An Empty Room by Mu Xin

Author:Mu Xin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
Published: 2012-09-21T04:00:00+00:00

Fellow Passengers

it was lightly raining one early morning in autumn. A few people waited at a remote bus stop in a suburb of Shanghai.

I boarded the bus and picked a seat near the window. Outside the window right below me a man and woman were saying their good-byes.

Woman: “It’s time to board the bus. We’ll never finish this conversation.”

Man: “My sister isn’t evil incarnate. She does have good intentions at times.”

Woman: “Good intentions? She has good intentions, indeed.” The woman slashed her hand slowly across her neck and added, “I wouldn’t believe that if you killed me.”

Man, after a pause: “Tempers flare easily, you know. My sick mother isn’t going to get better. Forgive her.”

Woman: “Sick? I’m sick, too. You mother and sister together are capable of all sorts of tricks.”

Man: “That’s why I’m always afraid to come home. . . . ”

Woman: “I wouldn’t care if you didn’t come home again. They already laugh at me as if I were a widow.”

Man: “Now that’s obscene.”

The city was separated from the suburbs by a river. Many who worked in the city only went home on weekends. Most of these commuters were cheerful. I suspected that the man and woman were newlyweds. The woman couldn’t bear to part from her husband so she rose early to see him off in the rain. From their brief conversation it was apparent that the woman didn’t get along with her in-laws. The man obviously couldn’t do much about it. Even though they were newlyweds, even though their periods of separation must have brought them even closer to each other, they had more worries than happiness. That she and her mother-in-law and sister-in-law had to live under the same roof was the main cause of their sad domestic situation. In the confines of their home, they couldn’t avoid each other and could barely live with each other. I could tell from their pale and weary faces that they hadn’t slept well the night before. When the husband came home, the woman’s complaints of the past week would naturally pour out of her, her voice rising to a fervent pitch. His mother and sister would also complain to him and would make a list of his wife’s wrongdoings, perhaps even delving into trifling details. Why couldn’t they live in separate homes? Perhaps there was a housing shortage or perhaps they didn’t have the money to rent another place. Complicated affairs often have simple explanations.

I was content with my leisure and private insights. And I considered myself experienced in reading humans. Besides, with no family, my life was much simpler than a god’s.

The bus was about to leave. The couple exchanged a long glance. Then the man jumped onto the bus and sat in the seat in front of me. The woman passed the black umbrella to him from an open window and ran into the rain, head down.

The man hung up his umbrella. He sat still for a moment and then bent forward, weeping into the back of the seat in front of him.

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