Yu Hua - Brothers

BALDY LI didn't really know how Song Gangs father got together with his mother. By the time he learned that this man's name was Song Fanping, he was about seven.

One summer evening, Li Lan led Baldy Li to the barbershop, where he was shaved to the proper degree of baldness. Then she took him to the basketball court across from the movie theater. This was the only lighted court in Liu Town, and everyone called it the Light Court. That evening, Liu Town was playing a neighboring town, and more than a thousand men and women shuffled in in their slippers to form concentric circles around the court, looking like mounds of dirt around a giant ditch. The men were smoking, and the women were cracking watermelon seeds. The nearby trees were full of screaming children, while foul-mouthed men crowded the wall behind. There wasn't a spare spot along the entire wall as the people below struggled to climb up and the people on top kept kicking them back down.

It was here that the two boys spoke to each other for the first time. Song Gang was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and blue shorts, had a runny nose, and was holding on to Li Lan s clothes. Li Lan caressed the top of his head, his face, and his slender neck, looking as though she wanted to eat him up. Then she pulled the two kids together and chattered on and on, but it was so noisy the boys couldn't make out a thing she was saying. Watermelon seeds and cigarette smoke were flying everywhere, and a fight had broken out over by the wall, where one of the tree branches had snapped and dumped two kids to the ground. Li Lan was still chattering at them, and finally they were able to make out what she was saying.

Li Lan pointed at Song Gang and said to Baldy Li, "This is your older brother. His name is Song Gang."

Baldy Li nodded to the boy and repeated, "Song Gang."

Li Lan then pointed at Baldy Li and said to Song Gang, "This is your younger brother. His name is Baldy Li."

When Song Gang heard Baldy Li's nickname, he broke out into peals of laughter as he stared at the younger boys shiny bald head. "Your name is Baldy Li? That's hilarious!"

But suddenly Song Gang started to bawl as a man burned his arm with his cigarette. When Baldy Li saw Song Gang bawling, he was amused and almost laughed out loud, until another mans cigarette burned him on the neck and he started bawling as well.

At that point the game began. Under the brilliant lights of the court and amid the cyclones of sound, Song Fanping shone. Li Lan was astounded by his height, strength, jumps, and skills. She yelled until she was hoarse and her eyes were bloodshot. Every time Song Fanping made a basket, he would run past them, his arms extended as if he were flying. Once he even dunked the ball. In his entire life he managed to dunk only once, and this was that time. For the thousand spectators crowded around the court, this was also the first and only time they witnessed a dunk. The deafening roar suddenly died away, and people stood slack-jawed, looking at one another as if trying to confirm what they had just witnessed. Then the waves of human voices roared back all around the court. It hadn't been this loud even back when the Japanese invaded.

Stunned by his own dunk, Song Fanping stood frozen for a moment under the net. After he realized what he had accomplished, he ran toward Li Lan and the kids, flushed and wide-eyed. He spread his arms and lifted Song Gang and Baldy Li high into the sky, then he ran with them toward the basket and would have joyfully tossed them in if they hadn't been crying so loudly. Fortunately, he eventually recalled that they weren't basketballs and, chuckling, ran back and set them down. Still lost in the moment, he then lifted Li Lan. In front of a thousand people, he lifted her up as waves of laughter washed over them. Every variety of laugh could be heard: bellows, titters, shrieks, chuckles, guffaws, cackles, dry and wet laughs.

In those days, to see a man embracing a woman was tantamount to watching an adult film today. After Song Fanping put Li Lan down, he ran with arms extended back into the game. Now that she had starred in her adult film, Li Lan was perceived in a completely different light, and for the rest of the game half the spectators watched the match while the other half stared at her curiously. They recalled the man who had died while peeping at women's naked bottoms, and they pointed out that she had been his wife. Li Lan, meanwhile, was lost in her own happiness. Tears in her eyes, lips trembling, she no longer cared what anyone else said.

After the game, Song Fanping removed his sweat-soaked jersey and Li Lan held it up to her breast, as if it were something precious. The four of them then walked over to a soda shop. By the time they were seated, the sweat from Song Fanping's jersey had soaked through Li Lan's white blouse, but she was blissfully unaware that her breasts were now completely visible. Song Fanping ordered two bowls of mung bean ice and two bottles of soda. Baldy Li and Song Gang both dug in. Song Fanping opened the cold bottles of soda and passed one to Li Lan as he gulped down the other. Li Lan didn't drink hers but instead pushed it back to Song Fanping, who paused for a second, then picked it up and gulped it down, too. The two of them sat gazing at each other, no longer paying any attention to their children. Song Fanping couldn't help staring at Li Lan's breasts, and she kept looking at his bare chest — his wide shoulders and cut muscles making her blush.

Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't pay attention to them either. This was the first summer the two kids had enjoyed this sort of icy treat. Previously, the chilliest thing they had tasted was a bowlful of well water, but now they were eating an icy mung bean treat, with sugar sprinkled on top like snowflakes. They lifted their bowls, and the mere chill of the bowls was more pleasurable than drinking well water. With the sugar on top dissolving like melting snow, each spoonful was sheer ecstasy. After the first few bites, their mouths became revved-up engines that couldn't be shut down. They slurped mouthful after mouthful of the ice-cold treat, freezing their tongues and lips. They would pause and let their mouths open as if they had been scalded, and then would start up again, rolling the icy mung beans around on the tips of their tongues. Eventually they finished their bowls and licked them clean, then continued licking, savoring the lingering chill of the bowl. They licked until their bowls were warmer than their tongues, and only then did they reluctantly put them down. They raised their heads, looked at Song Fanping and Li Lan, and asked, "Could we come back again tomorrow?"

Song Fanping and Li Lan answered in unison, "Sure!"

BALDY LI and Song Gang didn't realize that their parents were getting married in a few days. Li Lan bought two pounds of hard candy from Shanghai, roasted a big pot of fava nuts and another of watermelon seeds, and then poured everything into a barrel and mixed it together. When she was done, she gave a handful of the mixture to Baldy Li, who spread it out on the table and counted: only 12 fava nuts, 18 watermelon seeds, and 2 pieces of hard candy.

On the day of the wedding, Li Lan got up before dawn. She put on her new blouse, her new pants, and a pair of shiny new plastic sandals. She sat on the edge of the bed and watched the darkness outside her window dissipate as the rosy dawn light shone in. Her teeth were chattering. This time, though, it wasn't because of a migraine but, rather, because she was breathless and flushed at the prospect of another wedding. Li Lan hated the darkness with all her heart, and as the dawn arrived, she became more and more worked up, making her teeth chatter louder and louder and waking Baldy Li from his dreams three times. The third time he woke up, Li Lan didn't let him go back to sleep but told him to hurry up and get out of bed, brush his teeth, wash his face, and put on his new shirt, shorts, and plastic sandals. As she knelt in front of Baldy Li to fasten his sandals she heard the rumbling of a cart outside her door. She leapt up and dove to open the door and found Song Fanping, who was pulling the cart, standing there beaming, and Song Gang, who was seated on top, laughing and calling out, "Baldy Li!"