Can Xue - Vertical Motion

“You need to pinch it tightly,” Elena said gently.

But after a while, it slipped out of my hand again. No sooner had it fallen down than the mother hens all went crazy and flew around in confusion. They even fiercely pecked my face a few times. My face was bleeding. If I hadn’t covered my eyes with my hands, they would have even pecked out my eyeballs. Annoyed, Elena dragged me out of the chicken coop, but she didn’t forget to pick up the stone. I heard her say: “You’re really mischievous. Stop for a moment, okay?” She put the stone — now calm again — back into my hand.

“Once a stone is picked up by someone in that kind of place, the stone is doomed to have no peace.”

She said that now there was no place we could stay. We could only take the desperate step of going to a place called “Stockaded Mountain Village.” We certainly couldn’t stay here: I heard her brothers in the dark room shouting her name with that strange pronunciation. They sounded like devils. She was holding my arm tightly, more or less dragging me between houses. The path was full of discarded wood and garbage cans. All of a sudden, she stopped in the middle of the road and said we had reached the stockaded mountain village. Next to us was a large heap of dark things: Elena said it was a bear. But that thing didn’t look at all like a bear: it was roughly as large as half a cabin.

“I love to lean against it and think of that matter. When I lean against it, this place becomes so open. There are only some clouds. From a distance, my parents and brothers call to me and I call to them. You may shake hands with it.”

Reluctantly, I extended my hand to the dark thing. Although I didn’t touch anything, when I pulled my hand back, I heard a light popping sound, as if there were suction there.

“You touched it, didn’t you? What do you think of it? This is our stockaded mountain village — its and mine. My family members can’t find this place. If they hadn’t driven me out, I wouldn’t have brought you here, either.” Her voice was filled with furtive joy.

Inspired by her words, I extended my hand to it time and again and listened repeatedly to the popping sound. I even walked into it, but there was nothing inside. Of course, there were some things, because I felt the buoyancy of the air, and indeed, my feet kept leaving the ground and falling to the ground again. Elena’s voice was now far away.

“Two flowers, three flowers. Ha. I see too many. ”

I wasn’t very accustomed to the buoyancy of the air. I kept wanting to grab something to steady myself. There was a lamp post. I would hang onto it. My movement caused me to fall head over heels, and it was hard to turn around. When I looked again, I couldn’t see any street light; there was just a faint streak of light, that’s all. Elena’s voice still reached me now and then.

“It’s high. Drop down. Go home!”

Was she telling me to go home? But I didn’t want to go back. The air all around had become so clear and fresh and cool, and it was emitting the fragrance of narcissi. If I were just a little patient and didn’t get flustered, I wouldn’t fall. And even if I fell, I wouldn’t die from it. I still wanted to stay a while longer and see if anything had changed here. I began making slow breast strokes, but they weren’t nearly as smooth as in the water. Any slight overexertion would send me tumbling over and over again. It would be much better if it were too dark to see anything: that way, I could follow my own inclinations. This half-light, half-dark atmosphere meant that I needed to be particularly cautious, because obstacles lay everywhere. It was impossible to decide whether you had to deal with them seriously. Most of the obstacles were illusory, like that lamp post.

After I entered Elena’s stockaded village, the stone in my pocket calmed down. When I brought it to my ear, I could still hear the buzzing sound; it was steady and joyful. For the moment, it seemed I had no way to leave her stockaded village. I tried to, but I just couldn’t. Anyhow, now I didn’t want to go, for this place was refreshing. Ah, if Elena were here, it would be wonderful! We could perform a moon-walking dance together, or we could embrace and kiss one another in the sweet-scented air current. I saw huge shadows edging toward me — three of them altogether. Maybe they were the cloud-like things she had talked of. They finally came over and wrapped me up in them. Actually it wasn’t frightening; it was just a little darker. This is what I thought at first. Later, when it grew darker and darker, and I heard the sound of grinding and sparks bursting forth all around me, I grew nervous.

“Elena! Elena!” I shouted.

“Go home. go home. ”

Her voice was splintered by the wind — a little here, a little there. I couldn’t distinguish what direction it was coming from. These three things were probably all grinding against each other, and I might become a sacrificial lamb. She told me to go home, but how could I break out of here? I closed my eyes and collected my thoughts and continued to swim in one direction. I warned myself to take it easy and not to be worried or rash. I remembered that in the beginning Elena hadn’t wanted me to intrude on her world: perhaps I was as curious about her as she was about me. Now I heard the sound of something detonating next to me: I was both excited and frightened. How long had I been swimming? Why hadn’t I already made my way out of the stockaded village? I’d better open my eyes.

The mountain really did appear before me. The mountain was filled with the wandering beams of torches. I thought I would swim over to that side. I tried hard, and then harder, but it was useless: I was still in the same place. The wind made my raincoat puff up and my feet left the ground. Someone next to me was talking, his voice growing louder and louder.

“We more or less understand the circumstances over there. You’ve seen it, too. This kind of mountain always collects energy. What does it rely upon? It’s nothing but mutual extrusion. ”

Ah, it was Lai. I had already walked to the end of the alley, and the rain was coming down hard. Lai winked at me and said: “You dunce — wandering around at night in this kind of weather!”

I knew he was suggesting that I was sleepwalking. I wasn’t angry with him. I didn’t mind. I felt my pocket: the stone was still there. I stumbled a little, but I still took it out. The rain moistened it.

“Put it away. I have one of these stones, too!”

He began to run and reached our building before I did. He entered.

When I went upstairs, it was suddenly light. The corridor was clean. Looking at myself again, I saw that I was clean, too. When I went into my room, I took off my raincoat and placed the stone on the table. Then, looking in the mirror, I combed my messy hair. While I was doing all these things, I kept one eye on the stone. It became an ordinary stone. I brought the stone to my ear. There was no sound at all. All of its life force had slipped away.

Without knocking, Lai came in furtively.

“Do you really have a stone like this?” I asked, a little disappointed.

“Hunh. Whoever wants one can pick one up.”

“Where?”

“I’m not too sure, but anyhow, inside a grotto. Many people have fallen into it. In rainy weather like this, who wouldn’t want to get out? I understand you. I’ve come to talk with you about the mountain.”

Lai was an idler in this old building. I had rarely heard him talk so earnestly. What he was saying startled me. He sat down comfortably on the recliner, but he didn’t talk with me about the mountain. Because he was in charge of collecting the water fees for this building, I went to get the money for him. I had taken only a few steps before I stopped in amazement: the grinding, as well as a slight sputtering, began to sound in the room. Both sounds were coming from Lai’s mouth. I recalled what Elena had said: “Like clouds floating in the air. Sometimes dense and sometimes sparse. They make pih-pah pih-pah sputtering sounds.” I raised my voice: “Where is the mountain? Is it raining on the mountain, too?”