Yu Hua - Brothers

Tall, strong Song Fanping marched at the very front of the parade. He held a giant flag with both arms stretched straight out. This red flag was as wide as a couple of bedsheets, perhaps with a few pillowcases added in. As it flapped in the wind, undulating like cascading waves, it made Song Fanping look as though he were hoisting a sheer wall of water above his shoulders. His white shirt was soaked through with sweat, his shoulder and arm muscles twitched like little squirrels, his bright red face was covered in freely flowing rivulets of sweat, and his eyes shone like bolts of lightning. Spotting Baldy Li and Song Gang, Song Fanping yelled out, "Sons, come over here!"

At that moment Baldy Li was hugging the electrical pole and curiously asking various passersby why Mama Su had cursed him as having "bad karma." When he heard Song Fanping's cry, he immediately abandoned the pole and ran over with Song Gang. They both grabbed Song Fanping's white shirt, and he lowered the flagstaff to allow them to hold on as well. In this way, Baldy Li and Song Gang held Liu Town's largest red flag and walked at the front of Liu Town's longest parade. Song Fanping strode forward with giant steps, and the two kids scurried along to keep up with him. Many little children drooling with envy and admiration ran alongside them clustered on one side of the street. The three cocky middle-schoolers also followed along, similarly crowded to the side. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed Song Fanping like two puppies keeping up with an elephant, their lungs, throats, and eyes all on fire from exertion. When they reached a bridge, Song Fanping finally paused, as did the rest of the procession.

Clumps of people crowded the streets and alleys below the bridge, with everyone looking up at Song Fanping. All the flags on the bridge, large and small, were unfurled. Song Fanping lifted the giant red flag over his head and began waving it back and forth, making it crackle like fireworks as it flapped in the wind. With their eyes Baldy Li and Song Gang tracked the path of this giant flag as it billowed left to right, flipped over, then back again. It flew over the entire bridge, and the wind from the flag blew the boys’ hair back and forth. As Song Fanping waved the flag, the crowd below started to roar. Baldy Li and Song Gang saw waves of fists and heard their slogans booming like cannons.

Baldy Li started to howl, as if he were humping a pole. Flushed and hoarse, he said to Song Gang, "I feel my sex drive."

He saw that Song Gang was also flushed and hoarse and was shouting at the top of his lungs with his eyes closed. Baldy Li was delighted and, nudging Song Gang, asked, "Do you feel your sex drive, too?"

This was Song Fanping's most glorious day. After the parade, the marchers returned to their homes, but he continued walking down the main street, leading Baldy Li and Song Gang by the hand. Many people called out his name, to which he grunted in reply. Some even walked up to shake his hand. Baldy Li and Song Gang strutted with pride, feeling that everyone in town knew Song Fanping. They kept asking him enthusiastically who that man was who just called out to him and who the person was who just shook his hand. They kept on walking, farther and farther away from home. The two kids asked Song Fanping where they were going, and he replied in a ringing voice, "We're going to the restaurant for a meal."

They arrived at the People's Restaurant. The meal ticket collector, busboys, and customers all waved at them, smiling. Song Fanping waved back with his large hand, looking like Chairman Mao atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace. They sat at a table by the window as the staff encircled them and the other customers brought their dishes over and sat with them. Even the cooks in the kitchen caught wind of the news and, all covered in grease, came out to see. Everyone chattered about things ranging from the greatness of Chairman Mao and the origins of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to couples’ squabbles and children's illnesses. Song Fanping had waved the largest red flag in Liu Town's history and had become the most important personage in town history. He sat up straight, his giant hands spread out on the table, and each time he answered a question, he would begin with, "As Chairman Mao taught us …"

His responses consisted entirely of Chairman Mao's words, without a single additional word of his own. They made his listeners’ heads bob up and down like woodpeckers, repeatedly saying "Ah, ah" as though they had toothaches. By this point Baldy Li and Song Gang were so hungry that their chests were flat against their backs and even their farts consisted of just fresh air, but they remained silent and gazed admiringly at Song Fanping. They felt that his voice was Chairman Mao's, and even his flying spittle was Chairman Mao's.

Baldy Li and Song Gang sat at the People's Restaurant for who knows how long. They didn't notice when the sun set or when the lights were turned on. Finally, the boys got to eat a bowl of steaming hot plain noodles. The greasy chef bowed down to them and asked, "Is the noodle broth good?"

The children answered in unison, "It's great!"

The chef grinned with pride and explained, "This is meat broth. Everyone else got only plain water, but I gave you meat broth."

After returning home that night, Song Fanping led the boys to the well to wash up. The three of them stripped down to their shorts and scrubbed their bodies with soap. Then Song Fanping drew a pail of water from the well and rinsed off the boys, then himself. Various neighbors sitting on their front stoops fanned themselves and chatted with him, discussing how magnificent the parade had been and how awe-inspiring he had looked waving the red flag. Song Fanping, exhausted from talking, gained a second wind, and his voice rang out once again. When Baldy Li and Song Gang returned to their rooms, they went to bed, but Song Fanping sat under the light and beamed as he wrote to Li Lan. Baldy Li gave Song Gang a look before falling asleep and giggled, saying that his father was red in the neck from all his writing. Song Fanping wrote for a very long time, describing all the events of the day.

When the boys woke up the next day, Song Fanping was standing at the foot of their bed. Still beaming, he stretched out his hands to the children, and they found two red Chairman Mao badges glowing in his palms. He said that these were for them and that they should wear them right over their hearts. Then he took another badge and pinned it to his own chest. Holding a copy of Chairman Mao's quotations, his face as red and bright as the badge, he stepped proudly outside. Baldy Li and Song Gang heard a neighbor ask him, "Will you be waving the red flag again today?"

Song Fanping answered, "Absolutely!"

Baldy Li and Song Gang put their ears to each others chests in order to make sure to pin their Mao badges right over each others beating hearts. Song Gangs badge had Mao perched atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, while Baldy Li's Mao was standing on the surface of a giant ocean. After eating breakfast, the boys were greeted by the morning sun as they walked outside, and flags as large as sheets and as small as handkerchiefs again filled the streets.

Everyone who had been parading the previous day had happily returned, and the people who had been putting up big-character posters were again busy slapping glue onto the walls. Blacksmith Tong was again raising his hammer and shouting that he was going to smash the class enemy's beastly legs. Yanker Yu was again raising his tooth extractor and shouting that he was going to yank all the class enemy's good teeth. Popsicle Wang was again walking around with an icebox on his back, banging on it as he marched and shouting that he would sell popsicles only to class brothers and sisters. Tailor Zhang once again had his measuring tape around his neck and was shouting that he wanted to make the most tattered funeral clothes for the class enemy, then corrected himself and hastily changed it to a corpse shroud. Old Scissors Guan was again waving his scissors, snipping at the class enemy's imaginary dicks. Little Scissors Guan, who had pissed against the wall the previous day, was once again unfastening his pants. Of all the people who had previously spat, coughed, sneezed, farted, and argued, not a single one was missing this time around.