Wu Ming-Yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes

Long long ago Nakaw and Sra came down from Mount Cilangasan

to found Kiwit, the place where the Pangcah began ,

for each of Nakaw’s children was the founder of a clan:

Tapang Masra settled by a river in the north

by the coast, in Ciwidian .

Tomay Masra erected two stones that have stood henceforth

in the valley, in Sapat .

Calaw Panay stayed right at home

and lived her days in Kiwit .

Karo Korol went off to roam

and made it up to Tafalong .

Proud children of Mother Nakaw and Father Sra we’ll always be .

Just scent the wind and trace the stream and face the sea ,

and you’ll find growing there the scattered seeds of Pangcah posterity .

As Alice did not understand a word of Pangcah, all she could do was follow the notes and let images appear in her mind: mountains, trees, leaves and wind blowing through a valley. There was a small film of water around the coffee cups on the table.

Hafay did not see Alice for a while after the quake. It was not that Hafay never “saw” Alice, just that they never talked face to face. Looking out the window, Hafay could often tell whether Alice was home or not. There were signs. If the second-floor window was left open, for instance, Hafay knew Alice hadn’t gone out. Early one morning, as the seawater lapped around the house leaving water marks on the walls, Hafay saw Alice lean out the window, jump down onto the first in a series of stools, then onto the second stool and the third, wobbling like a seabird trying to stop on the ocean in a stiff gale. Alice got home at dusk, carrying various bags, large and small, only to find that all the stools had gotten bowled over by the waves and drifted off. Wanting to go over and ask if Alice needed any help, Hafay remembered that Alice never wanted help, so she just watched. Alice dragged a board over, put her bags on it and pushed it slowly toward the window. After leaping through the window, she hoisted the bags in one by one.

Was a house like this still habitable? Hafay wondered.

She was even more curious about the change that seemed to have come over Alice. Several nights before, Alice had almost reminded her of a meadowlark in the depths of despair, but now from a distance she looked somewhat different. Hafay could not say how, but it seemed that Alice was out of the woods, at least for now. People around you can tell whether you have the will to live, and you can bet that someone who dies without warning has no one around her who cares. At this thought, Hafay felt like talking to someone, but there had not been a single customer in the Seventh Sisid all day. Hafay started to sing a little song to comfort herself, making up the words as she went along. The song was about a young Pangcah maiden named Hafay.

Maybe her voice carried, for soon after she started singing, Hafay saw Alice open the window, hold out a tiny black-and-white kitten, and wave at her.

Ohiyo . Reading Alice’s lips, Hafay seemed to see her say Ohiyo , but she could not be sure.

Dahu waded over and knocked at Alice’s door the morning after the earthquake. He breathed a sigh of relief when Alice stuck her head out of the second-floor window. His daughter Umav waved from where she was standing, up on the road.

“Thank God you’re all right. I came two times already first thing this morning, but I didn’t see you. I noticed your car was gone, so I assumed everything was all right, but couldn’t stop worrying, so I came back to check up on you.”

“Was it serious? The earthquake, I mean.”

“Well, it wasn’t that strong, but it did a lot of damage. Many coastal areas in Tai-tung got flooded, maybe because of land subsidence. They’ve been talking about resettling my home village for a decade now, and this time we might really have to move. The weather bureau says that this isn’t the Big Quake the seismologists have been predicting, but it might be another foreshock, a kind of omen. This time only a couple dozen people were injured, with two or three casualties.”

Alice wanted to grieve for the victims but couldn’t feel anything. Over the last ten years, there had been more and more earthquakes and floods. Sometimes all of a sudden a drizzle so faint nobody would think to bring an umbrella would turn into a downpour. Or three typhoons would hit one after another out of season. Lots of river trekking spots had been buried in landslides, and access roads outside levees had themselves become watercourses. Fishermen said that what with the new seaside embankments and concrete wave-dispersal tetrapods all around the island, even the coastal currents had become erratic, and the water temperature had changed, too, all year round. But we’ve got to get used to it, right? Alice thought.

“Are you coming up? You can get in through the window. Can Umav climb up?”

“Hah, the door won’t open anymore? Do you want to stay at my place …? I mean, it’d be safer.”

“I’m fine. The house is still here. I’d rather stay.”

“All right then.” Dahu knew Alice too well. She had made up her mind, and nothing he could say would make any difference. “So? Anything I can do?”

Alice thought for a second and said, “Well, if you go into town, could you pick me up some groceries?”

“No problem.”

Right then, the cat started meowing.

“What’s that?”

“A kitten. With a black-and-white coat. I took her in on the morning of the earthquake.”

“Is it all right?”

“She’s fine. Wait a sec.” Alice disappeared, soon reappearing at the window holding a frail kitten with a black-and-white coloring and a black head, as if it’d donned a black mask. She waved at Umav with the kitten’s right forepaw and said, “Look, Umav! Say hi, Ohiyo.”

Umav exclaimed, “Oh, it’s a kitty!” Any child, no matter how shy, turns into a different person when she sees an animal. Umav couldn’t help herself.

“Wow, her eyes are different colors!”

“Yeah, they’re different colors, like different kinds of weather: one side’s fair, the other foul. If you do go into town, Dahu, would you get me a bag of cat food? Umav, you can come play with her anytime.”

“Can do. I’m taking Umav to see the doctor, but we’ll come back for a visit. Umav, say goodbye to Auntie Shih and the kitten.”

Umav waved and asked, “Are we really coming back?”

“Sure.” Back up on the road, holding Umav’s hand, Dahu thought he’d better ask again. “You know an earthquake could strike any time, and come summer there’ll be typhoons. This house isn’t safe anymore. You have to think about moving to our village.”

Alice assumed the water would recede after a while, but it didn’t. That afternoon, Dahu brought over various canned foods, and Umav played happily with Ohiyo for the longest time. Now it was Dahu and Alice who couldn’t think of anything to say, and didn’t know what to do. They just looked quietly on at the kitten and the girl.

“Auntie Shih, do different colored eyes see the world the same way?”

Alice shrugged. The question was beyond her. “Is there anyone who sees exactly the same thing out of either eye?”

Umav looked to be giving this question serious thought.

Over the next few days, Alice could only go out to get water when the tide was out, wearing her rubber boots. To get out at high tide as well, she arranged a row of stools from tall to short, so when she wanted to go out she could lean out the window and step onto the first stool, then hop onto the second, then the third, and so on. On a windless day, Alice’s reflection must have seemed like a seabird flying past to underwater creatures. The problem was that the waves would bowl the stools over, and she would have to arrange them all over again when she got back. One day she discovered that the stools were not falling over anymore, because someone had put iron bases on and spiked them to rocks on the seabed. Dahu must have come and done it while she was out.