Candy by Mian Mian

Author:Mian Mian [MIAN, MIAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC019000
ISBN: 9780316055536
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2008-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

Let me think of you, think of you, think of you,

Think of you one last time.

Tomorrow I’ll be another man’s bride.

I’m thinking of you deep inside.

They sang with great care and very little feeling, but it was genuinely moving. It had struck a nerve. I had not been touched like that in a long time, and I found my heart again.

Afterward I chanced to hear this popular song many times, and I found out that it was called “Words of the Heart.” Every time I heard it, I would be overcome, and I would stop whatever I was doing and listen to the song until it was over. This song reminded me of where I’d been.

The morning after Christmas, I woke up early. My nurse’s aide came into the room to take away my dishes, and she said to me, These dumplings are so good. Why don’t you eat them? Every day she asked me the same kind of question, and every day I gave her the same answer: I’m not going to eat them, so why don’t you? On this day she responded by picking up the dishes and carrying them out. Soon she returned with a mop and was about to start mopping when she abruptly leaned against the wall and blew a spit bubble. Afraid to call out, I kept one eye on her, and one eye on the space heater, worried that she might pick it up and hit me with it. Just then, one of the registered nurses passed by in the hall. I lowered my voice and said, Hey! What’s wrong with her? The registered nurse came in, took the mop and placed it in the aide’s hands, and had her grasp it tight. To me she said, She’ll be fine in a moment. Don’t worry. And a few minutes later, the aide straightened up and went back to mopping the floor, her face pale, her hair like wires. I wanted to get up and mop the floor myself, but I was afraid to move. After a little while, the registered nurse came in and said to me, She had that episode just now because she ate your dumplings. She eats your dumplings every day, but today a bunch of the other patients ganged up on her, so she got sick. In the future, if you’re not going to eat your food, please make sure you give it to someone different each time.

It was almost New Year’s, and everybody dressed up in clean clothes for visiting hours. One patient ate cake with her son. Another was talking with her husband. Another sat with her mother, who was probably in her eighties. Another patient was waiting around. All of the patients were shuffling back and forth. I sat by my bed, my hands jammed up my sleeves, my two feet rocking back and forth, left to right, right to left, and I looked at the chocolate my mother had brought for me. My mother had spent only ten minutes in my room.

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