It's been a week since I left Jose's office. As the weekend approached, Representative Foley remembered that he should have gone home to see his father this week. In the years since his mother's death, he was busy with his family and children, and he had less and less time to go back to his parents' house, and his father was a strong man, and Shammel thought that Old Foley was in fact a bit stubborn, and the family never got together after his father came on the child's third birthday.

Maybe it's better to wait until after May, when summer in Seattle is pleasant, and during the rainy season, sunny days become very precious and the mood is cloudy. A few years after my mother's illness, the family did not have a sunny day, and every time I went back to see her, I was sad and couldn't say what was unpleasant, and my father sat outside the door all day long and read the newspaper repeatedly, which was the last impression that the family left on Foley.

My mother was reluctant to go to the hospital for treatment until she could no longer hide her illness from her family. One morning, Representative Foley receives a call from his father that his mother is in the hospital, and the doctor says the sooner the operation, the better. Unsurprising, Foley returned to his rented house, sorted his clothes, and rushed to the airport. When I got home in the afternoon, my father had already returned from the hospital.

"It's nothing, I regret calling you, the doctor said a minor operation."

My father's voice was much more relaxed than on the phone, and perhaps the doctor's words reassured him a lot, or maybe it was ...... Representative Foley later thinks that his father may not want to show grief in front of him, so he lightly describes his mother's condition.

"Did the doctor say anything about the disease?"

"Thyroid tumors."

"That's not a big deal, so why do you say the sooner the better?"

"Maybe the beds are available now, who knows."

Foley lies on the bed in his room, everything in the room has not changed, it is cleaned every day, of course, it must be his mother who does this, since he was a child, his mother likes to make Foley's clothes and room spotless, sprinkled with some ketchup or rubber crumbs stuck on books, as long as his mother sees it, he will inevitably learn a lesson and immediately change into a neatly ironed clothes.

The pathology report on the day of surgery showed that the mother's tumor was the least desirable type of thyroid tumor in recovery, simply put, thyroid cancer.

When Foley walked to the doctor's office, the doctor didn't say a word of superfluity, no comfort or advice, but just spoke about his mother's condition with the precision of a machine.

After thanking the doctor, he stood by the windowsill in the corridor of the surgical building, as if he suddenly knew a secret in this world, this secret was known to no one but him, it was an experience that he had never had before, he should have been sad, anyone would feel sad at such a time, but he didn't seem to find sadness. "It's a secret, and you're going to have to live with it from now on." It was as if someone was whispering these words in his ear.

Seattle's lingering rainy weather gave Forley the best excuse to keep a secret, at least until May, to tell his mother, and when the weather improves, the mood will be happy, and the rain will only make the sadness more sad.

When I think of my mother again, the car has already driven to the door of the house, and as the only person who knows the facts, it is up to me whether to tell others or whether to let others bear it with me. If you don't say anything, it doesn't exist in someone else's world, in someone else's life. When Representative Foley thinks of what Jose told him, and what his mother's attending physician told him, it looks so similar that it's a copy of a Shakespearean play.

At least I have time to think about whether or not to tell someone, and maybe not to say it alone. What will happen to Sammel in the future, can John understand what happened to his father, he has no memory of his grandmother's death, he has not experienced the death of his relatives at all, how can he understand his own illness?

Thinking of this, Foley felt a force, a power to grasp life again, and it really focused his attention that had been scattered for a week.

"That's right, do what is in front of you first, and think about it when you are free." Representative Foley muttered to himself in the driver's seat, "We'll talk about that later." He shouted, and after saying this, Foley's whole body became relaxed.

When he got home, he felt like he had really helped a friend go to the doctor, and even between the time he walked in the door and dinner, Foley's mind was as clear as the cloudless California sky.

"Big man." John crawls on the table and eats his favorite butterfly powder. Grimacing at yourself from time to time.

"Ah, Dad forgot to buy toothpaste." Seeing John's mouth full of ketchup, Representative suddenly remembers the little one's crying when brushing his teeth in the morning.

"It's okay, it's okay Dad, just don't brush your teeth."

John said comfortingly.

"Of course not, it's going to get tooth decay."

"But, Dad didn't buy toothpaste."

Foley sat down in the dining chair across from his son, looked at John's small but bright eyes, and said seriously, "You can't eat butterflies if you have tooth decay." ”

Unmoved, John replied softly, "No......"

The voice was soft and long, and Foley laughed at his son's appearance, and couldn't help but go around to the other side of the table, snatch John's little green fork and put it on the placemat, and lift his son up.

"Little guy, you're getting more and more clever to be smart, aren't you?"

John waved his hands and feet and laughed, "Put me down, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." ”

"Why don't you eat well?"

Samel walked to the kitchen with the cup, and Foley and John were immediately quiet like brothers who had done something wrong, but they couldn't hold back the laughter they had laughed before.

"Mom, I'm eating noodles, and Dad suddenly came to hug me."

John spoke first.

Shamel looked at Foley, who shrugged his shoulders and suddenly felt a pinprick in his back, and he quickly smiled and said, "I'm talking to him about tooth decay." ”

After Samel leaves the kitchen with the water, John laughs again, and Representative can't wait to hug him again, this time it's different from the previous time, this time it's thanks, it's much better to have John than when you're alone, and Representative gets up to prepare dinner for himself. Let it be like this, he watched John silently tell himself in his heart.

A light blue skirt and a white long-sleeved top are walking towards Forlì.

"Your coffee, with added sugar."

"Thank you."

Representative Foley takes his coffee, and the drizzle outside the shop makes him feel like his bones are soaked in mud.

He took a sip of it, feeling bitter and numb, and resisted not to vomit on the white table. What's in coffee, spoiled pepper?