Old Friends & River

It’s summer. I have just graduated from university. All the students take this last summer holiday to go back to their respective hometown before embarking on their first jobs all over the country.

Ding is an old friend of mine in high school. She will be working in Beijing and I will be working in Zhongshan. We join together to visit one of our old girlfriend, Liu.

Liu lives in an apartment. Her place looks a little dark. I don’t see a man in the house which suggests she is on her own. She has a son who looks 7 or 8 years old. During the short stay while we are there, she has to constantly carry her son in her arms. I am surprised that a small and delicate woman like her can carry such a big boy in her arms as if she is carrying a baby. Apparently she must have been doing this for years. It appears that her son suffers from down syndrome because he looks far from an ordinary boy of that age.

There is no sparkle in Liu’s eyes. In fact, there is not a tinge of zest I can find in her. Yet she used to be the best-looking girl at high school and had a lot of boy admirers! I would have thought that she would be leading a better life than a rough deal like this. Perhaps it’s fate, I thought.

........


I am walking along a river in my hometown alone. In my childhood, I have walked along this river countless times.

I keep walking. I have never covered the full river length before. However after a certain point of the river, things start to look different, very different.

All the stones, boulders and rocks become animated. There seems to be a theme about these boulders and rocks, as they all become faces - faces from the ancient Chinese legendary tales ‘The Eight Fairies’. The heads are much larger than the real size. These animated heads all have friendly, funny and humorous looks.

I am amazed. I hadn’t known that if you walk the extra miles you will encounter nice surprises like this. I begin to wonder how come I have never walked this extra distance before to realise that there are amazing things like these.

There are quite a few food kiosks. In one food kiosk there is an old fairy-like man. He has long white hair and beard. He wears robes and he has a very gentle and affectionate face. When I walk past, he smiles at me and asks what food he can make for me.

‘Anything you like!’ I reply. He quickly does some stir fries in a big wok. After one lot he does another, and another…He must have done 5 or 6 lots of different stir-fries for me. I notice that all dishes have peanuts in them.

I am full of thanks for his kind offer. I look around, it’s dark. There are flickering lights from different houses in the far distance. It’s so peaceful. It’s the life of an ancient idyllic village.

I am now on my way back. Instead of taking the same path, I take a different one this time. I walk on the lotus leaves. The lotus leaves form a perfect labyrinth in the middle of the river. I see a few acquaintances on this beautiful labyrinth including my old professor in the University. He is doing some gentle stretches as a form of exercise.