[rajnish manga]

He smiles up at me, as if I was bringing him the mostnourishing kind of soup—ah, now both horses are whinnying, the noise is probably supposed to come fromhigher regions in order to illuminate my examination—and now I find out that, yes indeed, the young man isill. On his right side, in the region of the hip, a wound the size of the palm of one's hand has opened up. Rosecoloured, in many different shadings, dark in the depths, brighter on the edges, delicately grained, withuneven patches of blood, open to the light like a mine. That's what it looks like from a distance. Close up acomplication is apparent. Who can look at that without whistling softly? Worms, as thick and long as my little finger, themselves rose coloured and also spattered with blood, are wriggling their white bodies with many limbs from their stronghold in the inner of the wound towards the light.

Poor young man, there's no helping you. I have found out your great wound. You are dying from this flower on your side. The family is happy; they see me doing something. The sister says that to the mother, the mother tells the father, the father tells a few guests who are coming in on tip toe through the moonlight of the open door, balancing themselves with outstretched arms. “Will you save me?” whispers the young man, sobbing, quite blinded by the life inside his wound. That's how people are in my region. Always demanding the impossible from the doctor. They have lost the old faith. The priest sits at home and tears his religious robes to pieces, one after the other. But the doctor is supposed to achieve everything with his delicate surgeon's hand. Well, it's what they like to think. I have not offered myself. If they use me for sacred purposes, I let that happen to me as well. What more do I want, an old country doctor, robbed of my servant girl! And they come, the families and the village elders, and take my clothes off. A choir of school children with the teacher at the head stands in front of the house and sings an extremely simple melody with the words:
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