Lights do not shine
Dzunichi Watanabe

Chapter 17

The past few days.

Yosidzo Isikura’s temperature rose again. The throat is painless, there is no runny nose, so the fever can only mean one thing: the disease has entered its final stage.

During his visit to the patient in the morning, Noriko pointed to the temperature chart and said quietly:

– Fever again.

Naoah silently looked at the paper, got up from the patient’s bed, and turned to his daughter-in-law:

– Why, have a fever again…

– Yes. My grandpa groaned all night. The doctor on duty came to give the injection twice.

Isikura’s face was red, his breathing was uneven, and there was a wheezing and rattling sound in his chest like pneumonia.

“You’re tired, aren’t you…” Naoe asked softly. – Have to work a little harder.

Isikura moved slightly.

“Inject methillon and give oxygen,” Naoe ordered Noriko, and crouched down on the hospital bed again: “Hold on a little longer, you’ll get better soon.

Sure enough, after a while the temperature dropped, and Isikura began to fall asleep. But the relief was temporary, and by evening the mercury column had risen to the level of “thirty-eight”.

Noriko found Naoe in the operating room—he was resting after an operation, his surgical gown still undone. Noriko informed him that Isikura had a fever again.

– Easy to understand. – Naoah followed the cigarette smoke disappearing into the air. – How’s the breath…

– Breathe a little fast.

Naoah spoke very quietly, as if whispering to himself:

– Done… That’s all.

– Can’t do anything anymore…

– Maybe it will last two or three days.

– Then just in time for Tet…

“Yes, that’s right…” Naoe let out a breath of smoke. – Inject the old man with a tube of methylon.

– Oh, man…

– What…

– No, it’s nothing.

Noriko was about to talk about yesterday’s conversation with the head nurse, but then thought again. She is not brave enough. She quietly exited the operating room, going to prepare the injection of methylone as Naoe had ordered.

By night Isikura’s temperature reached forty, he began to suffocate…

The doctor on duty that day was Kobasi. After visiting the patient rooms, he called Isikura’s son outside and told him that the old man had begun to develop pulmonary edema and was in critical condition. You need to let your loved ones know.

Noriko switched shifts with Kawai and stayed on duty.

In the morning Isikura began to fall into a coma: they continued to give him injections, refill the serum, but at eight o’clock in the morning he died quietly. The old man was in pain for only twenty or thirty minutes, and then seemed to fall asleep and die without knowing his last minutes.

Naoah arrived at the hospital after ten o’clock as usual. He was informed by the head nurse that Isikura had died.

– I washed the body and took it to the morgue. During the New Year holidays, the crematorium does not work, so the memorial service for the deceased will take place today. Tomorrow will be the day of the month – at nine o’clock in the morning, I think.

Naoe calmly listened to Sekiguchi’s words, then took the medical record of the patient Yosidozo Isikura, opened it, and in the “disease progression” section he wrote in red marker: “Dead”.

List of stories The Light Doesn’t Shine:

• Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5,
• Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10,
• Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15,
• Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21