A Shaolin Easter to Remember
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"Peter, will you stop pacing. You are making me nervous."
"I'm sorry Lo Si I can't help it. Did the Doctor say how long they would be?"
Just then the door opened and Kwai Chang Caine existed. He was still wearing the bandages over his eyes.
"POP?"
Silence followed. Peter's heart sank. It could mean only one thing. Tears began to well up in his eyes for his father. He wished he could run to that secret place as he did when he was a kid and bury his face in his hands and cry until he could cry no more. Despair, loss, and anger filled his heart. Anger at the man now dead for having done this. How were they going to cope?
"Peter?" His father called him.
Peter wiped his eyes and tried to compose himself.
"I'm here, Pop." Peter grabbed his father's arm to escort him home, when suddenly he stopped. "Pop?"
Kwai Chang Caine reached up and removed the bandages from his eyes. The skin on his face was fresh and new showing no signs of the damage that had been done. Caine turned his face toward his son. Eyes that would show pride and love still radiated it even though they were denied the light
"It will be all right, my son. I am not afraid. You must be my eyes for now."
Peter swallowed the lump in his throat, "Yeah. Lo Si, we'll meet you back at my father's place. I think we're going to walk home."
Peter led his father to the lake in the park. They walked in silence, each with in their own thoughts. Finally, Peter could not keep silent any longer. All the anger and the pain came out in one big question.
"Oh, Pop, what are we going to do?"
Kwai Chang could hear the sound of his son's voice and the pain within.
"We will take it one day at a time."
"But what about your work? How will you help people? And what about the apothecary?"
"I do not need my eyes to be an apothecary. I use my nose to sniff the herbs and I taste them. Others can pick them for me. As for helping others, that did not stop Master Po."
Peter fell silent. He wasn't so sure. He knew that with his father blind, he could and would not leave him alone.
"I won't leave you, Pop."
"Peter, you have your life to lead. I will not ask you to give up your life as a cop to take care of me."
"I won't leave you."
Kwai Chang Caine could hear the conviction in Peter's voice. Deep down he was proud of his son and amazed at the love that was there. This tragedy had brought them closer. Yet Caine could not help but wonder what the future may hold. He had always been able to take care of himself. Now he would have to rely on others for aid. Deep down Kwai Chang still hoped that the doctor had been wrong in her estimation when his eyes would recover. She had said that the blindness could be temporary. When the doctor examined his eyes earlier today, Caine could sense the doctor's apprehension, sorrow, then anger at having to report the worst. At first, he was stunned. But something inside him told him not to give up hope and to keep the light burning inside himself. But feeling Peter's pain nearly broke Kwai Chang's heart. He had so much hope. What could he tell his son to try and make it better? He wished he could gather Peter in his arms like when he was a small boy and soothe the fears away.
"Pop, we've been out here walking for hours. It's getting toward sundown. Let me take you home. I'll go over to my place and get a few things."
"You do not have to stay with me."
"I want to stay . . . I need to stay . . ." was all Peter could say.
"Very well, I would be honored to have you."
***
The place was quiet. Peter lit candles to dispel the gloom more in his heart than in the room. His father sat on the floor by his restored meditation altar. Peter did not want to disturb him. Quietly he pulled down a large basin from the shelf and placed it on the workbench. 'If only the herbs in the eyewash that Lo Si had made could have helped my father,' he thought. 'We were just getting started when Nelson took him.' Peter fingered the bowl and thought about tossing it but it would do no one any good, least of all the bowl. Maybe the thing to do was to get some sleep and things would look better in the morning.
"Pop, I'm going to bed. Is there anything you need?"
"I will be all right. You get some rest."
Peter tried to sleep but this mind was filled with dreams. Dreams of the explosion that blinded his father, but this time his father was lost to him, dreams of Nelson laughing at his victory, and dreams of himself, blindly seeking what he did not know.
"NO. No. Pop!" Peter cried out in his sleep. Caught within the dreams he could not wake from.
"Peter. Wake up."
Someone called his name but he could not respond.
"Nooo!" Unbridled tears ran down his face.
"Peter!"
Suddenly he was being shaken and Peter bolted up right in bed. His father held him tight just as he did when he was a boy. Soothing away the fear.
"Shh, you were having a nightmare, my son." Kwai Chang pulled his son away and looked into his son's eyes and smiled gently. Eyes that . . . were blind?
"Pop," a look of astonishment was on Peter's face. "Pop, you can see me?"
Kwai Chang bowed his head, and Peter drew his father into his arms. This time he wept tears of joy.
"How . . .How . ." Peter could not get the question out fast enough.
"The doctor could not be precise on when my eyesight would return. After three weeks and I was still blind, she feared the worst. I also had doubts. But my eyesight returned while meditating. When I heard you cry out, I came as quickly as I could. My son, I am pleased to see you."
Peter laughed at his father's lightheartedness. A great weight lifted from Peter's heart. His father could see. Nelson had not won. The nightmares were over. Peter again drew his father close.
"I love you, Pop." was all he said as if that was enough.
End of Part 12
Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2001.
This story cannot be reprinted or sold in any other form without strict permission from the author. It is being distributed here solely for your enjoyment.
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