After they were finished, Eiske paid for the meal and they left. As they climbed into the hovercraft, Eiske’s communicator buzzed. He spoke for a moment with the caller, then started the engine. On the way out of the village, Eiske explained that they were going to a nearby farm. “A man’s been hurt by a bull,” he said.
Once there, Eiske grabbed his medical kit and raced toward a girl who gestured wildly at him. Syp followed them to where a young man lay on the ground. There was a commotion at the far end of the field. One man was penned up against the barn by a Terran bull. It snorted and pawed the ground. A second man was waving his coat, trying to distract the animal. The animal was big and its horns were long and sharp. Syp could see that one tip was red.
Without regard for its safety, Syp jumped over the fence and ran back and forth at an angle to the bull, pulling off its jacket as it ran. Furious, the bull charged. Syp propelled itself into the air just before the animal reached it. The bull raced past and slowed, looking for its target. Syp stood, waving its coat. Syp recognized a girl from its class at school who stood by a gate. “They’re trying to get him in here!” she screamed. Teasing the bull with the coat, Syp jumped from side to side, high into the air. The bull followed Syp into a heavily fortified pen. The girl slammed the gate shut, and Syp vaulted out of the enclosure. The two men ran to ensure the gate was fastened tightly and ran backwards. There was a loud clang as the bull hit the gate with great force. The gate was held firmly in place.
“Thank you! Thank you!” Suske Westra hugged Syp in relief. “Sibe,” she sobbed as she ran to where Eiske was kneeling. “Sibe, are you alright?”
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” Eiske replied. “I’ve stopped the bleeding. I need to take him to my place to work on the inside of his shoulder. There’s a collapsible stretcher in the back of the hovercraft.” She raced to get it. Eiske and Sibe’s father, Gylbert, lifted him onto the stretcher. They carried the stretcher to Eiske’s hovercraft, which had been designed to transport injured patients. Syp and Eiske sped to the treatment room at Eiske’s house, with Gylbert and Suske close behind them. The two men carried Sibe inside and placed him on a treatment table. Gylbert stood weeping, and Eiske looked at Syp. “Take them out of here. Make some tea.” Eiske hurried to place a sterile containment field around Sibe. While the surgical area was automatically disinfected, Eiske stepped into a decontamination chamber.
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Sometime later, Eiske came into the kitchen, still in his scrubs. “Sibe came through the surgery okay. The bull’s horn missed the bone and went all the way through Sibe’s back. I stopped the bleeding and stitched the veins together, then repaired the torn muscles. He lost a lot of blood. I’ve given him something that will increase the rate of blood regeneration.”
“Can I see him?” Gylbert asked. He was pulling on his mustache so hard that he pulled some of the hairs out.
“You can see him, but he won’t wake up for a few hours.”
“Tell us Doctor, will Sibe be able to continue with heavy farm work?” Suske asked worriedly.
“He’ll make a complete recovery, but it’ll take a few weeks. I’ll keep him here a day or two and make sure things are on the right track.”
“What were you thinking?” Gylbert raised his voice as he looked at Syp.
“I was thinking that you would be next and that Suske needed her father.”
“You shouldn’t have come into that field. How did you get in? There’s an electric fence.”
“I jumped over it.”
“You jumped over it?” he asked doubtfully.
“He did, Dad. It was amazing. Terrifying, but amazing.” She looked at Syp. “What’s your name? Do I know you?” There was a long pause. “What’s your name?” Suske asked again.
Syp’s hair turned dark brown, and her eyes became a greenish-blue. The whites turned the light blue that they had been when she was younger. “Syp? Is it you?” Suske began to cry. “You saved my dad and my uncle. Wherever in the world did you learn to jump like that?” She hugged Syp. “It was so brave of you. I can’t believe you did that!”
“Never mind that," Syp tried to divert her attention. "We should be celebrating because your brother will live.”
As Syp led Suske into the medical rooms to see Sibe, the adults began to talk. “Whose child is this, Eiske?” Gylbert asked. “I know that you and Siedeske never had any children.”
Eiske tried to pour Gylbert more tea and found the pot was empty. He wasn’t sure what to say. He got up and put more water in the teakettle. “Syp is an independent adolescent. It belongs with no one. It is living with me for the time being.”
Suske and Syp returned to the eating room. “Sibe is sleeping quietly, Dad. We’ll check on him in a bit.”
“Who is this child named Syp, Suske? How do you know him? Who are his parents?”
“I don’t know Syp’s parents, Dad. She has a bunch of brothers. Four of them are in the five-year-old classes.”
“Are you talking about the Bron quintuplets, Suske?”
“Yes.”
“Kryn, he is the one who you complain about. He’s mean to the smaller children in the classes? This is one of the five?”
“Yes, Dad. He is especially mean to his sister. This is her. I mean she.”
Eiske’s eyes moved from Gilbert to Syp and back again. “Eiske, you said that Syp was an independent adolescent. She is a five-year-old. How can this be?” Eiske didn’t say anything.