The Cat-Tailed Rabbit by Tang Tang

Author:Tang Tang [Tang, Tang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WordFire Press

Upper teeth, under the bed

Lower teeth, up overhead

Nothing silver, nothing gold

Only mouse teeth

Small and old.

I ran breathlessly for two hours and arrived at the house where Grandma used to live.

Grandma’s house had been locked for several years, and no one but me had been there since she left. I had secretly kept a key. When I missed her, I would run for two hours to get there, if only to wipe her tables and drink from her big white china mug. Or, better yet, lie on the bed thinking of her plump arms and plump face.

Grandma’s bed was made of finely carved wood, with a frame that looked like a little cabin when the mosquito netting was pulled down. I always slept with her, until the day she got sick.

She was sick for almost two years.

When she first became ill I was seven, and my baby teeth started falling out. Every time a tooth came loose, she would sing, “Upper teeth, under the bed, lower teeth, up overhead. Nothing silver, nothing gold, only mouse teeth small and old.”

My new teeth were small and white, and for all her weakness, Grandma was as pleased as a child. “Oh, oh! See how useful my song is.” From the moment my first baby tooth was thrown under the bed, she never let anyone clean beneath it again.

I was nine when all my teeth grew in.

She sometimes woke, opened her bleary eyes, stared into my face, and mumbled, “How could I ever leave you?”

Soon she closed her eyes.

Soon they locked the front door.

After that, there was no Grandma in the house.

I have no memory of my mother. She left when I was barely a year old. Papa was so filled with grief that he could not care for me, so I grew up with Grandma.

With Grandma gone, my father took me into his home. There was a stranger there, however—a new mother. She was very polite and proper. She never spoke to me in a loud voice. After she had a son, she had little time to spare for me.

I ran to Grandma’s house every few days and left with my heart a little warmer.

I bent down and crawled under the bed. It was dark there, and thickly layered with dirt. I felt around carefully with my hands. One, two, another … ten teeth in all.

I got a stool and stood on tiptoe to feel around on the canopy, raising large puffs of dust that gave me a rattling cough. One, two, another … ten teeth in all.

As I stared at the handful of teeth, the strains of her song seemed to echo in my ears. I could see her face again: pale eyebrows, plump lips, a plump nose, and large front teeth that showed whenever her lips widened in a laugh.

My tears pattered down and blossomed like wet flowers on the ground.

“Grandma! Grandma!”

She had to be hiding in these teeth, but all my calling could not make her answer. I knew she must be in there, even if she stayed silent!

Perhaps she was asleep.

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