Thursday, April 20, 2006
Window・Room
A little boy sits in a room, an European-style room, carpeted floor, and wooden furniture. A single light on the table, the sun beaming through the closed window. Maybe some smooth classical music in the background, and a book in hand. The air is warm, the room temperature just right, the boy, lost in deep thoughts as the book takes him into the deepest corner of his wildest fantasy.A little girl walks into the room, flinging the door wide open. A white hat in hand, a pink dress with flowery patterns that fits nicely onto her body, the girl steps in, making little disturbing "click-click" sounds with her low-heel shoes.
"Hey," the little boy looks up. He looks at the girl. Cute, attractive, full of spring colors. But a little too splashy for this quiet room maybe.
"Hey," the little girl replies. She looks at the boy. Cute, studious, full of a scholarly spirit. But a little too absorbed in reading maybe.
The little boy goes back to his reading, though in the corner of his eye, he sees the little girl poking around in the room and eventually moving herself close to the window.
"What a beautiful spring day. Mind if I open the window?", the little girl asks.
"Sure, as you like," the little boy replies. At this point, his eyesight too becomes growingly attracted to the beaming sunlight outside.
A sweet, gentle spring breeze flows into the room. Thin curtains begin to dance, swing, and twirl in the air.
The little girl sticks her head out of the window, taking a deep breath. "Ah~" she said, just taking the moment in.
The little boy can't help but putting his book down. He gets up from his chair, walks over to the window, and too takes a peak at the spring field outside.
"It is beautiful," he smiles, closing his eyes, too taking the moment in fully.
A minute later, the girl suddenly kicks her shoes aside, climbs up the window frame, and begins to stick one of her legs out. "Wanna go out for an excursion?", the girl, after balancing herself on the window frame, now having one leg dangling outside and one leg dangling inside, turns around and asks.
"Now?" The boy hesitates.
"Yeah, now!", the girl says, her face blossoming with a bigger smile, her left hand stretching out.
"Come on, the day isn't going to sit here and wait for you forever! Let's go!", the girl urges again.
"Umm ..." says the boy, still hesitating. He's got a great story awaiting him to finish. He's not so ready to leave the faithful storyteller behind.
The girl wants to go out and enjoy the spring weather. She wants to go out, in her pink, flowery dress and white little hat, greet the very first flower on the branch, stick her nose as closely to the ground as possible to smell the fresh scent of the soil, and to dance in the flower fields till her body is too exhausted that she'll just collapse to the ground and start imagining invisible angels frolicking within the cotton-candy clouds high above ground. She, however, wants a company. And she wants the little boy to be her company.
The boy too wants to go out. He too wants to step out and enjoy the early spring. He, however, has a great adventure to finish in the pages, and he's so close to finishing. So close that he perhaps could afford to miss a beautiful spring day outside, even if the girl may hop out of the window any minute and never come back.
"Will you stay in the room with me till I finish the story?", the boy asks. "Spring isn't going anywhere."
"Will you leave the story behind for now and enjoy the day with me before the sun goes down?", the girl asks. "The book isn't going anywhere."
How shall the story end?
梅ちゃん at 6:28:00 AM
3 Comments
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at 4/20/06, 2:50 PM
said... a beautiful little story.
make me think about decisions regarding emotion vs rationality, people vs things, and how our decisions at the moment lead to completely different paths in the future...-
at 4/20/06, 4:38 PM
said...
hey may-yi, i think the story is perfect as it is--all the more thought-provoking for the open ending. no other ending needed.
one of the open endings i remember best is from Jin Yong's Xue3 shan1 fei1 hu2. here is the link to an interesting discussion by the Hong Kong science-fiction writer Ni Kuang. it may persuade you to keep the open ending! : )
http://www.angelibrary.com/essay/ljy/004.htm-
at 4/21/06, 1:58 PM
said...
This story of yours reminds me of Ha Jin's writings. If you read pp.3-5 of Waiting, you will know what I mean. Your narative style is very similar to that of his. A great story and a promising start.
Posted by ymshaw