Cultivate a black technology god

Chapter 218 Ariel's past (20)

Ariel still remembered visiting here before.

Her father once said that he would build a villa here, and when she was older, she could have a pony of her own.

Then, suddenly, they came here without building any houses at all.

Mom and Dad don't like it here, but she does.

It's much better here than in that big house.

It was fun walking down the hill with her father and Top.

He stopped when he reached the corn pen and barn on the hillside.

The barn has dividers and they have a cow and some horses.

Ariel sometimes came here with her father to harness the horses.

She was too small to lift the harness, but standing on the milking stool she could help her father.

How good it is to come back to this big tree.

When it was not snowing, they came to saw trees almost every day.

She wanted to saw off the whole tree, but her father said it was too big for just two people to be safe.

They sawed first, then took the saw out and one of her father's hired men did the chopping.

Then they come back and saw again.

There are so many trees.There are oaks and elms.gorgeous.

She stood now with her father and Top in the plowed field covered with snow.

The oak tree was waiting for them.

"Daddy," she said, putting her hand on the tree, "he remembers us."

"You can imagine." Her father smiled and handed her the end of the cross-cut saw and took the other end himself.

The two pulled the big saw.The wood is sawn little by little.

"It's so peaceful here, Ariel," her father said.

She knew he was trying to forget everything that had saddened him, her mother and others.

The sun is dazzlingly bright.

She could see the sunlit houses on the hill.

The father and daughter continued to pull the big saw.They will have lots of wood.

Suddenly, something happened.

She didn't know what it was, but could feel it.Her father asked her nervously:

"Did you hear that maniacal laugh?"

"There's no one else here," she replied.

"But did you hear that?" he asked again.

"I heard it, but I don't know who it is," Ariel stared at Yukino.

Here comes the laughter again.The voice was high-pitched, and it was still picking up.

Ariel shivered.She knew what the laughter was about, but dared not admit that she did.

She had heard it many times at Willow Corners.

It happened when she was made to stand facing the wall.

The broomstick whipped her down the back.The woman's foot kicked her in a shoe.

The rag stuffed down his throat.Strapped to the legs of a piano, there is also a woman strumming the piano.

There were all sorts of things going into her, some with sharp edges, and it hurt her so much.

And cold water, tell her to hold the cold water in her body.

Each time it was worse than before, and the laughter was accompanied by physical pain.

She was put in a suitcase on the attic, and she heard the laughter.

She had heard that laugh too when she was buried and nearly suffocated in the wheat pen.

The laughter dies and does not appear again.

But the harsh laughter brought by the March wind blew away all the peace, peace and joy of the afternoon.

Ariel looked up.Her mother was standing on the hill, in front of the house, near the little sleigh.

what happened?Not so long ago, she was like a stone statue, motionless.

At first, she didn't move.

Later, Ariel saw her sitting in the little sleigh.

Bend your knees high and place your feet on the joystick.

She pushed back in the snow with both hands.

The little sled rushed down the hill, faster and faster, turned to the left, and flew straight towards the snow-covered ridge.

Ariel was so frightened that she couldn't move.

Then, he yelled out loudly:

"She's going to hit the ditch. She's going to hit the ditch."

The father with his back to Xiaoshan immediately turned to the direction Ariel was staring at.

He ran towards his wife, shouting:
"Come on, Heidi, stop, stop!"

Ariel didn't move.

The laughter stopped her heartbeat.

The whole body freezes together.

She really wanted to run, not toward the hill, but away from it.

But she can't go anywhere.

Can't even move.

She knew that following this familiar laughter, there would be terrible danger.Could it be that Willow Corners' mother is back?

Her father was far away now, but Ariel could still hear him shouting:

"Heidi, Heidi, here I come."

Ariel still stood where she was, and could hear her own breathing.

Her mother was getting close to her again, threatening herself again.

Her mother was like the dragon she had heard about in church, a fire-breathing dragon.

Ariel should run away from the fire dragon.But she can't.

Several voices said:

"Run away, save yourself."

"You can't save your own life. You're bad, bad, bad. Your mother is punishing you for that."

The speeding sleigh drew nearer.

Her mother's black cloak was white at the hem as it brushed against the snow.

black and white.

Top barked and walked in circles, not knowing what to do.

Another scream, more frequent laughter, closer.Then silence fell.

Her mother hit the ditch.

The sled tipped up and threw her out.

Her mother was flying in the air like a big black bird without wings.

Her shadow reflected on the uneven snowy field flew along a jagged trajectory.

Her mother doesn't fly anymore.

She lay on the plowed field.

Her father looked down at her, feeling for her pulse.

"Daddy!" Ariel screamed.

Ariel wanted to go to them, but couldn't move.

Looking at her parents, she clutched the saw tightly, as if it would comfort her and relieve her fears.

Only the tops of the trees rustled slightly in the wind.Otherwise, the fields were as still as her mother had been before they left the house.

The sun was setting.Ariel let the saw slip from her hand.

She had clung to it so tightly that perhaps it was the link to the happy hour--the months from Christmas till now, during which her mother was silent, and Willow Conas's mother had been Completely non-existent.

Ariel stood near the stove.Her father knelt on one knee and applied hot compresses to her mother's swollen and purple leg.

Sitting in the chair, her mother said, "I'm sure it's broken. You put some tincture of arnica flower on your compress."

"You shouldn't have put one foot hard on that lever, mother. Otherwise it wouldn't have swerved into the plowed field," Ariel said softly.

Then, she turned to her father: "How did you get her into the house by yourself?"

Her father looked up at the child's face, and said dryly:
"Well, didn't you help me haul her up the hill with the sledge?"

Yeah?All Ariel remembered was being in the field, dropping the saw, and standing by the fire.

Now her father was asking, "How do you feel, Heidi?"

"I'm still alive," her mother said.

"Heidi, don't lose your temper."

"I can do whatever I want," her mother laughed, another laugh.

"Lie down, Heidi," said her father.

"Wait a little longer, Willard," replied her mother, "get some water."

Her father took the pail and fetched water from the spring.Ariel puts tincture of arnica flower on her mother's leg.

Her left leg has been colorful and broken in many places.

"Does it hurt, Mother?" Ariel asked.

"Think about it in your own head. What do you think?"

"Oh."

Her father is away.Will her mother hurt her?
Fortunately, her father came back with a bucket in no time.

He washed her mother's legs and made hot compresses.Then he made dinner while Ariel set the table.

"You are mistaken," said her mother.

"The forks are not in the right place." Willow Corners' mother returned.

Her father filled a plate of food and passed it to her mother.

Her mother laughed and said, "I'll come to the table and help."

Her mother sat down with them at the table and helped herself to the food.

This is the first time in months.

After dinner, Ariel helps her father wash the dishes.

Then they applied hot compresses and tincture of arnica flower to her mother's legs.Hours passed.

"It's getting late, time for bed, Ariel," said her mother.

It was the first time in a long time that her mother had said that.Ariel didn't obey.

"I put you to bed," her mother said, "go now."

"What do you want from her, Heidi?" asked her father.

"She was a child. She was a great help in getting you back."

Ariel said nothing.She has nothing to say when people say she has done something she knows nothing about.

She went to the children's bed.This is what they ship from Willow Corners.

Her crib, dolls, doll's bed, doll's table, her own little chair, they brought her stuff.

She put on her nightgown and nightcap.Her mother doesn't laugh anymore now, but the lingering sound of her mother laughing on top of the mountain lingers.

She could still see the black cloak against the white snow.

Then her father looked down at her mother, how could he be so unlucky?

As her mother used to say, overnight, lost the house of Willow Corners, and went from the richest man in town to the poorest pauper.

Why did the devil hit him?Could this be the beginning of the end of the world her father and grandfather had been talking about?

When Dr. Wilbur learned that Heidi Dorset suffered from catatonia in "Wandering" and later suffered a mental disorder in Willow Corners, he became even more convinced that Ariel could not be treated without knowing Heidi better. treat.

Heidi has created an intolerable reality, and Ariel has to protect herself in order to survive.

This is becoming clearer and clearer, although it is a cliché in psychiatry to say that the patient is the victim of his mother, and although the doctor tries not to think of Heidi Dorset as the main cause of Ariel's multiple personality, If you don't follow this line of thinking, it will become more and more difficult.

As doctors came to understand the original psychological trauma that transformed Ariel into a multiple personality, it seemed clear that the trauma was related to her mother.

Psychoanalysis turned to the mother who suddenly recovered from total immobility.

In the alley behind the white house with black shutters, Ariel walked toward the Willow Corners pharmacy step by step with her heels on the ground.This was the first time she had gone to the pharmacy since returning home from the farm.

The familiar fly-infested screen door barred her way.

She stood on tiptoe and grabbed the tall iron handle and opened the door.

As soon as she walked past the old wooden door frame, the characteristic caustic smell hit her.

Ariel didn't want to inhale this hateful smell, so she held her breath.

She wanted to go through this back room quickly.

The many high tables and wall shelves in the back room were filled with bottles, glass corks, bowls, herbs, colorful liquids and white powders.

These medicines were all prepared by the tall and slightly hunchback doctor Taylor in a white coat that Ariel had known since she was a child.

But she couldn't go into the front room, where there were medicines on the shelves and big glass cases with cheap sweets and dolls and combs and bows.

Ariel looks for the wooden ladder between the front room and the back room.

Up the stairs was her childhood fascination, called Dr. Taylor's Balcony.No one is allowed in except a few people.This is the doctor's seclusion restricted area.

Ariel followed the handrail of the stairs and looked up hopefully, expecting the white-haired Dr. Taylor to show up.

She didn't dare to make a sound, but hoped breathlessly that the pharmacist would find her.

She finally saw the pharmacist's kind, wrinkled face.He smiled and greeted:
"Come on, Ariel, it's okay."

Ariel briskly ran to the top of the building, stopped suddenly, and opened her eyes wide with joy and excitement.

On the wall and on the table are all violins handmade by Dr. Taylor.

Here is special music reached through a special door—not music with pain (as at home), but music with friendship and the tender words of the pharmacist.

Dr. Taylor smiled and played some violin music.

Ariel felt like in a dream.

"When you grow up, I will make you a violin and you will play it," the doctor promised her.

Ariel loves music, but also art.

Here she can see many pictures.

Black trees, white trees, galloping horses, all kinds of chickens.Chicks vary in color.

Some legs are blue.

Some chicks have red legs and green tails.

She drew these chicks.Her mother reminded her:
The chicks are either white, black, or brown.

But Ariel continued to draw such chicks, arguing that they expressed feelings her mother denied.

Just now Dr. Taylor said: "You also come to play."

At this moment, there was a scream from under the stairs.It was her mother's call.

Her mother usually wouldn't let Ariel leave her side, but now she came after her.

Ariel quickly left Dr. Taylor and went downstairs to her mother.

As they approached the medicine counter, a clerk said:

"I'm right, Mrs. Dorset. She's at Dr. Taylor's, and you'll find her if you look for her."

While the clerk was packing a bottle of medicine for Heidi, Ariel put one elbow on the counter and rested her chin on the other.

Accidentally, her elbow touched a bottle of medicine on the counter.

The medicine bottle fell to the ground, and the sound of shattering glass made Ariel's head throbbing.

"You broke it." This was her mother's reprimand.

Then there was a fit of wild laughter from her mother.

Ariel panicked, and panic caused a dizzying feeling.

The house spins.

"You broke it," her mother said, grabbing the iron handle and opening the screen door all the way.

The rusty hinges creaked.

Her mother and she stepped across the threshold and into the alley.

Just now I walked through this alley full of expectations, but now I am walking like a prisoner.

Heidi turned suddenly from the alley to the street.

Ariel didn't know where they were going this time.

Ariel was reluctant to take many walks with her mother.

Heidi walked briskly toward a line of delivery trucks.They were driven by farmers when they came into town, and lined up along Main Street for four or five blocks.

Ariel's mother walked to the unguarded delivery truck, took out the peas and corn from the truck, and wrapped them in her apron.

Others did it too, but Ariel felt awkward because her father called it stealing.

"You can get some too."

Her mother ordered, but Ariel refused.

Her mother had asked her to get tomatoes, apples, asparagus or lilacs from Tom's garden, and she had refused.

Her mother said there was no harm in stealing some things because there was more in Lai Yuan than the owner needed.

But Ariel felt it was wrong to do so.

Sometimes her mother would say to farmers, shopkeepers or neighbors:
"I didn't get a chance to ask you if I could have some.

However, you have a lot of things, you certainly don't care. "

Even so, Ariel still felt that it was not good to do so.

What she did after leaving the delivery truck was even worse. Ariel followed her mother to the Bishops' vegetable garden.

Her father had warned her mother not to touch the neighbor's property.

"Let's have some," Heidi said as she led Ariel towards Bishop's rhubarb.Heidi stooped to pick the stalk, and Ariel flinched.

"You'll be the first to eat the rhubarb pie." Heidi taunted her as she picked up the strongest petioles.

Arielle had never had any rhubarb pie, though.

The mother embarrassed her not only in the street, but even in church.in church.

Heidi has a loud voice.

Willard would sometimes tell her surreptitiously, "Don't say that."

Heidi shouted to everyone, "He told me not to say that."

"It's unbelievable what Mrs Dorset has done,"

Vicki said in her mental analysis, "Who would have thought that a woman with her background would make a fool of herself in public in a church and become an abettor? She is an abettor who wants us to cooperate with her to steal things. None of us have ever done this. This matter. None!"

Heidi not only made her daughter feel awkward, but also made her feel ashamed.

It was the raw emotion a daughter feels when she sees her mother peeping through other people's windows with a nasty attitude, and hears her mother gossip about the sexual transgressions of the lower classes.

"Heidi Dorset is a queer fellow," said the townspeople of Willow Corners.

But.If stealing a neighbor's rhubarb, talking loudly at a church service, or involuntarily having a solo Heidi Dorset in a restaurant with no music or guests dancing is just "weird," then what she's addicted to Other behaviors cannot but be said to be "crazy".

Heidi's deviant behavior at night is an example.

Sometimes, in the twilight of the night, or after dinner, she would roughly order Ariel: "Let's go for a walk."

Ariel, who was three to five years old, knew what this meant and was terrified, but she followed her mother out of the house without saying a word.

A walk, which begins as a casual stroll, always turns into a diabolical ritual in the end.

With her head held high and her back proudly erect, Heidi Anderson Dorset had the air of being the daughter of Mayor Eldwiry and wife of the rich Willow Corners.

She came from the sidewalk, from the lawn or from the backyard, into the bushes.

Ariel winced in disgust.

And her mother pulled down her bloomers and, with wicked glee, squatted to defecate at a chosen spot.

(End of this chapter)