I nodded.I nodded. The doctor smiled. "I'm glad. It's going to be very difficult for the boy as he begins to understand what happened. He needs all the support he can get." "Does he know yet?" I asked. "More or less. He knows his testicles have been badly damaged but I don't think he fully understands what it means yet. He knows that his testes are a very important part of him but that's about all." I followed the doctor back into the corridor and we walked towards the surgery. The boy was no longer inside and the doctor went into the adjoining room. Rafael was half-sitting up in the bed with his back against a pillow. The boy leaned over to one side. His eyes were closed. A plastic I-V tube was taped to his right arm. For the first time I really saw the terrible bruise across the right side of his face. The eye was blackened. The little boy looked so helpless that I wanted to hold him tightly. Slowly his eyes opened and he blinked as he realized that we were standing next to him. |