Chapter 9
During my years in prison. I exchanged all my wages for stationery and begged the guard to send it anonymously to the school Grace taught at.
One day she wrote a letter back. Her handwriting and thankful words brought tears to my face. Fortunately, she didn’t know it was me.
Once I was released, I sold my parent’s house and took every penny I had to the place where Grace lived.
I hired a local to build a shed up on a hill not far from the school, where I can see what’s going on.
This place was secluded. It took me several days to come back from grocery shopping.
And I would sneak into the school’s warehouse at night to restock the
shelves.
Though I couldn’t meet her, it gave me great pleasure just to see her and the smiles of those kids from afar.
One day, Grace seemed to have a really bad cold.
The sound of her coughs was particularly loud on a quiet night.
But I forgot to get medicine last time in town.
I looked through my luggage only to find a bottle of cough syrup that was almost expired. I dropped it along with over 30 pairs of gloves made of lambskin at the warehouse.
Chapter 1
However, she coughed even more badly the next night. My heart wrenched. so I sneaked into the pharmacy of a local clinic, trying to take some medicine for her, but got caught in the act by a doctor on duty.
The doctor looked around the empty pharmacy and told me they were out of supply due to bad connectivity and a growing number of patients in winter. The delivery won’t reach here until next week. He suggested that I try traditional medicines here, but also warned me it’s not safe to gather the herbs. for some of which only grew in dangerous locations.
But as long as Grace can recover, the risks were nothing to me.
I memorized the doctor’s description of the herbs and set out with tools.
It started off really well, but I just couldn’t find the last herb on the list as the night faded. I was just feeling sorry that I might not be able to give her the medicine today, when all of a sudden, I noticed it on a slope with the help of my flash.
“Finally, there you are.” I mumbled to myself.
Maybe because I got carried away, the moment I clutched it, I slipped, falling backward. The last thing I remembered was holding the basket with herbs tightly in my arms.
It’s true that before you die, your life would flash before your eyes, but come how mine was all about Grace.
I woke up to the pungent smell of disinfectants and medies.
“Give…Grace…the medicine…and…the kids…” I struggled to hear my
voice.
“XX is on her way,” said a nurse, who was wiping the blood coming out of the back of my head. “Don’t worry. The doctor who found you said the
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herbs were perfectly fine.”
I felt something in me was fleeing fast. I struggled to stretch my hand. towards the door, but all I could see was Grace screaming at me at the trial. “You don’t deserve to be forgiven for the rest of your life!”
Yet. I felt at ease now. At least Grace has used these pencils and would recover with the medicine.
In the end, I didn’t get to see her for the last time.
Well, maybe I deserved it.
