International Tutors' Magazine December 2018 | Page 22

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
INTERNATIONAL TUTORS’ MAGAZINE
outrageous cry; next, as the blinds drew the opportunity to be a spectator to his daxi
open, our protagonist, Uncle Six, would either. “Wherever there is a mouse, Uncle
appear on the scene, ready to perform Six is around,” said the residents of Xin Cun.
the daxi (Chinese opera) named Catching
Mouse with Bare Hands . No mouse was If I had been born earlier, I would have
able to slip away under his penetrating seen many such episodes of Uncle Six’s
eyes and detective ears, which earned him performance. Life’s better nowadays. The
the
honorable
mice have left, but Uncle Six still insists
attributions
on eating whatever he believes does
Our protagonist, no harm to his health. Each time I
of
qianliyan
and shunfenger
Uncle Six, would visit him, he never fails to astonish
(can-see-the-
me with his treasured collection of
appear...
distance eyes
“food”: nameless weeds he plucks
and can-hear-the-
by the roadside, rotten fruits dried in
distance ears). Once he locked onto the prey the sun or surplus vegetables he buys from
with his senses, his hands were poised. His the licenseless peddlers. I try to convince
right hand’s thumb and index finger would him to eat “normal” food but end up giving
launch the attack first, aiming at the mouse’s into his proud speeches of how his “iron
body, akin to those arcade machines that body” is “so refined”, and how “these
use a claw crane to pick up dolls; and with foods saved us during the famine time, so
full strength, the crane nipped towards the you can never deny their value. The fact that
doll, and the rest of the fingers followed
I’m over 90 is proof! I
to envelop it. Then Uncle Six
speak for myself,
...to
perform
would rush back home, straight
and for the
towards the kitchen. He would
the drama Catching spurned food!”
drop the half-dead mouse into
Mouse with Bare
a pot of boiling water, prepared
Nevertheless, I
Hands.
by Aunt Feng beforehand.
prefer to credit
Afterwards, he stepped out, sat
his bulaozhishen
down and waited for a dish of mice, legs (youthful body) to his habitual exercise.
crossed and arms folded. Uncle Six is the Throughout all the illness and operation
changshengjiangjun (general with no record that came and disrupted his life, exercise
of failure) in any battle against the village has always been his favored treatment;
mice. Although villagers were annoyed by although Aunt Feng has left him, exercise
his bragging around and turned off by his remains his company forever; although
post-battle victory dish, no one would miss chronic leg ache grabs on to him, after
daubing some ointment, he always returns
to his exercise routine. He walks to and
forth three different restaurants for three
meals every day, claiming ownership of the
same table and ordering the same food. “I’m
waiting for my children, and they will bring
my wife here out of the nursing home.”
But his children only come on weekends
and his wife has left long ago. These signs
of forgetfulness and aging start to emerge.
Besides his memory and family he is also
missing teeth; only two sliced-off canine
fangs remain. Wrinkles crawl rampantly
over his droopy, smiley face, upon which
black spots stretch below his deep-set eyes,
no longer the qianliyan eyes of his mouse-
catching days. His speech loses clarity as the
days go by. His ears are no longer shunfeng ,
which is good in a way, for now he can
block outside noise and keep focused on his
own world. His dull-red cap is his lifelong
partner, under which two lines of “silver
sprouts” are squeezing out - declaring
war against the natural codes of aging.
Now I understand that Uncle Six
doesn’t have a bulaozhishen ; he’s
just too stubborn to get old. v
Right: Feng
Huanying and
Uncle Six. Even if
his eyes and ears
don't work as well
anymore, at least
he's still smiling.
photo by Feng Huanying
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