hometown

The story of hometown

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Because of my hometown, I often wake up in my dreams. I don't know, homesickness is actually a kind of melancholy that I won't go for a long time after waking up.

I have many stories about my hometown, which are the source of my sadness. I wrote them down just to commemorate the suffocating and lingering memory that was deposited in my heart.

one

My hometown is just a village with thirty or forty families. Everything in the village has a river that is not too wide.

In the village I remember, adults always lined up early in the morning, carrying hoes along a long wooden bridge narrow enough for only one person to cross. In the evening, when the sun sets, they come back lazily together.

I like to lie in bed and listen to the cuckoo chirping in the distance, and I also like to walk on the ridge and smell the green fragrance of golden rape flowers everywhere. A faint scent, the same color of vilen and the inexplicable throb in my heart. I know this is God's blessing to life.

I don't know when, there are several new straw houses on the roadside at the head of the village.

A group of adults carrying red flags and marching quilts live here.

From then on, this village, which was once so quiet that even the barking of dogs was rarely heard, suddenly became lively.

We always like to drill around in the cracks of adults and watch them dance red flags, do somersaults, talk about Allegro and sing operas. Several little boys and girls from the village also joined in.

Teacher Ma is also here. What he wants to play is a banhu that sounds passionate and high-pitched, that is, the kind of voice that can be heard far away from the village. Later, I heard that Mr. Ma could play the violin, so those people borrowed the violin from the city. Teacher Ma can play all the songs. He can also play laundry songs, which sounds very soft. There are many songs that we can't understand. We also often surround him, listen to him play the violin and ask him questions. Especially those girls, all day long around to ask Mr. Ma to teach them.

Teacher Ma is the only one out of town among the three teachers in the village. We don't know where he comes from, except that he lives alone in the head of three classrooms in the village. Teacher Ma smiled in class, and Kan Kan talked. Unlike Aunt Ding, she always knocks on the desk with a long bamboo stick in class and scolds us for talking and acting. And Mr. Ma always teaches Chinese and arithmetic well, teaching half and the other half in different grades, and then going to another classroom with books in his arms.

We often go to his house. A bed, a small table beside the bed and a mosquito net that seems to have been patched up in many places. His clothes are always under the pillow, so they are wrinkled. The captain is afraid that he can't live alone, so he can go door to door to eat when necessary. I remember once, he came to our house very early. Mother hurriedly asked someone to buy a catty of pork. However, when a bowl of cooked braised pork was served, it was quickly divided up by our children. Teacher Ma shook his chopsticks and turned several times in the bowl. When he saw nothing, he took it back and ate his white rice slowly. Listening to him and his mother talking a lot, it seems that he is also the kind of person who suffered from childhood.

I wonder when Mr. Ma will stop coming to our usual meeting place. Teacher Ma in class also lost her old smile. Pale as he is, he always rushes to his small place after class. Aunt Ding whispered to all the visiting adults. We have a hunch that something unusual will happen.

Finally, one morning a few days after Mr. Ma disappeared, I was awakened by the noise outside. Everyone rushed to the east coast together. Uncle Wang and the captain, who often chat with Mr. Ma in the street, have been fishing in the river with bamboo poles in the boat. When the ship arrived at the dock, Uncle Wang suddenly called out "something" and the captain hurriedly jumped into the water. What was fished out was a hard dead body. "Teacher Ma, why did you leave like this?" It was Uncle Wang who sighed, then fell on the bow and cried.

Teacher Ma left, and we knew that the violin that had disappeared for a long time would never come back. People in the working group told us that a possible "capitalist restoration" would disappear.

After a long time, I heard from adults that Mr. Ma was also the first violinist in a song and dance troupe, and he was the Rightist when he opposed the Rightists. Later, I found out what kind of spy he was. He has been avoiding us for years. It found his whereabouts and wanted to take him back. He didn't dare to go back, so he pulled out the bamboo pole in the fence at night, slipped to the river and chose to commit suicide. An elderly friend of mine later told me that the leader of the working group didn't like him, so he pushed his question.

Teacher Ma is nearly forty years old and hasn't got married yet. There is a photo of a yellow girl in his wallet, which is said to be a dancer of his song and dance troupe. My friend is the only person in the village who has seen this photo. He said that Teacher Ma's eyes were red at that time.

Next summer, the river that used to be full of children playing in the water will be much colder.

two

Dead people often happen in the village. Indeed, Mr. Ma's death was soon forgotten.

I don't know when the working group left, but many young people came to live in the hut that had been empty for some time. I heard adults say that they are educated youths from the city, both men and women.

The countryside seems to be calm again. Every morning, from door to door came the voice of captain Hong Zhong.

I don't know when the educated youth came and left a lot. It is said that it was a recruitment in the city, and several companies from the commune also went. There are only three men and two women left in those huts. The captain was afraid that they would live alone, so he divided them into several spacious families.

It's Fang who stays. A Fang is not the most beautiful among them, but she has long black hair, and her face is always red when she speaks, which is really beautiful. Her face is also white and bright, unlike the faces of girls in our village who are always rough and rough by the wind.

A Fang's father sometimes comes to see her and brings a bag of food every time he comes. I heard that Fang had passed away, and my stepmother brought two children to the family. This family is very crowded. Therefore, A Fang doesn't return to the city as often as other educated youths.

Fang lives in the side room of the five-guarantee household. Because of the proximity, every time she goes to the river to wash rice, we will follow her or hold her hand. She always talks to us with a smile.

I don't know when Fang began to talk less and turned yellow.

I remember playing with dog eggs in the village not long ago. We went to Fang's residence and set up a ladder to look through the small window at the back. This time, as soon as the dog climbed up, he screamed and hurriedly rolled down from his partner's shoulder. The dog spread its legs and ran out of the village as fast as possible. When we caught up with him panting and asked him what he saw, he said breathlessly that he saw the captain naked and eating on her.

After that, the captain's house seems to be restless, and there are often dishes and women crying. Mom will also look for it in the past and often come back at midnight.

One sunny afternoon, my aunt came to see her mother. The two women muttered for a while and then hurried out. We followed him to the river and saw a small bag wrapped in straw mats. Wow! Out of the small bag came a calf and a small foot. Almost at the same time, the two women took off their clothes and carefully carried their bags back.

Aunt and mother came home, unpacked, washed away the mud marks on the small nose, mouth and hands with water, and wrapped them in clean cloth. "She looks so delicate. Bury her in grandpa's grave. When he was alive, he liked little girls with big eyes best. " Mom said so. From then on, there was a small mound in front of Grandpa's grave.

Fang also left the village and never came back.

Later, it was said by menstruation and others that the captain and Fang invited a doctor to board the ship and go far away. But I don't know why the river will bring the children back.

Alas! No matter how old the child is, she must be homesick, so she found it again. My aunt explained this.

three

However, the captain's home is never peaceful.

Finally, one day, a group of militiamen with long guns came and took the captain away.

From that day on, two tigers in the village became captains. Everyone in the village says they don't like him, and everyone knows that he is the most dependent person in the village. But in front of him, I still call him Captain Ding, and people close to him call him Captain Nothing.

But my mother said that the father of his collaborator went to the city to sue the captain, so the captain was taken away.

The captain who was taken away was quickly put back, but he was no longer the captain. People in the village are no longer around him as before. I haven't seen him smile since. Once he came to our house to talk to his mother. I heard him say that he was only in his thirties and didn't want to go on like this. He wants to leave here, but he is worried about his three children, especially his daughter who is still a little silly.

The captain's daughter is the only daughter of three children. Because she was born in spring, she is called Spring Valley. I heard that she was a lovely little girl when she was born. I had a high fever when I was three years old, and then I became stupid. As far as I can remember, she doesn't play with other children. Most of the time, she stood stupefied at the door of her house for most of the day. So the children in the village often hide in the corner of the room and secretly throw mud at her, and she doesn't respond.

I only know that after the captain put it back, he took a hoe and planed the roof of Uncle Ding's house in the village. It was not until the captain's woman cried and screamed that she pulled the captain back. Later, I heard that it was because Uncle Ding's son had not married a daughter-in-law and took Chungu to his house for a long time.

Alas, the child acts like a big girl. It's time to find her a husband's family. Mother sighed.

One day, when I came home from school, my mother said to me:

"Spring Valley is gone."

"No? Where have you been? " I asked my mother.

"Spring valley is dead. She went to the locomotive to dig pig grass and accidentally fell into the river and drowned. "

"The locomotive? How could she go to that place? " The locomotive is the place where we often hear ghosts haunt.

Spring Valley died, and my heart was deeply hurt. I remember once, her brother had a fight with others to protect her, and the captain came back to beat her brother. She cried and screamed and blocked the captain with her body. She kept saying no, she was stupid, but she seemed to know a lot in her heart. At least she knows who is good to her.

"Perhaps the captain. He is afraid of becoming a burden. The last captain was seen with her. " That's what my aunt said

"People are dead, and you are not afraid to lose your tongue when you say this." Mother responded angrily.

The company commander of the militia said that it was the water monkey in the river that pulled down the spring valley. So, the militia company commander took explosives to avenge Chungu. We followed, hiding away from the coast. After several cannon shots, fish in shock floated on the river, but there were no water monkeys. The company commander of the militia said that he would let it escape this time and blow it up next time. So, everyone rushed to the river to pick up dead fish.

That night, almost every household ate delicious steamed fish.

The captain also left home and never came back. Some people say that he has gone to Xinjiang, while others say that he is in Shanxi. But he didn't come back to see his woman and his two sons.

four

In my memory, these are three lost lives, so I burst into tears.

Although death is the only way for you and me, I think life should be respected, whether rich or poor, smart or stupid, adults or children. If life is not respected, honor and shame are nothing. Where are the dignity and human rights we are pursuing?

However, in my hometown where I regard life as dirt, life is so helpless and pale!

After twenty years' absence, I returned to my hometown and walked along the river beach to the bridge. At dusk, the river full of my childhood dreams, like a slender twine, has been squeezed to pieces by today's expanding village. The curved back is like a huge question mark drawn in the twilight. This river, which raised my grandparents and me, swallowed up three lives I was familiar with. It has my life-long love and hate, and it also hides my life-long doubts.

I cherish the experience of this hometown, which makes me know that life is not easy, makes me thank you from time to time, and makes me angry. When I travel abroad again, I ask myself, what kind of story will my hometown tell people in 20 years?

This article is selected from History of Sublime, edited by Yunfeng, Yunnan People's Publishing House, March 20 10.