Last Kiss in Tiananmen Square Read Online Free PDF Page A

stammer as well. His feet were shaped like two potatoes. His heels and toes could never touch the ground at the same time. He bounced instead of walking, with his toes usually turned inward. His knees were so weak that they seemed not to exist. He smiled most of the time. The constant dripping of saliva from his mouth made him look silly. “I am, am not.., going to... to tell you.”
     
    “I know either you or Father has it. Hey, Father, if you try to protect him, that’s against the law. We are supposed to play fair.” Broomstick was a handsome boy. His tall slender body resembled a telephone pole.
     
    “Hey, son. Let me tell you, you’re not very smart. You know from all the talking you did, how much shit you have given me?”
     
    It was interesting to see Broomstick and Potatofeet were such slender boys, especially Broomstick when he stood up, while their parents were not slender people. Actually you could call them fat. As a sturdy man, Marshmallow had a bulging chest and a pockmarked face. His nose was small and pointy, his eyes round and benevolent. He was timid while his wife was loud. Marshmallow and Pumpkin both worked in a government-owned restaurant as cooks, which was why they were fat. They not only ate as much as they wanted to, but also they absorbed fat through their skins. But they could not afford to buy good food for their kids with their small salaries.
     
    Sitting in the yard a few steps from the card table were the girls, Little Pea, Broomstick’s older sister and Lili, the daughter of a policeman. They both graduated from the same high school. Little Pea worked in a grocery store downtown while Lili waited at home for a government job.
     
    “Have you been in the Square?” Lili asked Little Pea.
     
    “No.”
     
    “Too many people, most of whom are college students. They look so young. They are from all over the country, which I can tell because they speak funny dialects and look different. Some of them have silly crew cuts and wear hand-made clothes. They all wear glasses,” said Lili while looking at her finger nails.
     
    Little Pea sat quietly, working hard on her knitting. She was making a thick black sweater.
     
    “How is your boyfriend?” Lili asked.
     
    “He is fine,” Little Pea kept knitting.
     
    “I hear that you’re going to get married.”
     
    “Maybe soon,” Little Pea kept knitting as though they were talking about an upcoming dinner party.
     
    “Are you ready for it?”
     
    “I guess.”
     
    “It must be hard to prepare.”
     
    “Not really.”
     
    “Why?”
     
    “I’m going to move into his parents’ home since mine doesn’t have any room for us. So we don’t have to buy any furniture.”
     
    “Woo, I can’t believe your parents can live without you.”
     
    “They can. My parents know how to cook,” Little Pea finally raised her voice and showed some emotion.
     
    “But I have never seen them cook at home.”
     
    “They will have to. Otherwise my brothers have to cook themselves.”
     
    “When are you leaving?”
     
    “Next spring, when he saves enough money to buy himself a suit and have a tailor make a nice dress for me.”
     
    “That sounds exciting.”
     
    “I think so, too.” Little Pea’s voice tapered down and her small yellowish face cracked a smile. But she soon resumed her sober expression. She wanted to keep her long-awaited happiness to herself. She was too shy to reveal it.
     
    “Oh, it’s already ten o’clock. I’d better go home. Otherwise my mother will complain again.” Lili stood up and pushed back her long hair, which hung to her buttocks, and left.
     
    The water facet was dripping in the middle of the yard creating the splashing sound. A gust of wind blew through the yard. The weather was very pleasant at night. The heat soaked up the old laundry water and the dishwashing water on the ground. It smelled human.
     
     
     
     
     
    At the same time, the policeman Lao Liu and Dagong were chatting.