A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang

Author:Belinda Huijuan Tang [Tang, Belinda Huijuan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

The room numbers rushed past. The clack of high heels beat a frenzied rhythm behind him, then Hanwen’s fingers were pressing into his arm, holding him back. She was saying something—Just wait one moment.

He threw off her hand and kept running.

He realized he had no idea what room he was looking for. He reached the end of the hall and doubled over, panting.

“Which room is he in?” he shouted, but when he was told the number, even the simple math of calculating in which direction to walk seemed impossibly hard, his brain performing the subtraction as if moving through sludge.

Then he was there, in front of the right room, as if by accident, as if guided by God. Three nurses gathered around a bed in the corner. The one with his father. The patient monitor pushed to the side, the air of defeat and an ending, another stretcher, bare and utilitarian, already prepared for the departure.

The nurses pulled the curtain.

“I’m sorry, sir, you can’t come in here. We’re still preparing—”

He pushed her aside and threw the curtain back. Not until later did he wonder if he might have hurt the nurse, but by that time her face had disappeared from his memory, indistinguishable from all the others he’d passed.

The paper curtain, sliding on its rusted rings, ripped in his hands. Then he looked—

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.