My Destiny

MingMing

Part 3.....
     It was something else I would not be able to understand. Like why sticking needles in people's necks could be called treatment rather than torture. OK I know that's an ancient tradition. The big mystery here is how all these people live together almost on top of each other, sharing the same boiler for heavens sake, and don't explode with frustration all the time. I know I would.

     Later MingMing takes me for a walk in the hills behind the college 'because it's important to exercise in the spring.' She's always coming out with these cute motherly expressions. When I laugh, she looks at me blankly. I suppose it's as if I were to guffaw the next time my mum says 'wrap up warm'. It's odd how we just grow up with all these expressions and never question them. We only notice other people's.

     We pass an old temple roofed with yellow tiles, its wooden eaves carved with lucky dragons. She tells me it is being used as a wood store.

     'Old style' she said. 'Old things, we don't like them any more.' Walking behind her up the narrow path I note her glossy hair in its simple black pony tail, her white cotton blouse and what looks like a home made skirt made from curtain material: too long to be sexy, too short to be fashionable. She wears nylon knee socks and plastic sandals. I hope this isn't her best, and that if it is, she isn't wearing her best for me. Chinese women do nothing for me. Should I tell her that, just to make sure she doesn't get the wrong idea?

     'There,' she says, pointing out some strange red shoots in the earth. 'Bamboo. It's green and then white inside. The peasants dig them up and sell them in the market. They're good to eat.'

     'So you eat chairs,' I say. She hesitates, not wanting to contradict me.

     'Chair-to-be,' she says. 'Isn't that what you say: wife-to-be?'