Godfrey
2216 Words
"Thank you for coming in so late at night, Gregory. This is Old Kayla who is in charge of the Minister of Health and Priestess Isabela who would be taking a look at your son, Godfrey."
"So, Godfrey... Do you trust this big sister before you so that you would be able to stand up straight and be able to walk run, slip and jump like any other boys of your age, don't you?"
"Yes... King. I want to be like any kid to run and play and walk without a limp." Godfrey just referred me as King as it would be better than any other terms right, unlike Austin Powerless. Hahaha.
"Alright then, I leave this boy in your good hands then Old Kayla, Isabela. Let me know if you require anything else for his treatment. After they had checked the boy out and found that they needed nothing more than a week for the boy to rest up in the hospital, Priestess Isabela then opened her suggestion across the board.
"Your Majesty, presently I do have four patients in the queue right now and they would be recuperating within the next few days. Godfrey, right? Well, we would get someone to wheel him up or even his father could bring him up to the third floor of the hospital where I would be handling them directly."
Godfrey blinked his eyes as his father looked on at the little girl who was not even 13 that would be treating his son. Gregory was a bit sceptical when the realisation sank in and Old Kayla and us reassured the family.
"Don't you worry, Gregory. Come... Bring your son up to the hospital, it is just a short distance away from here and you would be able to ask those patients on how they were doing by yourself."
I stood up and then rubbed Godfrey's head as Priestess Isabela led the way and Old Kayla was consoling Gregory's wife as she held her old wrinkled hands tenderly.
"Don't you worry, dear child. Our Majesty had never failed anyone before and his words are always set in stone when he made his decision. You will soon know about Priestess Isabela's special abilities in healing broken bones and amputated limbs too."
Old Kayla spoke softly and this surprised Gregory's wife as she asked about the amputated limbs." Yes, dear child. Amputated limbs could be regrown back just like cutting off a branch of a tree and a new sprout grows out from it."
"Priestess Isabela had been treating militia invalids that had been thrown aside like a rag by the King's Army. Not his Army but King Henry VI. Once militiamen got injured to such irreversible damage, they were taken off the list, given a one time pension of a month's salary and then left to fend for themselves."
"There had been lots of cases like this so far and we had managed to garner up more than 600 of these households and so far I think Priestess Isabela was able to regrow those limbs and set those broken bones correctly."
Gregory's wife who was named as Gina was surprised to find that militiamen were treated in this manner and Priestess Isabela was able to regrow amputated limbs. It seemed so untrue but the truth is yet to be uncovered when they had reached the hospital.
"Dad... What is this place? It is so huge...!" Godfrey asked his father but he was unable to find the right answer but I managed to salvage the situation.
This is the school that we had been talking about Godfrey. There's a daycare classroom for toddlers like our twins to attend to. They learned to mingle with the rest of the children, play and communicate with one another in their own baby talk."
"Our twins also learned to be like any other children, regardless of race and creed or even status. Once they had completed their daycare and had grown to be 2 years and older, they would enter kindergarten where our twins would learn how to draw, paint, sing and learn how to recognise alphabets and numbers."
"Our twins would be staying there until they got to be 4 or 5 years old and then they would go into the compulsory primary education system. We got about 9 classrooms per each level and we have lots of teachers teaching here as well."
"Are you interested to go to school and learn new things, Godfrey? There should be another child by the name of Clayton that you would like to befriend with in the future."
Godfrey listened and was piqued with great interest to know of such a system had been installed for little boys and girls alike to attend school.
"Yes, King... I would very much like to go to school and learn many new things and make a lot of new friends too. I wasn't able to leave the house after what had happened to me and I never get to know any friends and play with them, even in the simplest of games."
Godfrey looked far into the distance as he reflected on the misfortune that befalls him the day when he was stepped on by Austin Powers that somehow had broken a few bones in his body and misaligned the spine which resulted in him to have a kind of 'S' shaped back. With that kind of body and posture, he was too ashamed at his condition that he wanted to give up living.
"Don't you worry, Godfrey. Here's the hospital... There are doctors and surgeons as well as nurses to put the sick back to health."
"I think your mummy's friends would be coming here tomorrow after breakfast to check on their bellies and see when they would be giving birth."
"It seemed that they would be the third batch of mothers giving birth here. Hahaha."
We soon entered the hospital and to them, the whole floor looked magnifique since a whole single floor was assigned to be a triage and treatment room and we slowly climbed to the second and the third floor as Priestess Isabela slowly explained the functions of each floor.
"Mummy, how come this girl is called a Priestess? Is she from the Church?" Godfrey asked this question and I cleared my throat when I heard it.
"Priestess Isabela is a special kind of person. She would be able to treat people with no arms and no legs and be able to let the missing limbs to slowly grow back to be in its original state."
"She is not part of the Church, even though she could step inside the Church with no problems but she had special abilities such as what I had mentioned earlier."
"During that time we had experimented on a chicken and we were chopping its legs and wings as Priestess Isabela tried to regrow them back. However, when the chicken loses its head, it ended up on the dining table instead."
Godfrey was surprised and asked the reason why innocently. "It's because if an animal or a human loses its head, then it would be dead already. Luckily your mummy didn't take my sword and chop off Austin Powers head or else..."
Godfrey looked at me and wanted me to finish my sentence... "Or else we have to put him on a dining table and stuff a red apple in his mouth... Hahahaha."
To cuss in front of a child is not good so I draw up a picture of Austin Powers being a swine instead as Gregory and Gina laughed out loud despite the warnings sign that was put up across the walls to keep the volume down. Hahahha.
=*=
"Godfrey, this place would be your temporary bed in the meantime, alright? Your mummy and daddy can keep you company beside you but you want them to have enough sleep right?"
"Besides, your mummy and daddy have some work to do tomorrow at the fields tomorrow with Uncle Ben and Aunty Crystal. Could you please lower Godfrey gently on the bed?"
"I would need to take a look at him more closely."
Priestess Isabela gestured for Gregory to put down Godfrey slowly on the bed as Priestess Isabela pulled the curtains around and with the help of a nurse, Priestess Isabela was able to access the extent of the injuries as she made small talk with the boy.
After she pulled the curtain back, Godfrey had already been changed into a one piece hospital garb but something had changed in Priestess Isabela.
"Y-O-U-R M-A-J-E-S-T-Y... What did that Austin Powers do to this boy until he got such an injury so horrendous that it stunted his growth?" there was fury in Priestess Isabela's eyes and it seemed to burn through with her gaze...!
Gregory answered Priestess Isabela's questions and I explained that the Bastard had been dealt with as Gina, the mother showed her the bloodied gauntlet and said she had hit the face many times over and may have permanently changed how Austin Powers looked right now.
"Such preposterous and vile creature shouldn't be left alive after such beating. He should be skewered from one end and put goes to the other end and be pitted on a bed of hot coals until his flesh blister and starts festering."
"Leave that Bastard for a few days until maggots slowly infested his open wounds as the pieces of meat fall off into the ground and are disembowelled and rejected by mother earth. U-R-R-G-G-H-H...!!!"
Priestess Isabela was literally shaking with rage as the thought of such people who existed and were allowed to temple on others as and when they wished.
She had never seen me or any of the pioneers abuse their authority or powers since and even if addressing us, she would forgo the use of honorific too.
"Don't you worry, Isabela. That man is not worth mentioning. He is now left with his puny servants and they would be Harvesting the crops on their own since the whole townsfolks had vacated the town."
"Keep your cool and don't worry, since justice had already been served. Right now, all you need to do is to spend a lite bit of time for Godfrey here so he would be up and about and I am sure his parents would like to keep him company for a few hours before going back."
"Gregory, I will assign a guard to bring you to your new home when you leave Godfrey here in the safe hands of Isabela, alright?"
"Don't think too much, get used to the community here because there's so much for you to discover all over this town."
"So you decided to be a farmer and not a guard anymore do you? The pay is good at 10 silvers a month compared to 8 for those who contribute to the economy."
Gregory never hesitated for a second and told us that it's just a difference of 2 silvers and money was not what he was looking forward to but for his only son to be able to walk up straight and tall like any other children.
I places my hand on his shoulders and comforted him and reminded him that someone would bring him over to his house and that would be 1½ mile trek out from the first cluster before they reach the second cluster where the thatched homes were situated.
We walked out from the hospital and assigned a guard to ferry Gregory and wife to a designated thatched home as soon as they had left the hospital grounds.
=*=
"My son... You have a good rest now, alright? Mum and Dad are going back to our new home and would be coming back here before we start work tomorrow and be with you after we had completed work."
"Priestess Isabela would be taking care of you these next few days and we would be seeing you daily until you are fully recovered, would that be alright?"
Priestess Isabela who was nearby moved forward and reassured the family that they would be taking care of their son well. Hearing these comforting words that came from a young teenage girl, they hugged and kissed their son before they left the ward.
A guard was waiting for them and then a carriage (open-air wagon with 2 rows of seats along the side) was being called and soon the new family was the last to enter their new homes as they were welcomed by their old neighbours.
After exchanging some information, they entered their new homes and was pleasantly surprised to see how clean and plain the house looked. There was some straw slippers set on the front of the open doorway and saw that their bundle of belongings had arrived before them.
The thatched home was large and clean and it was bigger than their cruck homes in Camp. The moment they set their things aside, they found some pillows and blankets. They soon changed out from their clothes as they lay down on the bare floor, and was overcame by sleep in the next few minutes.
It was as though their heavy burden and worry were simply lifted off the moment they had come to this town.
- Writer
