"The dog died, did you know I was coming back today?" The father lowered his head and asked with a smile.
Xiaobai rushed up, holding his father's feet firmly with his two front legs, while his hind legs kept jumping left and right, shouting loudly, as if venting his dissatisfaction, blaming his father for leaving him for so long. in spite of. My father couldn't move forward, so he scolded him: "Dog, if you don't go away, I'll crush you to death!" Of course, you can tell that the scolding is full of affection.
With this concern, his father occasionally traveled far away, and the one he worried about the most was Xiaobai. He was deeply afraid that Xiaobai would be hungry and cold, so he gave numerous instructions before leaving. That year, my parents took a plane to Sichuan for the first time in their lives, and their second brother and his family accompanied them on a sightseeing trip to Mount Emei. When he called home from thousands of miles away, my father would ask, "Who is that dog?" We laughed at him all the time, taking Xiaobai more seriously than us.
My father, who has always been in good health and has not been in the hospital for decades, unfortunately suffered from throat cancer in his later years. In the summer of 2015, he went to Changsha for hospitalization. That was the longest separation between Xiaobai and his father. There was nothing strange about Xiaobai in the first few days. Maybe he thought that his father would come back in a few days just like he had seen countless separations before. A few days later, Xiaobai became obviously restless. He often stood at the gate and looked in, as if to find out whether his father was hiding in the house and not coming out. He watched in silence for a while, then sat down on the front steps in disappointment and waited. After not being able to see his father for a long time, Xiaobai's personality became silent and he lost interest in meeting other people in the family. Gradually, my body became noticeably thinner.
When his father came back from Changsha, Xiaobai was even happier than us. One moment he held his feet to prevent him from moving, and the next moment he played in front of him, like a child who was so excited when he saw his parents who had returned from afar. At a loss. His father, who had just recovered from a serious illness, happily asked: "Xiao Bai, do you still recognize me?"
Soon, his father recovered and Xiao Bai also recovered as before.
Two years later, my father relapsed and was hospitalized again. After a long absence this time, Xiaobai seemed to realize that something was unusual. He couldn't stay in the yard. Xiaobai, who never went out, would run out whenever he had the chance. He would only return home after a day or two, and even when he got home, he looked restless. Then one day, Xiaobai ran away and didn't come back for several days. We thought he was missing. His father is seriously ill, and the whole family is in a state of anxiety and confusion, with no concern for Xiaobai's life or death.
Returning from Changsha again, my father was seriously ill. Miraculously, at midnight on the day his father returned from Changsha, Xiaobai, who had disappeared for half a month, suddenly appeared at the door of the yard, his head shaking gently against the fence. When we let it in in surprise, it walked directly to the front steps, stood outside the door and looked in; after looking at it for a long time, it returned to its nest in the basement.
Xiaobai was so thin that he was listless all day and ate very little. My brother thought he was sick and gave him some medicine, but it didn't work.
In order to prevent humans and animals from contracting infectious diseases, Xiaobai has been trained since he was a child. His range of activities is limited to the basement and courtyard, and he is not allowed to enter the main house where we live. The obedient Xiaobai has never crossed this line. Therefore, while his father was lying on the bed in the inner room, Xiaobai could not see him standing at the gate. But it must be able to sense it, otherwise how could it disappear for so long and then suddenly return home? After returning home, it would always stay at the door of the room and look in anxiously?
My father’s illness worsened rapidly, and he finally passed away from us.
On the day his father died, the sick Xiaobai suddenly disappeared again. And, once it left, it never came back.
I feel ashamed to say that my parents followed me to the city and lived together for more than 20 years. I was so busy that I didn’t spend much time with them. His father and mother had different tempers and could not always talk to each other. He left his hometown and could not integrate into the new community like his mother. In fact, he was very lonely.
To a certain extent, it was the docile Xiaobai who accompanied his father in his later years.
His father has been laid to rest, where is Xiaobai? I hope it follows its father and goes to the distant heaven together.
Father is gone, and so is Xiaobai. At this moment, standing in the cold, silent courtyard with fallen leaves all over the ground, I felt inexplicably sad. As a son, I can't keep my father; as a master, I can't keep Xiaobai. The passage of time makes people understand that many precious things will eventually be lost. If what is lost is irretrievable, all we can do is cherish what we have now.