had so often heen touched. She remembered wait and sleep, ton."
to her numbed senses; roused her dissip he's awful strict, too. Made done in the past. She blew both then that she hadn't seen his hat dazed and startled. The knocking
.went out or coat in the hall-no sleep first. Toys only after heartfelt kisses and me He did not shut his eyes-not and ringing broke out again. She we'd got rid of our Christmas Eve breuthing the good air as she had sign of him at all, except himself really. He made the effort, but sprang up, ran through the flat to sleep, lus' like you said. Mums, not hoped to breath it again. --and she hadn't touched him. the thin, bluish lids crept with a the door terrifled that Dicky
And as she grasped the strange- terrible labour only as far
as the might be frightened. It would be can I have a drink of milk?"
ness of it all she remembered the lower rim of the iris, the whites the postinan, of course--Christmas
telegram she hadn't opened. With sti I gleaming through. He hadn't Day was definitely here.
a gigantic effort to master her the strength left even to sleep, Not
dread she said to Dicky: that sleeping waking made It wasn't the postman, but much difference. Still, even that telegraph boy with three messages, was something, and if she left him Two were in gay "Greetings" en-
velopes. he might doze----
together jumped in fear as she took it and there's nothing we can't do," Tom
"Ain't it so, Goliath?" chuckled. She went back to her own bed, heard the boy's cheery "Happy Jay on it fighting the numb weari- Christma ș. Ma'am," as he went hess that had settled like a dead way
A Happy Christmas! Tom's face, so wise, so stendy, weight in every muscle. She knew
Happy! If that third so strong, smiled at her, telling
her that everything was all right:: that she had reached the limit of telegram was from Tom as she
now, yel warning her to behave her own endurance. She had set
dread.
as though all this was ordinary. herself to hold out until Tom ar-
What a difference his mere pres- fived, and he had written that it
Her hands shook as she forced
ence made, Even his
way of would not be later than Christmas her finger under its lap. and be-
taking things for granted carried Eve. perhaps before if he could gan to tear-and stopped.
Dicky over difficult moments. manage it, for he really was due for a long leave. It was his not
When she brought the milk, ace: coming that had broken her. It Incredible. She stood rigid,
eased Dicky up with an arm about was as though she had stretched startled, not believing her ears, his shoulder, he turned his head "Horrible imp-he comes be- herself taut to bear just the limit But it had sounded like a laugh, away from the cup as he had al- tween us We haven't said how of strain and the extra wait had weak, quavering, pitiful but a caused her to crack.
laugh, it must be true. Joy as ways done in the past trying days. do-you-do, or talked
eye, he well as fear so unnerved her that But now, under Tom's
"Plenty of time for that, my caught him back, muttered, She shivered as she thought of she had to cling to the back of a "Daddy." He wanted Tom to give dear later and it'll be better for Tom's failing. It would be the hall chair, telling herself it just
making to-day all Dicky's." end of Dicky. That one last spark couldn't be. And as she clung of life left in the frail little body Dicky laughed again. .
his desire to see and romp with his father at Christmas-would be.
It was true, True! quenched; the dreadful listlessness She flung the telegrams on to that had held him since his Illness the hall table, ran stumbling to would deepen. He would die. the bedroom door, pushed it open
with a positive terror of hope Dick grinned in wan feebleness Dr. Maule had left no doubt weakening her. And again, but drank, not much, but willingly about that. "Unless we can rouse Dicky laughed. him we can do nothing, Mrs. Lo-
instead of the long struggle of coaxing. She let the thin little She stood gasping. He's just slipping downhill. Medical
to the pil- figure softly back on science is helpless. if Dicky's frail Agure, no longer lows, looking at Tom with un- there's no will to live. His father made its terribly neat mound un- speakable gratitude. might bring that back. The der the bedclothes. They were child's wanting him to be here at crumpled because he had manag- Christmas shows that there's just ed to turn on his side. And he enough of the boy left to make a was looking up, the white, tight pered. fight."
skin of his face puckered in a too." weak smile, and his eyes were no been longer heavy and dull as he
gan.
Dicky had laughed.
"Christmas has always their great time together,” Chris watched-Tam! tine had said huskily, “Tom, my " husband, is a great boy himself. with the toys and the romping. they're a pair."
staring.
Tom sat beside Dicky's bed as though he had never been away. His very pose had that heartach- ing familiarity, the memory of
him his drink.
"Oh never," Tom said cheerful- ly. "Milk's the nurse's job al- ways-that's the way of it son. It's up to a man to drink.. Down with it, monster."
"And you, my dear," she whis- "You must be hungry,
"I know," she breathed. "Oh, Tom, you don't know what your coming has meant to me-us."
"I'm not beyond guessing," he smiled.
*
窈
At that same moment
Robin Cradley was saying to a nursing sister as he stood by a hospital bed: "Ah, he's coming out of ite he slept all day, I suppose?"
"Like a child, doctor." "No dreams, you think?”
"None as far as I could. tell, and I watched for them, knowing how wrought up he was over that boy
of his."
"Yes, I think he would have been in bad case Jf I hadn't given. him that sleeping draught.→→→I "And and I was afraid you only hope his wife got my wire in mightn't come."
time to prepare the boy against disappointment.
Hallo, Logan, had a good rest?"
"Splendid, been with Dicky all day."
...
"Eh?" blinked Dr. Cradley; ("A dream—-”
"I'd made up my mind to come, he said. "Nothing could have stopped me--Nothing on earth.”
Dicky stirred a little then, his eyes warned her and she fled for fear her voice and presence would spoil the magic. Singing gently she began to prepare lunch, "Had all I want already," he... smiled. “But; get something your- They had a picnic lunch in the self.
Land my motor bedroom. Dicky, did not want to mechanic here have a particularly miss a moment of his father, and, nutty race game that calls for the anyhow, it was a joy to them both "You look better for it, any deepest attention,
to see him eat. Zes, he actually how." the doctor hastened to any, -wanted to eat, little bits of chicken. 'Tom Logan looked at him in
เ
31
*
"
He caught sight of the nurse's
"Dream, be hanged, it was
uniform, switched his eyes in sur- prise over the hospital surround- be. By dove perhaps it whe→→ and yet so real all
“That's it." And with Christmas which ⠀⠀ had strengthened her His glance said: "Leave this to and felly with the beginnings of strange way, "Yes," he said. neur Dicky's just clinging to through", every day and night of me. I'am the tonic this young man a boy's appetite. They could "Yes, I feel better-I feel that the the memory." Dr. Maule said: it his absence. The frank boyish- needs. Go and 'rest and make' scarcely give attention to their boy will be all right novich 80: gravely, that Christina Scnew zase that made him so alcin to the yourself pretty, and worry, no, own food: It was such a great turned the corner, .... Gunun
The remnt by that “'clinging” boy in Dicky was alive in his "more.”
· enorment,
fwel that in my bonne-