28 Apr 2011 5 Comments
#361: New York love story (Bản tiếng Anh – demo) – Part 5
NEW YORK LOVE STORY
By
Ha Kin
Translated by Hà Kin and Curtis Norris
CHAPTER 5
How do you describe the feeling of a person with marsh fever?
Covered by two wool blankets, mad heat radiating from my body, thick sweat running through my hair, first my sweater became soaked and then even the blankets. The room was sixty degrees, but I steamed myself up to over a hundred. It was so hot that I couldn’t breathe, but I felt that each bead of sweat that dropped relieved me of the “poisonous gas.”
At some point I got up like a sleepwalker and turned on a rock song. It was a long remix of the song, lengthened to over thirty-five minutes. It must have been the longest rock song ever, and listening to it seemed like falling into infinity. That song took me into a nightmare, probably because my hand was on my chest. All I remember is that I fell into a wandering desperation with no way to escape. It seemed like the end of the world.
I knew it was a dream, but I could not wake myself back to reality. Tears ran wet mixing with my sweat. Terrible! The song finally finished and I floated into another desperation.
This time various non-sense images went running crazily through my mind. My grandmother was still alive and she was cooking rice under the hill, and under the hill was my house. Then I was wandering on the island, down Thirty-fourth Street. His face was there, following. I wandered some more and then there it was, the card. At this point I fought to gain control of my wandering mind. I focused on the image with all my strength, willing it into clarity. I remembered two things quite clearly. I recalled the print color, a kind of silver-blue. Then I remembered the email; it was his name, perhaps with a hyphen, and he used AOL. The number five was also there on the card, part of the address of his office, maybe Fifty-seventh Street or Sixty-fifth, also, yes definitely, Third Avenue. That was it! If I could remember Third Avenue then I could check all the dental offices on that street that contained a number five in their address!
With that revelation the fever suddenly broke. Gradually reviving, my body felt itchy all over. My head was heavy and my throat dry, burning and so bitter. I gave a great cough.
I felt wisdom returning. Perhaps I had just survived a convulsive fit! I should be able to take off one blanket now. I reached for the mirror and saw a pale face lacking all vitality. I was looking into my silver bracelet, the silver turned into the color of rust. I felt revived, the desperation totally gone.
Recent Comments