Love on the Rails

Author: Su De
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: When I met Roman, it was winter. He was lying naked under a sunshade made of gourd leaves, his knees bent, holding a book of "Harry Potter" and pretending to read. His body was tanned a light red by the somewhat scorching sunlight, wave after wave of light red, like the marks left by blood flowing through. The winter in Ya Long Bay was filled with warm breezes. I sat on the lounge chair, sending Yu a text message, wanting to take a picture of the beach to send to him, wanting to hear his voice, but there was no reply. I stood up, walked into the sea, and called Yu amidst the waves driven by the wind. However, the mechanical voice on the other end answered: "The subscriber you have dialed has been switched off." A boy selling seashells by the beach came over with a bag full of seashells. He squinted at me and extended his hands: "Ten yuan." Every day, such boys run around Ya Long Bay, selling seashells and sea snails they had collected at night or in the early morning. Their parents, meanwhile, hid behind the nearby rocks, their faces wrapped in large towels and hidden under wide-brimmed hats, revealing sparkling eyes as they carefully guarded a full bucket of seashells and sea snails.