expect to hear the apology, – Svetlana thought. – Wow»! – And continued:
– Please forgive me, mom, alright? You know how much I love you. I could not contain myself… Svetlana waited for her mother to stop sobbing.
X
Maxim slipped from the bed, not washing up at all, and found his old constructor with the iron tube and started to make himself a crutch. «Enough lying in bed! It is time to act and not to waste time on the purposeless storing of fat!» – he told himself. With help of the created crutch, Max limped to the horizontal bar, hang on it and felt a strong pain in all body and head. He has risen on a healthy leg, taking a rest, and then practised again and again, till the pain became tolerant. So he tortured himself till lunch and then made a break to get a meal. Chewing food wearily, Maxim understood that he had a very important task, unrealistic at the given moment. He was ffrightened by the awful comprehension that he was not ready to solve it. Ttherefore, he felt as thought he was getting a failing grade: defenceless and weak. Max was miserable and, being submerged in his thoughts, he poured a glass of hot tea on himself.
Griping teeth, Maxim endured pain from the boiling water which burnt his legs, especially the broken one. At that moment bone in the leg started to ache so bad that he could not even see clearly. However, Max tried to relax and take a control over pain to acknowledge how it worked. Maxim realized that when ache spreaded over the extremity it was tolerable, and when he was contracting one muscle the pain was leaving to other muscles. When straining the whole leg, it is necessary to endure pain all over, and that is a lot more painful. «That means, – Max thought, – that I must choose the hardest path. It is harder to relax when you feel the pain, and the result from overcoming the difficulty is always pleasant. How am I going to help Svetlana if I don’t know what to do? To understand what to do, I ought to think about it all the time and do something. Yes, I need to do well at school, to get prepared for examinations, to read books – all of that is necessary. But when and how»?
Returning to his room, Maxim turned on the music quietly and started to learn new topic in geometry, quite a difficult one. Music was bothering him; no matter how many times he had read the chapter he could not remember it. Max was tired and exhausted, but said to himself that he would learn it. He made the interfering music louder and started to read and memorize again. It was very hard to do, since he was very tired; dizziness and weakness in the whole body challenged him to do two things at once. However, he decided: «If I can’t manage this task, then will I be able to do something else»?! He was not paying attention to anything and didn’t leave the table before the topic was learned. Instead of being happy – he managed to solve the hardest math problems independently, Max said: «It is not enough»! When he stood up from the chair, he almost fell down, snatching at the table to keep balance. Overcoming severe headache, Max understood that he would fall on the floor unless he lay down. It was two footsteps to the bed, but he took his crutch and plodded to the couch, taking frequent breaks. He lay there relaxed, with eyes closed, and tried to regain strengths which were mostly gone. Maxim thought: «How can I lie when there are so many things to do? It will take over five years to accomplish everything, but I only have one year»!
Max tried to figure out how much time he would stay home. He was home over a month, but he felt no progress in his condition. He actually felt worse: head was aching and spinning, weakness was driving him crazy. He had to remain still for hours to regain the lost energies at least a little. He was annoyed by staying in bed because he was not sleepy and it was challenging to concentrate on thinking. Growing a little stronger, Max opened his eyes. He experienced a grand surprise when he saw that in the corner of the leaving room, right near his room, stood a decorated New Year tree! That was amazing! He became surprised even more when he looked at the calendar: it was the thirtieth of December! That means, that tomorrow is the New Year! Wow! Max felt a fit of energy, stood up from the couch, limped to the tree and took a sit on the chair near it. He got a feeling that New Year tree is giving him some inner strength. It didn’t smell like a pine tree, but Max knew that it was alive. Alive, but will die soon… His happiness disappeared. On top of that he remembered: everyone would go out tomorrow, but he would still be at home like today. Loneliness disappointed him at first, but them he moved negative thoughts aside and said to himself: «I shall have a New Year next year only anyway, when my dream will come true! Right now I need to forget the New Year, my birthday, and everything else that can slow me down on my way». Do I need to overwhelm myself with all that?
He knew the answer to that question already. Getting rid of this idea, Maxim thought that life had no meaning unless you made another person happy, even by dedicating your whole life to that goal. Max was angry at himself for the moment of weakness: «Is this how you see yourself and your love»!? He had never sworn, and even at that time didn’t let himself to pronounce a single indecent word. He thought again about the idea which upset him and asked himself: «Why am I angry? I have taken the decision, more over; I took the first move already. I am on the way to success. So why was I upset»? Could it be the weakness taking me off the right path?! Or was it a weakness of spirit? Or uncertainty which hasn’t left me yet, trying to block the way?! Everything – away!
Maxim stood up on the gypsum and fell down, hitting his head with the window-sill. His nose started to bleed. He stood up with effort and made it to the bathroom. After catching up breath, he reached the light switch and then lost consciousness. He fell on the floor heavily. He recovered right away and heard the echo from the fall in his ears. Everything was drifting in front of his eyes: walls, floor, and furniture – the whole corridor was storming. Maim could not stand up: broken foot created acute seizures which moved directly to the head. Every single movement caused him loosing vision. Overcoming this terrible pain, he managed to grab a wall with one hand and a dresser with the other in order to remain in the sitting position. It was easy to overcome dizziness, but when his heart was burning, he had to lie down still. Maxim could not take hands off the wall and dresser, that action would mean to fall again. Energies left him again. He flexed his aching stomach, released hands free and lay on the back. It was hot, and cold corridor floor was refreshing. Lying on the floor, Max was making decision where to creep: to the leaving room, bathroom, or his room. Decision arrived itself: first to the bathroom, then to my room. «I need to stand up! – said Max. – Last thing I need is to catch a cold»! Leaving the crutch, he crept to the bathroom. How pathetic can a human being be! He is not much different from a dog at the moment, even weaker and more helpless! After washing up he knew that he had energies for another five minutes, and he need to use the bathroom and brush teeth. He had strength for that, but not to get to the room. He remained sitting in the bathroom, with eyes closed, as if he slept. He could not fall asleep, but was taking a nap, seeing a dark-haired and dark-skinned girl, who smiled at him and wanted to tell something. She was calling Max, but he could not understand what she wanted from him. He moved, chasing the view away, but it was holding him tightly. Then Max tried to relax but almost fell in the tub, having time to close eyes and to grab the sink. After soaking head in cold water, he rose from the floor sharply, made a few jumps along the hall to reach the crutch, and then limped to his room. He collapsed in bed and didn’t wake up till the next evening.
When mom woke Maxim up on the New Year’s Eve, it was half past five: «Wake up, it is time to have dinner, and you haven’t had breakfast yet»! Son was stretching while she was rushing him: «Come on, wake up»!
Max loved his mom’s cooking: there were a lot of tasty dishes, and he never knew what to try first. So he was trying everything in small portions and ended up totally stuffed. His parents were talking to him, interrupting each other, but Max, occupied with food, didn’t hear them. He was not eating for a few days – had no appetite before today. That feeling gave him a hope for soon recovery. Maxim was amazed with himself, feeling that he had missed school. It was even good that his illness matched the time of winter break. He had fifteen more days to recover, take off the gypsum and start walking. That made him glad, so he stopped eating and smiled.
– What is wrong with you Max? I am telling you that we are going out to see friends soon, and you are smiling!
– What
