***** Vol.2 Chap.23 A young girl’s introduction to a big city *****

Grandpa Chen took May-Ling’s hand and walked through the exit gate to the streets. There were many street vendors peddling all kinds of things outside the gate. Some of them put a large piece of cloth on the ground and spread their wares on top of the cloth. Others packed their stuff in a suitcase and opened the suitcase exposing all kinds of goods. There was one vendor who sold watches. Next to him, another vendor peddled beads. Next to that vendor was a fellow sitting on a stool with a basket full of plastic toys. May-Ling had to resist the urge to pause and look at the products. One time she was looking at a vendor and almost tripped on the stuff. It was her grandpa who pulled her up at the last minute before she fell down.

As they passed by another vendor, May-Ling suddenly stopped.

“Grandpapa, Grandpapa. That is our flower vase!”

“You see something you like?” The peddler said. “You like the flower vase? I will sell it to you at a very reasonable price. This is a genuine product. It is of good quality. …”

Grandpa Chen just kept on walking, pulling her along. She turned back to look at the vase again.

“Give me a price. I will sell it to you cheap! …” The vendor yelled after them.

“Grandpapa, that is our flower vase!”

“Let’s not talk about that anymore.”

“But I recognize it. That is our flower vase. I remember the chip that I made when I dropped it one time.”

He stopped and stooped down, looking at her sternly yet sadly, he said. “Yes, that was our flower vase. I recognize it too. But it was stolen. It belongs to the vendor now. It is not ours anymore.”

That was too much for her. What an introduction to the big city for a little girl! She sat down on the pavement and cried. She refused to move.

“I miss my village. I want to go back. I miss my parents. I miss Uncle Zhang.”

“I know you do, but there is nothing left for you in the village to go back to.”

“I want my village. I want to go back.” Despite all the pouting, she knew her grandpa was right. There was nothing to go back to anymore. But it felt good to let all her emotions out.

“That is OK. Just let it all out.” He was understanding. He sat down on the pavement with her as well.

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After a minute, she stopped. She realized that he was right. Her parents were not here anymore. Their home was gone. The clinic was gone. There was nothing left to go back to. Only memories were left.

With renewed strength, she stood up and brushed her tears aside.

“Come on, Grandpapa, let’s go.” He stood up with her and held hands. With heads held high, they walked to the bus station.

At the bus station, they had to wait for another hour for the bus to arrive. She had never been on a big bus before. She followed her grandpa up the bus. She couldn’t tell whether she climbed the steps of the bus herself or the people behind actually pushed her up the bus. Anyway, she was now on the bus. There were lots of people inside. There were only a few seats in the bus occupied by a few well-dressed business type people. Everyone else stood, and she tried to hang on to her Grandpapa as the bus swayed back and forth. It was a bumpy ride. Horns were blaring all the time. The bus driver was quite aggressive. There were several near misses along the way. She was thankful for that. Although, as a newbie, she was sure that they would get into an accident. After all, no one drives like that back in her village. Amazingly, there were no accidents, and they arrived at their destinations safely.

At the outskirts of the city where a large residential district compound rose to the sky with many skyscrapers, they got off the bus, though May-Ling practically had to jump off the steps before the bus started moving again. Slowly, they walked towards the residential district. It was about half a kilometer from the bus stop to the residential buildings. She had never seen so many high-rises before. They were so tall that she could not fathom how one would walk up to the top. She tried to follow her grandpa closely for fear she would lose him and be lost in this maze of buildings. She knew she would never find her way around here once she was lost. To her, all the streets looked like a giant maze. Grandpa Chen walked this way and that way and, before long, she got totally lost.

Along the way, she saw all kinds of stores. The odor from the stores overwhelmed her senses. She always thought that Uncle Zhang’s porridge was the best. That was because she had tasted no one else’s porridge. Now there were all kinds of street vendors and stores lining the streets. One of the street vendors was selling porridge also, but the smell was so much better than Uncle Zhang’s. As they were passing by, she saw a glimpse of the menu. She was amazed that the little stall could sell so many kinds of porridge: chicken porridge, fish porridge, pork porridge, seaweed porridge, etc. They all smelled so good to her. Then there were the noodle vendors with several kinds of noodles: Szechuan noodles, rice noodles, udon noodles, etc. Then there were rice vendors with steamed rice, sweet rice, fried rice, eight-treasure rice, etc. She could read some words on the menu, though most of the words were scrawled out rather sloppily on the advertising board.

After the street vendor sections, they came to a better section of the compound where the pleasant restaurants were located. The street stalls were gone. There were well-dressed people eating inside. She could see through the windows of the restaurants people eating nice and exotic dishes. She had never seen dishes that were so carefully and beautifully decorated. The dishes looked scrumptious, though she did not know what they were. She was sure that they must have tasted good.

When they were about to pass one of the fancy restaurants, the kitchen door suddenly swung open. She took a quick peek and could see people working inside. They were running around in a frenzy. A young man was washing dishes outside the kitchen door. He was fair skinned and seemed to be very shy. But he was staring and smiling at her. She glanced away and walked on. She thought he was too forward to be smiling at her, though her heart raced a bit as she glanced back at him.