The Quack Lady - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 13

* * *

A pediatrician who deals with children must have eyes that can see the world from a child’s perspective, from a child’s point of view.

For instance, enough to interpret on their own the words “because of Father” that were blurted out without context just moments ago.

“What?”

Naturally, a bewildered response came from the caretaker who was also the child’s father.

Since nothing seemed like it would progress in this state, I shouted toward the door.

“Mr. Pairon! Please escort the caretaker outside!”

At my shout, Mr. Hanel appeared, opening the door with a bang.

Then he immediately emanated an aura full of coldness and spoke toward the man.

“Our little one says you’re interfering with the treatment. Please leave now, Harriet.”

“No, Lord Hanel! My son is lying! I’m someone who has only worked hard for my son’s sake! That brat…!”

With Mr. Hanel’s assistance, the man named Harriet was escorted out of the makeshift clinic.

The child and I let out short breaths and looked at each other.

I warned the child.

“You should be more careful with your words from now on. If you talk like that, adults will misunderstand that your father hit you.”

At my words, the kid also seemed to come to his senses and covered his mouth with a gasp.

Then he spoke with a dejected face.

“…But I’m sad because of Father. Even now. Don’t you believe what I’m saying, Doctor?”

“No, I believe you. You’re definitely feeling pain.”

“Huh?”

“Children can experience pain non-specifically. There are kids who say their whole body hurts even when just their tummy is uncomfortable.”

“…”

I lightly poked the child’s heart with one finger and smiled.

The child looked at me with the corners of his mouth stretched wide at those words.

The tears precariously hanging as if they might fall were a bonus.

“Do you really believe me?”

“Of course!”

When I grinned, the child wiped one eye with his sleeve and said.

“I want to be with Father, but he’s busy every day. He has to go to work every day, so I’m always alone at home…”

The child fidgeted with his hands and continued quietly.

“My friends won’t play with me because I don’t have a mother. Oh, don’t tell Father about this!”

“Of course! I’ll never tell anyone what we talk about here.”

I gently reassured the child. My heart wasn’t feeling good, but I focused on the child’s words.

“That was so hard for me. But I know too! I’m all grown up now, so I shouldn’t bother Father.”

The mere ten-year-old child dejectedly cast his gaze to the floor.

“No, you can bother him. You should bother him.”

“Huh?”

I gently stroked the child’s head and said.

“You’re still a kid, and even when you grow up, you’ll forever be a child that your father must protect and care for. So it’s okay to think that way.”

“…”

“When Father leaves the house, your feelings of emptiness and sadness grow and make your body hurt. So, what should you do to not have your body hurt?”

“I shouldn’t feel empty and sad.”

The child answered while mumbling with his head hung low.

I gently held the child’s shoulders and explained.

“No, feeling empty and sad is unavoidable, isn’t it? Instead of filling your heart with those bad feelings, fill it with other things. Like drawing wonderful pictures while thinking of Father.”

I gave the child more specific things to do.

Unlike adults who accept and endure emotions as they are, children literally lack the ability to digest emotions.

They collapse helplessly in the face of uncomfortable emotions they’re feeling for the first time since birth.

And in such cases, you must present specific solutions to help purify the child’s emotions.

“Or you can hold Father’s belongings and think that Father is always by your side wherever you are. Father is actually working for your sake.”

“…”

“There are many ways. It’s just that no one taught you those methods, so you got sick.”

“Then it’s not my fault that I’m sick?”

The child looked up at me with moist eyes and asked.

As if he had been thinking all this time that being sick was entirely his fault.

I smiled brightly at the child and said.

“Being sick isn’t anyone’s fault. Anyone can get sick, and anyone can be cured.”

I pleasantly patted the child’s head.

Thinking that the moment to truly heal had finally arrived.

* * *

After comforting the child and giving him a tight hug, I called back the caretaker who had been led out by Mr. Hanel.

This time, when I entrusted the child to Mr. Hanel, he asked what on earth I was trying to do, but I just smiled.

‘You’ll have to do some explaining in a bit.’

He growled at me, then soon smiled brightly and took the child out.

The caretaker sat across from me with an unpleasantly displeased expression and grumbled.

“I came here just in case, but to be treated so poorly like this…”

“…”

“He says he’s suddenly feeling less pain today, so it must be malingering after all. Anyway, thanks to this I understand clearly.”

He nodded at me with a very sarcastic tone.

However.

“Please sit down. I have something to tell you.”

I firmly called back the man who was about to turn around and leave. Soon he hesitated for a moment and sat back down.

“The child is indeed sick. It’s just that the painful place can’t be seen.”

“A place that can’t be seen?”

“Here.”

I patted my left chest a couple of times as if saluting the flag.

It was where the heart is located.

“The child is in a very empty state due to his suddenly busy father’s absence. That mental pain is making his body hurt too.”

“What did you say?”

I made a V-shape toward him as he frowned as if dumbfounded.

“My prescription has two parts. First, please increase the time you spend with the child. It will stabilize the child. And second, please specifically tell the child what he can do during the time when the caretaker isn’t there. It will be a great help to the child.”

“…What if I can’t do that?”

“Then the child will continue to complain of pain. Perhaps even more than now.”

Children don’t know how to express their emotions as clearly as adults do.

But since children are also people, they can receive the same wounds and hurt in the same way…

‘Adults don’t understand this well.’

“And please be careful with your words and actions in front of the child. Threatening attitudes or forceful tones like earlier can be problematic.”

“What business is it of yours how I talk to my own child!”

However, the caretaker showed no signs of changing.

No, to be precise, there wasn’t even room for reflection.

I barely managed to pull up the corners of my mouth and said.

“Just because it’s your child doesn’t mean it’s your possession, does it?”

“Th-that’s…!”

“Since it’s not your possession, there’s no reason to treat it carelessly, and you shouldn’t do so. So please take responsibility for what you brought into this world and treat the child preciously.”

At my words, the caretaker also seemed to get emotional and shouted as if in protest.

“I did treat him preciously! I never let him go hungry for even one meal! I bought good clothes from the market for him to wear! I washed all his clothes cleanly every day so he wouldn’t be called a motherless child! What more am I supposed to do here!”

At the caretaker’s words, I squeezed my eyes shut.

I could almost see the caretaker’s life of fierce struggle before my eyes.

But what the child wanted wasn’t clean clothes or a warm meal, but time with his caretaker.

The love that only a Caretaker can give.

“What the Child wants isn’t neat clothes or fancy meals. It’s their Caretaker.”

“…!”

“A Caretaker who smiles happily by their side.”

I looked at him clearly. With sincerity that couldn’t be expressed in words.

With the wounds that the Child must have received.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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