Ghost Music by An Yu

Author:An Yu
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2022-12-22T19:16:15+00:00

SNOW

I had three missed calls from Bowen. Whenever he couldn’t get hold of me, he would call exactly three times in quick succession, after which he ’ d wait for me to respond without trying again. My pyjamas looked like I’d jumped into a swimming pool during the night, so I had to take a shower. Nini was already awake. She was eating grapes out of a bag and pouring instant coffee into a thermal bottle.

‘I have milk in the fridge, ’ she said. ‘I’ll leave the key here in case you want to go out. ’

She pointed to the kitchen counter. There was a single key without a keyring. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen someone keep their keys like that. I asked her if I could stay another night or two and she told me that I could use the room for as long as I wanted.

‘You should stay forever, ’ she added, smiling. ‘If you cook every day, I promise I’ll finally stop eating instant noodles. ’

‘How about I cook you a nice breakfast of instant noodles? See, you first have to boil water. You know how to boil water? You pour water into the ­kettle—’

She threw a grape at me. I blocked it with my arm and it fell to the ground. I bent over and picked it up.

‘Toss it, ’ she said. ‘I’ll catch it with my mouth. ’

‘It’s dirty, ’ I said. ‘And you’re not eight years old. ’

I rinsed the grape under the tap, gave it to her and went into the bathroom. In the shower, I thought about reminding Nini to take an umbrella in case the temperature went up during the day and the snow turned into rain again, knowing that there was no way she ’ d think of that herself. In a way, she is like a child. I imagined what might have been going through her mother’s mind before she died. She must have been so worried about her daughter, remembering all the times she could’ve taught Nini to cook but didn’t.

When I came out of the shower, Nini had left for work. The grapes were on the counter so I ate a few and put them away in the refrigerator. I drank some milk, got changed and headed towards the supermarket. A young man wearing a military coat was organising shopping carts at the entrance and pushing them into one another to form a row. When he saw me, he let go of the cart in his hand and opened the glass door for me. Close up, he smelled like ­winter – powdery, a little salty.

When I thanked him, he said, with an eager smile, ‘Go on, go on, it’s cold out here. ’

It wasn’t much better inside. Somebody must’ve decided that they could save money on cooling the refrigerators if they kept the entire place like one. Not wanting to stay too long, I quickly decided to make zhajiang noodles, so I grabbed some noodles, cucumbers, minced pork, sweet sauce and bean paste.

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