Chutzpah!: New Voices from China by Ou Ningr

Author:Ou Ningr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2015-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Dust

By Chen Xue

TRANSLATED BY HOWARD GOLDBLATT

I

The drapes were tawdry, and a clutter of books, magazines, and comic books, as well as a safety helmet, a raincoat, and some tote bags, filled the space on both sides of a twenty-one-inch TV sitting on a black entertainment cabinet whose faux leather top had curled up in spots. The three-cushion sofa with two mismatched throw pillows was neat enough, but the nearby armchair was occupied by a pair of stuffed toy cats. I’d been in the room for a little more than three hours and, owing to an occupational predilection, could not have helped noticing among the chaotic piles of odds and ends a roomful of things that needed to be thrown out. I could imagine the kind of life led by the people who lived there and could guess the sort of mess that lay in the rooms behind all those closed doors. Of course, they could just as easily be as neat as a pin, all the junk having been tossed into the living room and hallway. Your typical shared apartment.

Anna was walking toward me with an armload of shoeboxes, looking as serious as a housemaid busy with her domestic duties. Those boxes, which came in all sizes and in a mix of blacks and browns, exuded an aura of mystery. “May I ask a favor?” she said.

A pink blush peeking through light makeup betrayed her shyness and lent her skin a sort of translucence. Though she was a grown woman of thirty-two, there was a girlish quality to her simple request.

“What is it? I’m happy to do whatever I can,” I replied, scarcely able to keep from reaching out and stroking the slightly flushed skin, yearning to see it in its natural state, imagining it to be dotted with freckles and less than perfectly smooth—in short, to see what her face looked like without cosmetics. We weren’t lovers at the time, and that thought makes me somewhat uneasy. I was pretty sure I liked her and hoped she’d like me.

“I need some advice on putting my things in order,” she said. Over a period of two months, I’d learned that Anna was more reserved than other girls, and that it often took more than one attempt for her to say what was on her mind, a trait that seemed wildly inappropriate for her day job of fielding customer complaints over the phone. But maybe she simply talked herself out at work. So I patiently waited for her to explain what she wanted. “What I’d like is for you to help me organize my things. I moved in about six months ago, and I still haven’t finished unpacking. That makes finding anything just about impossible.” By the time she finished, her face had turned red.

We’d met on an Internet dating site, exchanging messages and an occasional phone call; that gradually led to nightly text messages. After about six months of that, we met face to face. Anna was an attractive but not beautiful woman, with rounded eyes, a small nose, and thick lips.

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