雪山在唱歌| C3 Hide-and-seek <5>

Singing Snowberg

Chapter Three

Hide-and-seek <5>

Chros©

“Cyano, room 766.” In every corridors there’re voice amplifiers which are connected with tubes that lead to the counter, that nurse has to yell into that big tube to spread the voice. It sounds primitive, but it works well. Alright Lazy, let’s move. This is like a big dwelling district of a city, the corridors are the blocks, thousands of patient cells aligned within the pods. What kind of person I’ll meet? I start to wonder about that patient, image this is a game of Hide-and-seek, I’m a Finder, they hide themselves or just waiting for me to discover. Did my predecessor enjoy this? Oh no Cyano, you’re saying rubbish, why enjoy? You should be afraid and seek another position, how about floor 3? No way I like this place, look these empty block streets, you’re free to do anything!
When I open that door with a madly thumping heart, a young boy is sitting on his bed. “Hello I’m Juan, great time great life!” I was told to watch him taking the pills. “Boy, please put on your clothes.” What are these people! “No I’m just about to make love, my sister is on her way.” “She would flee once she see you like this.” “Why? She wanted to do it with me!” Unbelievable boy.
If I have to hit him I will, but I just forced him wear his clothes. It’s not hard because I told him the police are on the way. He behaved well after he took the pills.
“Please don’t go, I need to tell you something.” Okay, I’m listening. “My sister was raped, she never recovered,” ugly world, “I wanted to love her, but she committed suicide many years ago.” I give him the sleeping Lazy, look how cute he is. Touch him boy, he doesn’t bite. Yes, the cat is purring contented in his arms, eyes still closed. I think he’s better now.
“Do you know Alice?” He looks outside, “of course, she never recovered too.” “How was she bullied?” “They wrung her arms until her elbows were dislocated.” How brutal! I stayed with him the rest of the morning, he knows many details of the patients here. People are strange and versatile, talented ones drowned in the main stream always. What a waste.
I turn on the artificial sunlight, warm stream gradually crawls all over my skin. Is Alice already left the hospital? Why am I thinking about her? It seems I’m walking on the clouds of mist again, the game of Hide-and-seek. I want La Plata. I remember the trace the waves left on the sand, darker than the dry sand, the newer the darker the colour is, water seeps into the sand. Time is a magical creature, we don’t know where will it go. Time, please come back and give my memories back. Silence is what it gives me always, don’t ever ask it for anything.
This entire floor is a whole new world to me, there’re too many cells and stories and secrets to be revealed, I feel like an Explorer. Now I’m marching to the last room, Lazy is sleeping on the cart. Before the end of this block I see a woman leaning against the door frame of her cell, her number is 968.
“Hello, my name is Chun, would you like a go?” “Gobang?” Her eyes radiate green light when she heard this word. The fruit paper is in my pocket, I would like to hear her story, and she got notebooks, we could play as much as we want. We played several Gobang together, of course she loves telling me her story. She was a prostitute in Glory-Glory, but she was tired of the life as a sexual worker.
“Yeah, I kind of moved here, how? I pretend to have mental disorder. You know we all kind of having it. You don’t? That’s good.” This isn’t fair, she always won. Guess I’ll be able to fight Salix if I keep playing with her.
“Do you smoke? I have orange.” “That’s expensive, but sorry I don’t smoke.” This is strange, a hooker non-smoker. It’s 5 o’clock already, “I’ll have to go, someone’s waiting for me.” She’s disappointed to hear this, “come back tomorrow, I’ll teach you Gobang.” She made me promise this before letting me go.
The last room is empty and locked, but the room 999 is occupied, I wonder who had been in this last room.
This work is supposed to be boring and I play it as a game, I didn’t even think of the weekend at this time. Everywhere is filled with the aroma of celebration, but think about it, this is the third weekend since I’ve been here. Salix is sitting by himself in the corner, doesn’t look good, several fruit papers lying beside his food plate. He’s staring at the window, this time of the year we still have sunshine, however, this situation won’t last long.

Singing Snowberg (雪山在唱歌)为《蓝》系列的第二卷，首发为英文。第一卷为《外婆的玫瑰》。为本人原创作品，版权©所有。