Honey, I’m talking about you!
At that time, the house was often full of guests, teachers and students came and went, men and women, one group left and another group came.
I always see you with a smile on your face, soft answers, and witty words, bringing unprecedented excitement to this family.
Halfway through the meal, you suddenly suggested drinking some wine. You shouldn't have been allowed to drink it because you have severe diabetes. I know you haven't been this happy for a long time. You probably haven't had a meal in a restaurant since you lost your sight through surgery on both eyes. Everyone was upset and ordered two bottles of beer. "Uncle, cheers!" You drank it all in one gulp and said with a hearty smile, "I forgot that the wine tastes so good."
Maybe it was because of the wine that you were able to sing the Kazakh folk song "Swallow", which even I had forgotten most of, verbatim and with great emotion. It seems like you are back in the past, you are talking eloquently, and you still exude the atmosphere of a gentle scholar. You said that you wrote a poem for our six sisters. I was so moved that I wanted to cry. I thought you opened a window for my childhood and filled my life with sunshine. Little do you know, in your later years when you can't see the sun, we six sisters are lucky enough to be a touch of color in your memories.
That day, it was already past noon when the car drove into the city of Miaoli. There was no bright sun, but strong winds and heavy rain. Finally, we six sisters are all in Taiwan. We want to come and see you no matter what, even though it is a typhoon day.
In the quiet and narrow alley, the third sister drove in in reverse, the fourth sister and I supported you on both sides, the second sister held an umbrella, and the eldest sister opened the door for you. After walking around the streets twice, I couldn't find Sister Alan's restaurant that my aunt mentioned, so I went to a "Hakka cuisine" in an alley.
After sitting down, tea was served and food was ordered. Everyone was chattering away, talking long and short, and they were as excited as when they were children and returned to their grandma's house. Holding hot tea in your hand and staring blankly, you suddenly called out: "Ah Hui, Ah Hui."
I attached it to your left ear wearing a hearing aid: "Fifth sister didn't come today, and I can't sit in the car." Even with a hearing aid, your hearing is still extremely limited. I wonder if you hear it? I saw you lowering your eyelids and turning your head to one side, wanting to listen intently to what we were saying. Your lips are slightly parted, as if you want to join us, but you are unable to do so!
Guard the sun, guard you
After graduating from the Chinese Language and Literature Department of the National Normal University with excellent grades, you were assigned to teach in Taipei City, but you declined and voluntarily returned to your hometown to teach and support your parents. Many years ago, the young, humorous, cheerful, bright, gentle and single Teacher Lin was the favorite of male and female students at the highest university in the mountain city. At noon, you always bring a lunch box to eat with the students in the classroom. You are so attentive that you often ask your grandma to prepare more dishes, and when others are not looking, you secretly distribute them to the students who often only have pickles with rice.
Once when you were grading a composition, you saw a student holding a note: "Teacher Lin, I'm sorry, my writing brush is not straight, so the writing is ugly." When you realize it, you will laugh so hard that it turns out that the words in Hakka are "Fork" is "Chasi". Later, you bought a good brush and put it in your composition book to reply to him. At that time, the house was often full of guests, teachers and students came and went, men and women, one group left and another group came. I always see you with a smile on your face, soft answers, and witty words, bringing unprecedented excitement to this family. For such a respectful and loving teacher, the students secretly gave you a double-entendre nickname, "Dear".
When I was in the third grade of elementary school, ever since you returned to your hometown to teach, my grandma no longer asked me to go to the rice shop to buy rice on credit. I no longer have to worry about lying on the dark tatami bed with my eyes open waiting for my grandpa who went out to borrow money on his bicycle to find out why he hasn't come back so late; I no longer have to be sent home by the teacher to ask for fees every semester because I can't pay my tuition and fees. money students. Home is no longer deserted, and it is no longer just my blind great-grandmother and elderly grandparents who are guarding it. It is the sunshine that fills the room and it is my third uncle who brings me hope. Furthermore, because you urged me to do my homework, I learned what rhyme is, opened up my appreciation of poetry, and introduced me to the vast world of literature.
You are also dear to them among your brothers and sisters. If you are in your early thirties and have not yet started a family, grandma advises you not to set your sights too high. You were silent, your eyes full of sadness. It was only many years later that I learned from Aunt Yuanyuan that when my second uncle went to Japan to study, you used all your savings from working-study in college to help him. After working for a few years, your fourth uncle went to the United States to further his studies and took away everything you had.
▲The author Liu Shuman (first from right in the back row) and her sisters, with grateful hearts, returned to Taiwan after a long journey to visit their dear third uncle and relive the sweetness of their childhood.
Life is neither rich nor rough. You gave me a pair of nail scissors, which was the first gift I received in my life. I am not only happy about the gift, but also happy that I no longer have to use my grandpa’s big scissors to cut my nails and bleed. During the holidays, you took me on a bicycle to the only record store in town to buy a children's record for me. I still remember the songs "Francis' Doll", "The Linden Tree", "The Little Shepherd Boy", and "Words of the West Wind" ”, that’s the lullaby I sang to my three children one after another:
"Last year I came back and you just wore new cotton robes. This year I came to see you and you have become fatter and taller..."
As I sing, I feel like I am back to the time of fishing with you by the stream in the hot summer. At the moment when I need to be quiet while waiting for the fish to take the bait, I feel like I need to pee and feel thirsty. Seeing that you are ignoring you, he will sing a few songs at the top of his voice. The fish will be frightened and disappear. Leaning against the door to see her son come home, grandma is as addicted to fish as a cat. Her wish to try something new tonight has come to nothing.
My dear, listen to what I say to you
The pronunciation of "the shortest" in Hakka is "dear". Just this one time you told me: That year, a country boy was overjoyed to be admitted to the National Normal University. However, the parents could not find the necessary living and accommodation expenses. You go north during the summer vacation and are willing to do any hard work. During the day, he carried cement, pulled iron bars, and pushed rickshaws to deliver goods. At night, he slept with the workers in a "semi-loft" where they could only crawl forward. He came from a poor family. When he was growing up in adolescence, he had to eat three meals a day, was malnourished, and had to carry more than he could bear for a long time... uncle! I know. In terms of stature, we are almost the same height, but since childhood, in my heart, you are as tall as the sky is.
It wasn’t long before I headed north to my parents’ home. Yixi remembers that it was late winter dusk when I left Miaoli Railway Station that day. Watching the familiar and relied-on people drifting away, along with the rumble of the train, my little heart was already shaken to pieces.
After entering junior high school, I took the train back home alone during the summer vacation. The two bougainvillea plants you planted the year you left have already climbed up to the balcony on the second floor. The rows of Christmas reds along the wall are even more vivid and fluttering in the wind. The chicken coop has been transformed into an orchid pavilion, and under your careful care, the flowers are blooming and blooming. No wonder passers-by across the ditch stopped to watch, marveled, and told each other that it was Teacher Lin’s home. After dinner, I listened to you playing the harmonica under the flower shed; I bid farewell to the sunset and looked at the starry sky; I heard your teacher Meng Yao talk about my "Miss Daisy", and I didn't give up until I saw the dawn.
Every time I leave, you always insist on sending me to the station. Once I made an appointment with a friend, and I agreed that you wouldn’t need to send me off. But before I got on the train, I saw you dripping with sweat, waving goodbye to me through the ticket gate. During the summer after I graduated from high school, I hid back in Miaoli. It was called preparing for the college entrance examination. In fact, I knew that only there could I find myself and my confidence. You were newly married at that time, and your aunt and you took great care of me and loved me very much. My aunt works in a bank and has heavy responsibilities, so she often comes home late. I washed the dishes to reduce my aunt's burden. Singing while washing:
"Swallow, don't forget your promise and change your heart. Dear, listen to what I say to you, Swallow..."
Since there is an outpatient clinic, you should leave first. It was the end of dusk when we left. Looking back at the mahogany door, I saw the withered yellow papaya leaves swaying up and down and left and right in the wind, as if they were replacing your figure waving goodbye in the past. Raise your head, don't allow yourself to cry, and comfort yourself that I can see you again next time you come back to Taiwan.
How many times in life are there next times? Will the next time be far away? Lord, please consider me praying every day for my uncle to believe in the Lord and be saved. Please give me another chance to tell my uncle the story of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let him know that this life is nothing more than birth, old age, sickness and death, toil and sorrow, which will become empty in the blink of an eye and fly away. But if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Dear third uncle, I look forward to the future in the Kingdom of Heaven when you play the harmonica and I will join you; you play the drums and I dance. We never have to wave goodbye again.
Author profile
Liu Shuman, born in Taiwan, now lives in Florida. She and her husband have 2 sons and 1 daughter. On weekdays, when I am at home, besides caring for my husband and raising my children, being in a daze is my specialty, and dreaming is my side job.