That childish voice rang by my ear again.
“Didn’t I tell you, Dad? This time, you believe me, right? Hurry and think of a way, I don’t have much patience left!”
I numbly got into the car and forced myself to look at my wife sitting beside me.
“You didn’t look well earlier, and I can’t feel at ease. Let’s go to another hospital and check again.”
Maybe because she remembered the pain she had gone through, my wife didn’t hesitate and agreed.
The examination finished quickly. When my wife went into the bathroom, I grabbed the doctor’s wrist, my voice trembling.
“Doctor… the one in my wife’s belly… is it… is it human?”
The doctor pulled his hand free and looked at me in disbelief. “If you’re sick, go see the psychiatric department!”
“No, no, that’s not what I mean. I’m asking if it’s one baby or two?”
The doctor’s face showed clear impatience. “I already told you, one fetus, nine weeks and three days!”
“But then why is my wife’s belly so big? Someone said she might be carrying twins; if not, then the months must be wrong…”
The doctor lifted his head and stared at me for a long time without speaking. Then, all of a sudden, his expression turned angry.
“Am I the expert here, or not? Someone said, someone said, then why don’t you have that person do the checkup instead? Your family members are really something!”
“There are plenty of reasons for a big belly! The baby could just be growing faster, or the mother might be overnourished…”
I caught sight of myself in the mirror, looking miserable, and let out a bitter laugh. The hospital didn’t believe me. My wife didn’t believe me. Yet I kept clinging to a voice I couldn’t even be sure was real.
I sank down in the corridor, feeling defeated. Just then, my wife walked toward me, and that voice came again.
“Did you go to that hospital on Turner Street for the checkup? Of course, the result was normal. That hospital’s records were already tampered with by them!”
I shot up from the chair, my eyes falling on the address on the medical record, Turner Street.
My whole body collapsed inside, my heart pounding wildly. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to tell my wife everything that had happened these past days.
But just as I pushed myself up from the chair, that voice came again.
“Dad, don’t go!”