***** Vol.2 Chap.8 A lovely evening demanding an overdue celebration *****

As Haw-Ting was leaving the clinic, the fresh evening air revived him. The refreshing breeze invigorated him from the dread of the day. He stood at the front door of the clinic and took a couple of deep breaths. The clean and cool air smelled so good as compared to the smoke-filled rooms in the clinic. Even though he did not smoke, it was hard to prevent others from striking up a cigarette in the waiting room. It was one of the few pleasures in life that some of these patients had.

After a long hard day of seeing patients and handling emergencies at the clinic, he was ready to relax a little. The streets were filled with people. There were bands of high schoolers roaming the street, countless pairs of lovers meandering along the street oblivious to nothing else but one another. Quite a few older men were playing checkers across the street and there was one noisy table of mahjong down the street. From the noise all around him, he deduced that there must be at least three more tables of mahjong somewhere in the neighborhood.

He stood at the clinic door and watched the passersby strolling down the street. It was relaxing for him as he unwound from the day. A few old men walked past and nodded to him. Politely, he nodded back. A herd of teenagers were skipping and jumping on the other side of the street. They saw him and waved to him. He waved back with a big grin on his face. It was so relaxing to breathe in the fresh cool evening air and let the wind blow away all his worries and all his troubles. He wished he was a kid on the street, playing and laughing with no worries. He grew up in a poor family and always had to help in his father’s restaurant. So, he never had much time to play with his friends, in fact even to play at all. He sighed for his lost childhood.

He looked up again and saw another young couple riding their bicycles along the edge of the road. They were riding slowly and mostly engaged with one another about what was going on. Perhaps they were exchanging conversations about the day or about the week. He wondered if they even knew what was going on around them. Another pair of young people with arms wrapped around one another strolled past, and he thought to himself that they must be going on a date. He remembered there were many nights that he and May-Ling were walking the streets with their arms around one another as well. They would stroll along the same street or go from one street to another. They were too poor to buy anything, but they loved to look at the window displays.

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“How are you, Doctor Tsai?”

“Oh, …., fine, er, … Mr. … er Lo. Fine, I am fine. Thank you very much.”

Reality hit. It is time to get a move on.

The evening was still young, and the weather was so nice that he was in no hurry to get home. He wandered around the street looking at the shops and the surrounding people. Today had been long and hard like any other day, but it was over. The weekend was coming up. He hoped he could relax a little. A soft breeze blew over his face. The blowing wind had carried all the smog and stench of the village away. In return, the wind had brought the sweet fragrance of some early spring flowers from the nearby mountains.

He felt like celebrating. Most of the time, when he wanted to celebrate a little; he was always overruled by May-Ling. Somehow, she always came up with some reasons they should not spend any money at all. He thought to himself. What is wrong with buying a nice dish from the nearby restaurant for a change? What is wrong with getting a chicken from the market? What is wrong with getting some BBQ duck once in a while? But every time when He brought up the subject to celebrate a job well done or to commemorate a special occasion, she would always say that they had no money or it was unnecessary. At other times, she would volunteer to put in extra effort at home to cook so they did not have to spend any money. What she said was absolutely true and so he lost the argument every time.

Well, he felt like celebrating tonight and she was not there to talk him out of it. Whoopee! He kicked his heels and skipped a few steps. He thought of all kinds of things he would like to buy. Perhaps a dozen pan-fried dumplings from Wong’s Market, but decided against that because he wanted something a little more expensive. May be a live chicken from the market since one could make quite a few dishes from one chicken. But that did not appeal to him when he realized he was the one who had to make it. So, he decided not to waste a perfectly fine evening staying indoors preparing the chicken. He passed one of the neighborhood restaurants. It was so tempting to order a couple of dishes from there. In fact, he entered the restaurant and asked for the menu, but quickly put the menu down when he saw the price of the dishes. He scanned the wall for specials as well, though the dishes sounded so tempting, the prices scared him to death. He politely made an excuse and left the restaurant.

A BBQ place happened to be next to the restaurant. The aroma of the BBQ duck permeated the air. Instinctively, he was drawn into the store. Since it was the end of the day, the owner was about to close the shop. He bargained with the owner for half of a BBQ duck and got a reduced price if he bought the whole duck. He splurged and gave the owner the money and proudly carried the whole duck out the store. Once outside, he started running home as he could not wait to get home to sample the duck. It had been a long time since he last tasted something like this.