Fiction logo

Farewell to Him

memory

By BlossomParkerPublished 2 years ago 7 min read
Like

On May 26, 1996, my mother and I squeezed onto the 5:00 p.m. train from Guangzhou to Changsha.

It was the first time in my life that I accompanied my mother on the train, and I let her sit by the window.

It was summer in the south, and the rain was dense, diffusing the road ahead and my eyes.

Over the years, I always thought I was a tough guy, but it turns out I was softer than a persimmon! When I booked my mother's ticket back home, I was like an aggrieved child, once I thought of the long period of separation from my mother, tears flowed incessantly. I think this is the longest time I've spent with my mother since I grew up, right? This is the longest, the full calculation is only 243 days, and I am in the construction site on weekdays, most of the time is my mother and my wife and daughter together. Suddenly I remembered a popular saying on the Internet: "You grow up with me, I'll grow old with you." For me, it was a bowl of chicken soup that I could only hope for. The pressure of life makes me tired of running around and distracted; my mother's attachment to her nine children is destined to make her unable to stay in one place for long. You can grow up with me, but I can't grow old with you ......

The hazy teary eyes, large swaths of green swiftly ushered to the car window and backward, occasionally one or two trees of flowers interspersed, burning like a child's eyes. In another nine hours or so, my mother will be sent by a train to a distant hometown. I looked at my mother, her face had grown into a sizable army of age spots and wrinkles, and her white hair was whispering to me about the vicissitudes of the years. The heart is a hard, teardrop in the eyes, want to say something, but can not say. My mother seemed to have a sense of life and death hovering in her heart, and in the light sunset, I couldn't tell if it was the afterglow of her youthful sharpness or a layer of tears.

After a long time, my mother broke the silence and slowly began to tell the story: "Jiu Man, I have been living with you for more than eight months, I feel Ah Hao is a filial daughter-in-law, these days, she thinks of me everywhere, treating me as my own mother, buying food and cooking always consider my Xi well. From food and clothing to health and safety, she worries a lot about me, fearing that I will freeze, starve, and get sick. Last November, when I had a cough, she bought me medicine from the hospital and gave it to me. Once my condition improved, she was happy like a child who had won candy, full of satisfaction and pride, and bought a hen for me to replenish my body. She was afraid that I would be lonely and walked around with me when she had time ......" A closed door was opened by my mother, and those stories unfolded in front of me one by one like a movie, with the plot and characters encrypting my original perceptions.

"When you went to the construction site, Ah Hao took the entire family burden on her shoulders, both to raise Xinxin and to complete a full workload at the unit, but she worked hard and made her home and family in order ......" I sat beside my mother and listened to her, digesting what she had to say I sat next to my mother and listened to her, digesting the stories she told, each one more exciting than the last. With each story, my mother seemed more relaxed and content!

"I say you ah ......" mother suddenly stared at me, "you have to learn temper, more tolerance, so that couples do not quarrel angry!" The mother preached to me up. "I didn't come to Guangzhou when I was always worried about your temperament, worried about your life after you become a family. Now I'm relieved and can go back with peace of mind." Mother took a sip of tea to moisten her throat, and then showed a refreshed expression, seemingly relieved of a heavy burden.

We just sat on the train, talking all the way, projecting the various warm and harmonious equations of life and family. Then the Shaoguan station arrived.

As soon as the train stopped, I was the first to jump off and buy six braised chicken legs from the mobile food cart in one breath.

As soon as I saw the chicken legs I was holding in my hands, my mother's eyes, which had given me infinite care, shone brightly with surprise, and she hastily got up to take them, and I said, "Mom, I'll do it, it's hot!" I placed the chicken legs in front of my mother and handed her a pair of rubber gloves. My mother picked up a chicken leg and enjoyed it with a big bite. As far as I remember, my mother was never fussy about food and ate very little. I had never seen her eat as much as she did today, and I never thought that she would love the braised chicken legs that were everywhere in the train station. I felt some guilt and pain when I saw how she was eating.

Suddenly, my mother "slapped" my thighs while saying: "Jiu Man, when I was back home, I often heard the grandchildren talk about the chicken legs sold at the Shaoguan train station is big and delicious. Today, I finally tasted it, fatty but not greasy, fragrant and tasty, that feeling is really let me immediately cool to the toes ah!" I was a little excited, a small drop of liquid flowed into the corner of my mouth, astringent, salty, I do not know whether it was sweat, or the corner of my eyes seeping tears.

I was not proud to tell my mother: "Mom, I heard you talk about it, today, I just to satisfy your curiosity, before I must send you to Shaoguan, must let you taste Shaoguan train station chicken legs, this is my wish for many years, I must realize!" Mother that the forehead of the weathered wrinkles seem to stretch in this moment, a pair of kind eyes have long been narrowed into a curved crescent, the corners of the old mouth revealed a brilliant kindness.

I'm getting off the bus, and my mother realizes that parting is finally a fact. The first thing you need to do is to take my hand in her thin palm, and your eyes linger on my face for a long time, as if you can't get enough of it. Afterwards, she tidied up my messy hair and straightened my messy collar. I could smell the scent of roasted chicken legs still wafting from my mother's hands. My mother gently wiped away my tears and said incoherently, "Oh boy! You are now a father, this may be the last time mother to give you warmth, the road ahead, you have to take care of yourself!" The mother suddenly shed tears, and the tears like a stream at the doorstep of the family gurgling, can not be blocked, can not be finished, completely out of control, as the floodgates of long-standing feelings were opened, not a diarrhea in the end. I was so dumb that I couldn't say an appropriate and powerful word to comfort my mother and whispered, "Mom, don't cry! People are watching us!" In an instant, my nose was sore and tears came out. I pretended to look up at the sky and let the tears flow into my collar and warm my heart.

I got off the train and my mother poked her head out of the car window. At that time the night breeze is cool, the wind blowing mother full of Chinese hair, her figure in the wind some lonely, a little vicissitudes, a little helpless, some expectation, but also some miss. My tears came again. When the train gradually started, I couldn't help but run forward a few steps, but the train accelerated, and my mother also accelerated back towards her hometown. At the first bend, my mother became blurred in my vision, but I still clearly saw that the white hair on her head was shaking gently in the night wind ......

Short Story
Like

About the Creator

BlossomParker

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.