Little girl looking for god

Patty's fate

　　Fred is recognized as a good man in the town, as can be seen from his adoption of the orphan Patty. Patty is only ten years old this year. She is an illegitimate daughter who was abandoned by her parents when she was very young. It was the old nun Marianne in the town who adopted her. But Marianne died not long ago, and Patty became an orphan again.

　　That's when Fred adopted her. Fred used to help Marianne a lot and got along well with Patty. Although he has a son, the son is a soldier and cannot stay with Fred for a long time. And Fred's wife has been dead for several years, and now he lives alone. The townspeople thought that Fred adopted Patty just to relieve loneliness, and maybe send Patty away when his son retired.

　　But anyway, Patty liked being with Fred. The orphanage sounds like a scary place, and Patty doesn't like going there.

　　It's just that no one thought that with the arrival of Patty, sin also came.

　　Where is god

　　Fred, who had never been greedy for alcohol, suddenly became addicted to alcohol shortly after arriving from Patty, and was often very drunk.

　　He drank too much again that day and walked home shakily. Seeing this, Patty said, "Uncle Fred, drink less of the bar, it will kill your body." As he said that, Patty stepped forward to help Fred, but he pushed him away roughly.

　　Fred glanced at Patty drunkenly and grunted, "Go... go away, you calamity..."

　　Patty was pushed to the ground, and with tears in her eyes, she looked at Fred aggrieved. What's the matter with Uncle Fred, he wasn't like this before! She wanted to cry out loud, but she held back in the end.

　　Although Patty was only a child over ten years old, she was smart and sensible, and she felt that something must have happened to Uncle Fred, otherwise he would never have done this.

　　When Fred lay drunk on the bed, Patty helped him take off his shoes and put a hot towel on his face. Then he sat quietly by the bed and watched over him.

　　In the middle of the night, Fred woke up and saw Patty who was drowsy beside the bed. He couldn't help but sit up and asked, "Patty, what are you doing here?"

　　Patty woke up suddenly, rubbed her sleepy eyes and said, "Uncle Fred, I'm watching over you. You're drunk, and I'm afraid you'll fall out of bed."

　　Fred touched Patty's head and said, "Go to sleep, Patty, uncle is fine."

　　Patty nodded and suddenly asked, "Uncle Fred, have you seen God?"

　　Fred was stunned and said, "God is in everyone's heart, and everyone has seen it."

　　"Grandma Marian said God lives in heaven and he can see everyone, not everyone can see him," Patty said.

　　Fred asked in confusion, "Why are you asking this?"

　　Patty said she wanted to ask God for something. Fred laughed and teased her: "Then you can go to Father Rhodes, maybe he can help you. He's a priest, he must have seen God."

　　Fred came back from get off work the next day to find Patty frowning and unhappy.

　　He asked, "Patty, what's the matter with you?"

　　Patty said with a sad face: "Father Rhodes only promised to convey my wish, but he refused to take me to see God. But this matter is too important to me, and I want to tell God myself."

　　It turned out to be the case, Fred smiled indifferently, and said casually, "Then find a place close to heaven and talk to God yourself." After that, Fred left Patty and went into the house and poured himself a drink.

　　I don't know how long it took, just as Fred was intoxicated, Sheriff Antel suddenly broke in and shouted, "Fred! I warn you, Patty was adopted voluntarily by you, what happened to her? Accidents, you are responsible!"

　　Fred looked at Antel in surprise and said, "Sheriff, what happened?"

　　"What's the matter?" Antel said angrily, "Patty climbed to the top of the church steeple alone! If someone hadn't discovered it in time..."

　　"What? But she... what is she doing there?" Fred was confused.

　　Antel pulled out Patty, who was hiding behind him, and said you can ask her yourself. Patty looked at Fred timidly and whispered, "I... I want to talk to God because it's close to heaven..."

　　How could this be? Fred almost fainted, he just said something, how could she take it seriously? If the sheriff knew this, he had to eat and walk around? Fred began to feel that Patty had become a trouble, and he even regretted that he shouldn't have adopted her in the first place.

　　But to Fred's surprise, bigger trouble was yet to come.

　　I want to find god

　　The day before Christmas, Patty disappeared. Fred searched for a whole day and couldn't find her. It wasn't until the afternoon that Dad Ava, who was on the east end of town, remembered anything. He told Fred that at noon he seemed to catch a glimpse of Patty out of town and heading east from the window, but he didn't know if she had come home later.

　　To the east of the town is Mount Apar. Has this child entered the mountain? But what is she doing in the mountains? To enter the mountains at this time is to kill herself! Fred was going crazy, how easy it was to find someone in the mountains? He had to call Antel for help.

　　Antel came over quickly with the police, and asked Father Ava carefully, asking him to think carefully about whether Patty had returned after leaving town. Father Ava said that he only saw Patty leave town, but he really didn't know whether he came back or not.

　　Antel immediately prepared the tools to enter the mountain and began a large-scale search. The weather in December was quite cold, and they had to hurry up and find Patty as soon as possible.

　　As night fell, the search also ran into trouble. People could only hold torches and flashlights, carefully searching every boulder and every tree. At dawn, Patty was finally found under a tree on the mountainside, and she had fainted from the cold.

　　Not to mention how annoyed Fred was, Patty had disappointed him so much that he had caused him so much trouble. It seemed that adopting Patty was a mistake in the first place. Fred completely regretted it.

　　When Patty wakes up at the town hospital, Fred decides to dissolve her adoption relationship and quickly contacts an orphanage for Patty.

　　Patty smiled happily when she saw Fred beside her and said, "Uncle Fred, I was about to see God, but then I was so sleepy that I fell asleep..."

　　Fred shook his head noncommittally, what happened to this kid, he talked about seeing God all day, did he suffer from some hysteria? He asked Patty, "Did you go to Mount Apal just to see God?"

　　Patty blinked her big eyes and said, "Hmm! Because Mount Arpal is the closest place to heaven, you can see God when you climb to the top of the mountain."

　　God, what is she doing? Fred was obviously angry: "Don't you know that climbing a mountain is very dangerous at this time!"

　　"But," Patty said, "I really want to see God because I..."

　　"Okay, Patty," Fred finally interrupted Patty, "I don't care what you want to do, there is one thing I have to tell you, you have to leave me..."

　　Patty was obviously taken aback. Before she could speak, Fred continued: "I contacted an orphanage for you... The environment there is not bad, and they will send a car to pick you up in a while."

　　"But," Patty said with tears in her eyes, "Uncle Fred, you promised me to live with you."

　　"Yes," Fred said, spreading his hands, looking helpless, "but I can't take care of you right now."

　　"But..." Patty had something else to say, but the sound of car horns came from outside, and the people from the orphanage came to pick her up. After Fred and the orphanage completed the handover procedures, he said to Patty: "Okay, you go with them, I will visit you at the orphanage when I have time."

　　"Uncle Fred..." Patty almost burst into tears, but Fred pretended not to hear and left without looking back.

　　Angel in the world

　　When he got home, Fred fell headlong on the bed, unable to lift his spirits - his heart had died since receiving his son's death notice. In order not to let the townspeople mention his son, let alone get useless sympathy, he hid the news of his son's death. By then he had adopted Patty, and the pain of losing his son had nowhere to vent, so he could only numb himself with alcohol.

　　Since then, Fred has changed, from a generally recognized good person to a hated alcoholic. He even took his grievances out on Patty, believing that she was a disaster and that it was her arrival that made his son leave him. Patty's recent string of troubles has made him even more determined to let her go. More importantly, he didn't want to be sent to jail because of Patty, who often abused Patty after drinking, even though it wasn't his intention.

　　Fred got up and went to Patty's room to pack her things, intending to send them to the orphanage in two days. Under Patty's pillow, Fred found a notebook. Fred flipped through it casually, and there were some words written intermittently -

　　God, I've prayed a hundred times, why won't you help Uncle Fred? Uncle Fred is not an alcoholic, he is a good man...

　　God, although Uncle Fred pushed me down and scolded me today, I know he didn't mean it, he must have encountered something sad. God, please help Uncle Fred...

　　God, I must see you, I must tell you how good Uncle Fred is, I beg you to help Uncle Fred, please return the old Uncle Fred to me...

　　Fred looked at it, and his vision blurred. God, everything Patty did was for him, Patty loved him so much, but what did he do to Patty? Fred couldn't help slapping himself on the head and roared angrily: "My God, look what I've done? God gave me an angel, and I actually cast her away as a devil..."

　　Fred packed up quickly and brought Patty's favorite Barbie doll. He is going to the orphanage now, he is eager to see Patty, he wants to tell Patty that the old Uncle Fred is back, and he asked him to pick Patty up...