xhu

Crickets Swing

Sha Yan

It was seven O’clock in the morning; I woke up and tried to make some coffee. I had some instant coffee; for I didn’t have a coffee pot and I didn’t have habit to buy coffee. I was thinking, why didn’t I try to run for Canadian Prime Minister? Barack Obama won the American President campaign, why didn’t I try something hard and run Canadian Prime Minister. But I opened my bankbook, and there were only a couple of dollars in my account. I didn’t have money, and I didn’t have a stable job. I could not even get a Canadian MP registered whether I joined Liberal Party or Conservative Party. How could I run for Canadian Prime Minister? I was daydreaming.

There was a dragonfly flied over my backyard when I went out to see the vegetable. I tried to catch the dragonfly in a sudden. And with some effort, I caught the dragonfly. And then I thought about the game we played when we were children, me and my playing buddies when young, hilariously. We caught dragonfly and made a thread on its neck, and on the other side of the thread we linked a piece of paper, then we held the other end of the three end thread and made the dragonfly fly when carrying a piece of paper. That had special significance, as it was the child’s ingenuity. We Chinese compete ingenuity when we were young. So I got the dragonfly and thought about it deliberately. “Freedom”, I thought. Then I freed the dragonfly. Yes, I am a 40-year-old man, I cannot play dragonfly for my life. The dragonfly flied over the backyard, circled and vanished in some instants.

My dad grows some vegetable in the backyard. It is a very large backyard, about 40 square meters. Every spring comes; my dad goes to the market to buy some young vegetable plants. Sometimes I go along with him. I found the vegetable market is a very fun place; there are lots of people coming and going for shopping. And there are lots of booths selling vegetables. In a while, my dad and I got some young squash plant, zucchinis, tomatoes, some cucumbers, even young Swiss chard from the market. Then we plant them in two little fields my dad farmed in the backyard.

I went out, to the classroom that I attended. It was English today. I enjoyed English classes. I learned a lot from the book I read and the classes were usually interesting.

“Yes, in the main while, we will be exploring the characters in the novel, “Interview with the Vampire.”” The professors raised his tone. And me, I was listening and trying to take notes.

The class was over. I went to a café and ordered coffee and a piece of cookie. Found a seat, and sat down, along, my self. Beside my table, there were a couple of tables occupied. Two young girls sat right next to my table.
“Look, you have to do it like this way.”
“Yes, why not, if I do it this way… I will.”

Yes, students, I did not listen further to their talk and turned my head away. Obviously, they were doing their assignments and arguing for the problems.

“What to do? What to do? If you don’t do it like that, you are dead. No way out.” A girl with a skinny face raised her tone.

“Sure, this way, if I do it like you did, there is no end of it already.”

“Please…”

“Dumb, I can’t do this. You are being silly to the questions.”

“Silly, why? I think you are the silly one.”

I turned my head away again and pretended I did not hear what they argued. Erhnn, I finished my cookie and coffee, and went out quickly.

I had a dream. I dreamed of a golden cricket, flying. A cricket was eating the golden wheat plant, biting, biting and biting; it was golden all over the body with a very big golden human head. When I wanted to catch it, I suddenly woke up.

It was my English class again. I thought about my dream. Golden cricket, maybe I should write my dream. I write sometimes, prominently. If I could, I would continue my writing and finally become an established writer.

I rose up my head when teacher asked question. I did not want to answer it, so I did not raise my hand. Then I solely tried to concentrate on the entire class. This one was a class I liked the most. “Interview with the vampire” we were studying imminently. The class finally ended.

I went to the park after I finished the whole day. I saw a father and his skinny-faced daughter were playing with the swings. And mother was sitting on a bench beside the sand pile and the swings, and eating mint ice cream and watching. She finished the ice cream, and went into the sand pile and pushed the swing of her daughter.

I thought of the golden cricket in my dream again. Then I wontedly went away with intend, and went to the garden beside the playground. It was the summer time, flowers were blooming, and plants, trees were all green. There is a path from the garden in the park to the wood beside the garden. I took the path; secretly I went into the woods. Suddenly I felt the delinquent mellow is with me.

I went home after I had the trail trip. The home looked empty, dark brownish furniture were scattered. I played some music on the stereo. Then I turned down the volume, and I tried to concentrate on my English assignments. The golden cricket came across my mind. Quick, quick, I thought. I will go further on this. Will I have my dream on the golden cricket again? Maybe…

I used to work in a company in the United States, in California. After 9.11 Terrorism attack, I went back to Canada. I urgently tried to find work to do here. I am an engineer and a consultant. Unfortunately, I did launch anything on my job campaigns and I had to end up living on student loan to continue my study. What did the golden cricket mean to me, I thought? Maybe it was only a dream.

One day passed, I received a phone call from California. A company received my resume and finally decided to call me. We exchanged some conversation over the phone into some specifics about their requirement, and Human Resources said an engineer manager would call me for a phone interview. I said OK and I hanged up the phone.

They never called me again, just Human Resources called once. Then there was no any news after and the said engineer manager did not call me. I went normally to school, to write my paper, to attend my English class enchantingly. And I did write and mention things about my dream of the golden cricket, exclusively. I am me, exclusively me. Again.

That is my story, a story about success and failure, and an imminent story about passion to life and experience. A story… about humanity.