China's Son by Da Chen

Author:Da Chen [Chen, Da]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48279-2
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2001-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

As the summer vacation drew near, Dad came back one day with the good news that Professor Wei would be willing to help tutor me in English. However, she would be away in Fuzhou for a couple of months, accompanying her sister, who would be in rehabilitation under the care of some famous doctors. She would see me when she returned.

I was happy and nervous at the same time. It gave me the whole summer to prepare, so maybe I wouldn't look too stupid. I drew up a study plan, leaving very little time for music or anything else.

A few days later, I-Fei rode his bike to my home and stopped briefly to tell me that he was leaving Yellow Stone for good and was transferring to another high school. Or maybe he would become a driver soon. He was extremely mysterious and his eyes kept looking beyond me. I asked him to stay for a while and chat about the old days, but he said it was a long way to travel to his mom's. So off he went, without regret. I was deeply hurt. He had been a loyal friend and great to be with. School would not be the same without him.

One day, when the remote Ching Mountain was wrapped in layers of lingering clouds that looked like a woman's hair flying loose in the wind, the commune sent an announcement over the loudspeaker system to warn the farmers of an impending typhoon. Suddenly all was chaos. The brigade leader banged on every member's door, urging the villagers to head for the fields and harvest the rice. All of it, even that which was still green, was to be cut rather than be ruined in the flood.

My eldest sister was away in Han Jian, working at her temporary job in the canned food factory—a violation of the commune's no-working-out-of-town-in-harvesttime rule. Dad asked me if I could step in and do her work, so the next day, while it was still dark, Mom awakened me at dawn. My brother, Jin, and my two sisters, Huang and Ke, were already at the dining table stuffing themselves with fried rice by the bowlful and washing it down with the soup Mom had been preparing since midnight. My brother, now a veteran farmer at the age of twenty-two, could eat as many as three large bowlfuls before going to work. Everyone worked fourteen-hour days, and Jin couldn't stand being hungry in the fields. After burping a few times, he lit a cigarette and put on his straw hat, ready to go.

I had stuffed as much food into my mouth at four in the morning as I could. Mom had warned me that I wouldn't eat again until one in the afternoon. With my eyes half-closed, I smelled the freshly simmered rice as though it were still a sweet dream.

“Follow me, little brother.” After I, too, had burped with satisfaction, Jin gave me a sickle and out I went, barefoot, into the dark fields.

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