Su Tong - Madwoman On the Bridge and Other Stories

‘This way, big boy.’ The girl directed the driver with her umbrella towards the restaurant, ‘This way, not over there. It’s wet over there.’

‘You think I can’t find the way by myself?’ The driver laughed. ‘You don’t have to be so attentive just yet.’

‘The boss tells us to be sure to make a good first impression,’ the girl explained earnestly. ‘Last month, our boss took a trip to some other restaurants to see how it’s done there.’

‘What do you mean, "first impression"? I’m a repeat customer. I’ve been here quite a few times.’

‘How come I’ve never seen you before?’

The driver jumped over a puddle and suddenly recalled the name of the girl from last year. ‘There’s a girl called Xue. Is she still around?’

‘Xue?’ The girl’s eyes lit up for a moment. ‘I’m called Xue. You know me?’

‘I don’t know you , I know the other Xue — the one with the round face and short hair. She’s a little bigger than you, and a little darker. Does she still work in the restaurant?’

‘I’m the only girl called Xue here. Who knows who all these other Xues are you’re talking about,’ the girl said. ‘What did the other Xue do?’

‘Same as you. Stand here, attract customers.’

‘No way. I’ve been here for more than a year and that’s my name. How could there be another Xue? No way!’ The girl looked as if she thought he was having her on. She turned her head to look at the driver’s face, and then took another glance at his shoes. ‘Oh, man, look at your shoes. They’re disgusting,’ she cried out. ‘I told you to be careful where you stepped and you wouldn’t listen. Now look at your feet — covered in mud!’

The driver didn’t mind mud on his feet. He frowned, trying to remember something. ‘Well, that’s strange. You’re called Xue, too? I’m sure I remember right. The other Xue had a mole on her cheek, and you don’t. Or maybe all you girls here are called Xue.’

‘No way! How would that work? Everybody would get mixed up. It’d be impossible to manage things. There’s Mei, Hong and Li — they work nights — but during the day there’s only me.’ She raised her voice and said vehemently, ‘I’m not lying. May I drop down dead if I am. My name is Xue.’

The driver was a little bit perplexed and wondered if perhaps he had confused Xue in Weeping Willow with some other roadside girl. But he had always set great store by his memory, and the people he worked with at the transport company agreed that he was good at remembering two things: one of them was his route, and the other the names of the girls he chanced to meet along the way.

The proprietress came rushing out from the back of the restaurant, holding sunflower seeds in her cupped hands. Her bony face was covered in a thick layer of powder and her mouth smeared with lipstick. Her smile revealed jagged, blackening teeth. ‘Why, my friend. What a long time it’s been.’ She squinted as she gave the driver the once-over. Suddenly she extended one finger and poked him in the shoulder. ‘You dockside drivers, you’ve no loyalty at all. We gave you such good service last time and you forgot us all the same.’

Despite this greeting, the driver couldn’t be certain whether the proprietress really recognized him or not. Perhaps she did, perhaps not. He had met a lot of people of this type in roadside inns. The driver just smiled an acknowledgement and sat down on the edge of a table. He said, ‘I’ll have the same thing as before. Two fried vegetable plates and a bowl of noodles with herbs and shredded meat.’

Not far from the kitchen two men were sitting round a cardboard box, playing poker. They cast sidelong glances at the driver and then bowed their heads again. He had never seen them before, but guessed that they were paid by the proprietress to hang around the restaurant. All the roadside places had men like these, sitting idly while the women moved around them. The counter, painted pink, was right by the entrance, and on top of it stood a black-and-white TV set. The girl who called herself Xue had turned it on as soon as they came in. The TV looked like some kind of relic. It made a droning sound, but the screen remained blank. The girl picked up a slipper and hit the set twice, once on the left and once on the right, and suddenly the image appeared, a TV series from Hong Kong. There was a man and a woman, conducting meaningless small talk in a queer kind of Mandarin. After a moment, it turned out they were talking about love.

The driver said, ‘That’s really getting on my nerves. No matter where I drive, it’s always those two voices. They can’t talk normally, they have to drawl like that: " yala yala yala ". As soon as I hear them, it gets on my nerves.’

Xue stood by the counter. ‘No way! It’s cool to speak like that now, don’t you know that, big boy? If you don’t like a programme this good, why would you even want a TV?’

The driver said, ‘My TV at home is strictly for decoration. Of the three hundred and sixty five days of the year, I’m not at home for a hundred and eighty. I don’t have time to watch. When I do, it’s sport. I don’t watch anything else; I fall asleep if I do. The series from Hong Kong and Taiwan are OK, so far as the stories go, it’s the dubbing that gets me. As soon as I hear two voices like that, I want to fall asleep right away.’

Xue said, ‘No way! If I feel sleepy, I just watch TV and then I’m not sleepy any more. I’m watching this show — it’s the last two episodes now, so don’t interrupt or I can’t hear.’

The proprietress came out of the kitchen with his food. She kicked at the cardboard box and shouted, ‘Cards! All you do is play cards! It wouldn’t occur to you to go into the kitchen and help with the vegetables, I suppose?’ As she approached the driver, her expression quickly turned into an easy smile. She remarked to him, ‘Just look how hard it is to run a place like this. The staff are all lazy. I’m the busy one while they’ve got it made: the card players with their cards; the TV-watchers with their TV.’

The driver had wanted to say something, but then yawned. ‘I can’t stand the sound of that show. I get sleepy as soon as I hear it.’

The proprietress blinked suddenly and scrutinized him. ‘You look awful,’ she shouted, as if she was genuinely alarmed. ‘Your face looks terrible. You really should take a rest. How long have you been driving? You look exhausted.’

The driver shook his head, and leaned back on his chair, giving the proprietress an ambiguous smile.

‘Are you all right?’ She put out her hand to feel his forehead, saying, ‘You don’t have a fever. Well, then, as long as you’re not ill. Hey, it’s not easy the work you do, and it takes the best years of your life, too. Aren’t I right? I can tell you’re tired. You’ll be fine once you’ve had a rest.’

‘It’s not that I’m tired. To tell you the truth, I had a bit of a shock. There was an accident out by Siqian.’

‘Who caused it?’ The proprietress suddenly seemed a little nervous and took a step back from him. She asked tentatively, ‘You’re all right, though, aren’t you?’

‘I’d hardly be sitting here if I weren’t, would I?’ The driver chuckled and moved his legs restlessly under the table. ‘I didn’t do it,’ he said. ‘What are you staring at me like that for? I didn’t do it, it was the coal truck in front of me!’

‘Yeah, those are the worst. Their drivers are all mad. It’s as if they’re deliberately looking for people to hit.’ The proprietress was going along with him now and demonstrating appropriate interest in the accident itself. ‘Did you see the person get hit? Who got hit?’

‘It was an old man. All I saw was this old man going off like a firecracker. The coal lorry was along with me the whole way. The trucker had just passed me when I saw him hit someone. I heard a big bang — hell, it was just like a firecracker. In all the years I’ve been driving, I’ve never seen anyone be hit. Just like a firecracker!’