The Lone Swallow Cannot Fly

The noise outside the operating room still had not stopped.

My wife, Florence Jipson, had even specially invited her friends to come and watch the spectacle.

They gathered around my hospital bed, and some of them even curiously tried to lift the bandage tied over my right eye.

“Whoa, he’s actually blind! But wait, he’s still got one eye left? I thought he gouged both of them out.

“Flo, your husband is seriously devoted to you and your kid. The man literally gave his own eye for Bart.”

After the anesthesia wore off, the stinging pain in my eye made me tear up involuntarily.

Florence saw this, but she only looked on with amusement.

“Benedict, what are you even crying about? It’s just one eye, okay? You’ve still got the other one working just fine.

“Bart and I were only messing with you. It was supposed to be a joke. We never thought you’d actually fall for it.”

She did not look remorseful at all. As if to soothe me, she just casually patted my hand.

The people crowded around my bed lowered their heads and tried hard to hold back their laughter.

Losing sight in one eye was already breaking me.

I clutched Florence’s hand and spoke through my anger.

“Why? Why would you do this to me?”

I caught my reflection in the bedside mirror and saw how furious and wrecked I looked.

“Do you have any idea what I just gave up for Bart? I donated my eye for him, and you’re telling me this was all a joke? How could you?”

I bit my lower lip so hard that my mouth filled with the taste of blood.

When she saw me being upset, she twisted her mouth in displeasure.

“Who told you to believe everything I say? For the record, I didn’t tell you to give your own eye. You’re the one who couldn’t read a room.

“It was obviously a joke, and you went and made it your whole reality.”

I was so furious at her twisted logic that I let out a bitter laugh.

Bart chimed in.

“Mom was right. You’re just dumb, Dad. Solomon is so much better!”

Only then did I notice Solomon Sowden, Florence’s assistant, standing nearby. He gave me a plain smile, and his eyes were full of contempt.

Bart held Solomon’s hand and kept clinging to him.

“I don’t want some blind man coming to my school. Everyone is going to laugh at me.”

Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at him with utter disappointment.

He was only eight years old, and yet he was already capable of such cruelty.

“Bart, he’s still your father. You shouldn’t talk to him like that,” Solomon said as he ruffled Bart’s head affectionately.

He then turned to me with an apologetic look.

“Ben, don’t be too hard on Ms. Jipson. She knew I’ve been stressed out about work lately, so she just wanted to do something to cheer me up.

“I honestly never thought you’d actually go through with it...”

I felt completely helpless at that moment.

So, even my misery was just a source of entertainment for them to cheer Solomon up.

Florence became impatient.

She stepped in front of Solomon and said sharply, “At the end of the day, you only have yourself to blame.

“Since you already had the surgery, just take it easy and rest. Don’t bother going to your son’s parent-teacher meeting.

“You’ll only scare people away and embarrass him.”