Bloom on the Other Shore

19. Don't Be Afraid, Mom Is Here

The scorching sun made you sick,

Baking the earth's households.

Those strong as steel got no scratch,

Those soft got bones broken.

There was a rough sea on the road.

The tears of the maiden fell,

Enveloping the heart in ashes,

Taking away an entire century.

I went to visit her, and she was alone in the corner of the room with a knife in her eye.

She was my classmate. Once I went to her home to borrow a computer, seeing her swallow a handful of medicine, I was amazed: "Having so much medicine and you are still alive, surprised."

"I built the first half of my life with pills. If I lost one, this building would crash down." Gina giggled and spoke.

She was just moderate depression at that time, with medicine she was nothing different with normal people.

To lighten the mood, I said, "Smooth, you must have been a waiter in your last life."

She was happy: "That would be so good, waitress is an easy job." She broke off a chicken leg and handed it to me, saying, "One day you join our restaurant and I will make you the king of waiter. Haha.

It was the last time I saw her smile. On a boiling afternoon in June, her mother fell into the lime pool while working in the factory and was burned to pieces and died on the spot.

I tried to clean her room, but Gina howled frantically: "Get out, leave me alone!"

I had to call her ex-boyfriend, whom I believed she had always loved.

Gina fell in love with Derek in middle school, she always skipped class to go to the arcade or to the skating rink with him. On the playground of campus Derek would climb the wall to get in, lighting a cigarette, blowing out the smoke, attracting too many young girls around him.

Then came the news that Gina was pregnant, my God, it was only the second year in middle school.

The school expelled Gina without mercy, and at the flag-raising ceremony, principle announced the criticism in public. I've been sensitive to words, and I clearly remember the principle's use of these three words: "brazen, disgraced, despicable." And in that order.

In the dead of night, I slipped out of the dormitory and climbed the wall out, and saw Gina in the stall lane of the back street, I said: "What about your baby?"

Gina said: "I will certainly keep it." She hid her head in Derek's arms, her eyes were full of happiness, just like my pet dog hiding itself in her own nest.

"We'll raise it together! Lucas, you are good at writing, you give the baby a name." Derek said and looked at me.

Looking at the empty flagpole in the distance, I suddenly remembered the words used by the principal in the speech during the day, if a person is brazened, then this person will be so brave, why not use this auspicious word.

Derek said: "That makes sense, ah, the principle is a person who was educated, the words he speaks must be knowledgeable, the child will have a name like brazen, at least starts with 'bra' what about Brain?