"Oh, really? Is that what he said?" Schiller said with emotion. Strange, who was opposite him, was already eager to grab the phone, but Schiller said calmly: "
Yes, this is the highest praise a father can give his son..."
After Schiller said this, Strange's eyes instantly turned red. Next, Schiller raised another question: "If that's the case, why didn't Mr. Strange choose to contact him?"
Where is my son?"
"Okay, I understand, thank you." Schiller lowered his head again, then confirmed some things about the condition with the doctor again, then hung up the phone. He put the phone aside and looked up at Ste.
Strange looked even more haggard.
Schiller put his hands on the table, looked at the contents of his notebook, and said: "Your father had obvious symptoms of difficulty breathing about three years ago. This shows that at this time, his lungs
Functionality has begun to degrade.”
"You said it was because he smoked, but this doctor has a different view. Old Strange has been to him for treatment many times, and he has a lot to say about it."
"Your father actually has bronchitis, right?" Schiller looked at Strange and asked.
Strange nodded a little distractedly and said: "Well, when I was a child, he coughed often. At that time, our rooms were a bit close to each other. He coughed in the middle of the night, and I couldn't sleep. One semester, my academic performance dropped.
He drank a lot, and later he moved to a small room on the side of the warehouse to sleep."
"Bronchitis is usually accompanied by a certain degree of lung infection. It should be that after his bronchitis recurred during a certain season change, the lung infection became more serious and was not treated in time, leading to lung function damage."
"Of course, what you said about smoking also has a certain influence. According to the doctor, old Mr. Strange was a long-time smoker. But according to you, did he only start smoking after your mother died?
"
Strange sighed and said: "He also smoked originally, but he smoked very little. He is just an ordinary Philadelphia farmer. Like all the farmers there, he likes to have a cigarette while doing farm work."
"But since my mother passed away, he started to smoke more and more every day. This is why I don't want to go home. I hate the smell of cigarettes. It will stick to my clothes and I can't wash them off.
The smell, I can't bring this smell into the operating room..."
Strange kept using some intensifying words to express his feelings. Schiller briefly reassured him, and then said: "His current lung symptoms are not only due to his bad habits, but also may be caused by local conditions."
People’s perceptions, and medical conditions.”
"I told him a long time ago to let him come to New York. Victor...oh, that's my brother. He runs around in the fields all day long and doesn't study hard. Eugene doesn't care about him and lets him be messy.
Come!"
"I also talked to him about this matter, but after a few words, he said that I was a noble New Yorker and that I should get out of Philadelphia and never come back. He is such a stubborn and bad-tempered person..."
"Has he never been to New York?" Schiller asked.
"This is his first time here. If Victor and I hadn't forced him to get drunk and put him in the car, he still wouldn't be willing to come!" Strange took a deep breath and looked very helpless, and he said:
"He even coughed up blood, but he just didn't want to come to Presbyterian Hospital. I really can't understand what's going on? Doesn't he feel uncomfortable?!"
Taking a deep breath, Strange calmed down for a while, then covered his face and said in a choked voice: "My mother died unexpectedly, and he was greatly stimulated. Not long after,
Donna also passed away, and the two most important women in his life left him one after another..."
"Since then, he has become erratic. When I was studying, I called him, and he never asked me about my studies. We kept chatting, and in the end we would definitely talk about Donna."
Strange lowered his eyes, grinned, showing his teeth on both sides, and then said: "I admit, part of the reason why I don't want to go back is because he blamed me for Donna's death..."
"The two of us went swimming together, and Donna drowned. I..." Strange's Adam's apple visibly trembled up and down, and his choking caused him to swallow back the second half of his sentence, but Schiller knew what he was going to say.
.
"I know, Victor thinks so too." Strange covered his face again and said, "I know they don't want to see me because I killed Donna, and so does Eugene..."
"He would rather endure the pain of coughing up blood than come to me. He is almost dead, rather than see me for the last time!" Strange finally couldn't help it anymore, and his arms were shaking to the point of paralysis.
Supporting his head, he lowered his head and stopped talking.
"Is this really true?" Schiller asked.
"Did your father tell you that he didn't want to come to New York to find you because you killed Donna?"
"Of course he didn't say that." Strange closed his eyes in pain and continued, "But I know that's what he meant."
"Stephen, have you ever thought that these speculations of yours are actually just your imagination, and the facts may be completely different from what you think." Schiller tapped the table with the signature pen in his hand, and Strange
His consciousness was pulled back, and Strange looked at him as if he was grasping a life-saving straw.
"The problem between you and your father is communication. How long has it been since you communicated calmly?" Schiller asked.
Strange turned away his eyes and said: "About a year... No, maybe three years. We had a fight again during that phone call two years ago..."
"In other words, in the past three years, every time you communicated, it ended in a quarrel. You couldn't understand each other's situation rationally, and you knew nothing about each other's careers and feelings?"
Strange didn't want to admit it, but he finally nodded. Schiller tapped forward lightly with his signature pen and said:
"This is the misunderstanding between many parents and their children. In order to establish their authority when their children are young, parents often adopt a forceful approach and always use orders and scolds to urge their children to do things."
"But in fact, parents have given a lot of love behind the scenes, but the children only feel power and fail to gain any sense of security from this love. They only feel threats everywhere."
"At the same time, they take the love they give to their children too much for granted, evaluate it too cheaply, and feel there is no need to express it openly."
"I remember that you mentioned a small detail in your previous words. Your father often coughed in the middle of the night because of bronchitis, which caused you to have trouble sleeping and your grades dropped. Later, he moved to a small room on the side of the warehouse to sleep.
"
"Has he ever told you the reason why he did it? Have you thought carefully about the reason why he did it?"
"Or is it that he takes it for granted that he sacrificed his living conditions in exchange for your peaceful sleep, and you have no idea what he sacrificed for you?"
Strange's expression obviously paused, but he still said: "Maybe, he may not be because of me..."
"Children who grow up in this kind of family environment always like to reject other people's emotional contributions, because no one has ever directly expressed to you that they love you, so when others give you their feelings, you always
Questioning, 'Maybe he's not necessarily targeting me'."
"Some parents always do more and say less, but this is actually not a good thing. They regard their love as too cheap, so that they don't feel the need to express it, and because you don't get it,
Instead of expressing love openly, you constantly doubt yourself and feel insecure."
Strange felt that Schiller was right about something, but he could not organize logical thinking to analyze what Schiller was right about.
"It's just the result that your father doesn't want to see you, but all the reasons you summed up are actually your own conjectures." Schiller pointedly pointed out the key point that makes Strange feel so troubled.
"If you really want to know why your father doesn't want to see you, you can ask him. Or, he has formed a mindset and is unwilling to communicate with you, but you can go to your brother."
"You mean...Victor?" Strange showed a resistant expression, and he said hesitantly: "Ever since Donna died, Victor has been...well, I know, it's still the same.
I haven’t contacted him in three or four years.”
"You have to know that I am the Supreme Mage. I am so busy exploring the stars. I really don't have time to contact my family. I..."
Looking at Schiller's calm eyes, Strange was completely unable to speak the second half of his sentence. Finally, he said angrily: "Okay, I understand, don't make excuses when facing a psychiatrist.
."
"You and your father may have developed this communication pattern, and there is no way to change it easily. But maybe, there is still room for communication between you and your brother. You can talk to him and ask him what is going on.
Something happened."
In the end, Strange left with a heart full of thoughts. Although he didn't say it, he already accepted Schiller's suggestion in his heart.
He did not want to face Eugene, his father, but when he was young, his relationship with Victor was still good, even much better than his relationship with Donna.
However, later on, Victor entered a rebellious period, loitering around the farm every day, doing nothing, having poor grades, and not liking to study. At that time, Strange was at the peak of his studies, and all he could think about was how to enter the farm.
The best hospital in New York gradually stopped talking to him.
After leaving Arkham Sanitarium, Strange called Victor and learned that his wife was accompanying him in the hospital, so the two made an appointment in Strange's old office at Presbyterian Hospital.
After becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, Strange still did not give up his career as a surgeon. He used the Time Stone to go back in time and did many things, but he was unwilling to use the Time Stone to go back to the process of surgery.
Even if he has countless opportunities, if the operation is not done well the first time, he can still do it a second time, but he is unwilling to give himself such a retreat. He will develop a perfectionist personality. In fact, this is because there is no retreat in surgery.
After the two brothers met, they were relatively speechless because they both found that the other had changed too much.
From a rebellious country youth, Victor became very similar to his father, more like a mature farm owner. The wind and sun had made his skin a little rough, but his eyes and expressions were like those of a sophisticated man.
Like a Philadelphia farmer, he is in good spirits.
As for Strange, he no longer had the proud and arrogant attitude before, and looked very embarrassed. His hands were still shaking, and he couldn't stop at all. He couldn't even hold the small paper cup handed over by the nurse, and half a glass of water was spilled on it.
He had no time to look at it.
"Stephen." Victor spoke first, and to Stephen's surprise, his brother's voice became a lot thicker, but he still had the familiar Philadelphia accent.
"How have you been lately?" Strange was still polite, but Victor looked him in the eyes and said, "I know what you want to ask. Eugene doesn't want to see you, and he doesn't even let me come.
you."
"You want to know why he would rather endure it than come to New York? He knows that his eldest son is the best surgeon, but he is unwilling to contact you to find someone to operate on him..." Victor said a series of words, and
Strange looked at him too.
"Stephen, do you know? When you came back for the first time after you went to New York for college, we were all shocked. You became very different." Victor pursed his lips and said, "We don't seem to recognize you anymore.
.”
"You lost your accent, wore white shirts instead of plaid shirts, and a very beautiful formal suit. You said it was given to you by your tutor. You can write in cursive English and understand English.
Those drug names posted on the walls of the town hospital are simply not something farmers like us can do."
"Dad was surprised, but in fact, he was quite happy. Do you remember? He invited his farmer friends to his home as a guest and wanted them to meet you, a top student at New York University School of Medicine."
"But that day, what did you say you were working on...thesis? You left without saying a few words. In fact, we all could see that you were unwilling to talk to us and felt that you had nothing to talk about with us who do menial work."
Strange, who was on the opposite side, had already covered his face, and he said again in a hoarse and choked voice: "No, stop talking, I just... I just..."
He took a deep breath and said: "Okay, it's all my fault, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have dealt with you, I shouldn't have behaved differently from you, I should have been more enthusiastic, it's all my fault..."
But at this time, Victor shook his head and said: "No, Eugene and I both know that it will not be easy for you. It is really difficult for a small-town young man to make a name for himself in New York, especially when his family cannot give you anything."
If any support is provided..."
Strange was stunned.
This chapter has been completed!