by Chen Tong

M didn’t go to work today. She didn’t go to work because her boss gave her the day off. Her boss gave her the day off because he had the day off.? He took the day off to accompany his wife to look at houses.? The boss didn’t like his colleagues looking at her when he was not around.? Of course, M understood what he was thinking.? So, to reward the bosses ardency, she decided to take full advantage of the time off.? She decided to go shopping to buy some new lipstick.

Before going out, M fretted awhile.? First, she put on a long skirt with a dangling belt.? The boss had given this to her for her birthday.? She looked at it in the mirror for a minute.? But, she thought since she wasn’t going to be with the boss today, her good intentions would all be wasted.? She opened the dresser and changed into a short vest that stopped just above her naval and a pair of jean shorts.? She thus closed the door and went downstairs.? She went downstairs and then went back up again.? She had forgotten her sunglasses.? The weather outside was really hot.

As M stepped off the curb, a motorcycle rushed by brushing against her. Startled, she withdrew her foot.? There weren’t many cars on the road.? M looked at her watch.? It was still early.? So she changed her mind.? She didn’t need to rush across the street.? She continued to walk along the sidewalk.? One car after another passed beside her as she walked. A bus, a mini-bus, a company van, a gasoline truck and a yellow BMW. M sensed the street was really clean today. She was in the best of moods.

M’s gait was anything but hurried.? Yet, she quickly caught up with those people walking ahead of her. Up ahead a couple of meters, she gained on a man carrying a small handbag.? Her boss had a handbag just like it.? It made her quickly think of her boss.? These two men were speaking Mandarin.? One spoke in a Chaozhou dialect and the other spoke like a Sichuanese.? M guessed they were probably planning to open a Chaozhou hotpot restaurant.

Now M drew close to a young girl about the same age as M also walking alone.? This girl had a nice figure.? She wore a long skirt that was the same color and cut of the skirt she had put back in the dresser.? M felt jealous all of the sudden. To walk alone on the sidewalk wearing such an outfit, she had to have ulterior motives.? She could guess the contents of the backpack hanging from her shoulders: A wallet, a cosmetic case, a stack of tissues, a pager and a telephone book. No matter what, these things wouldn’t make her bag bulge like that.? What else could be in there? A bag of sausages?? M couldn’t even begin to guess.? M walked faster than the girl in the long skirt with a belt. She quickly passed her. Now, it was the girl’s turn to guess about M.? M didn’t carry anything with her. All she could muster for those behind her was a wiggling behind. The Chaozhou and Sichuan men suddenly stopped talking. M was nervous.? She knew that there were now six eyes trained on her behind. Four eyes would fix on both her behind and the other girls slim waist.? To have such a well-rounded behind and such a slim waist, that would be the ideal. M thought exactly what the Chaozhou man and the Sichuanese thought.

M’s luck began to change. Up ahead on the left were five young ladies whose faces broke into dimples when they smiled. M really wanted to have dimples like.? Her father didn’t have dimples.? Her mother didn’t have dimples.? The only chance she would ever have to have dimples would be if the boss were to use his teeth to bite her face, leaving behind two rows of teeth marks.? After a period of time, the teeth marks would grow into dimples.? Too bad the boss only used his lips to peck her on the cheek from time to time.? His teeth marks he saved for other parts.

M came upon the intersection without really knowing it. A traffic policeman stood on the round stand in the middle.? M wasn’t like other people.? She didn’t really dislike the police. That’s because her father was a policeman.? Her father had stood many shifts on the same round stand. The person he saw ever day at the same time and same place was M’s mother.? M’s mother was a street santitation worker that one medals of merit every year.? She parked her green trash cart alongside her father’s black bicycle everyday, right next to the stand where the duty officer stood.? As her father would issue citations to traffic violaters, her mother would stop what she was doing and look on. She liked to watch his hands as he directed traffic to the curb and when he reached for his pocket. Sometimes, the traffic violater would not admit his violation and get into an argument with him. In such cases, her mother would often speak out on her father’s behalf. The policeman father and sanitation worker mother had thus met at the same place and the same time each day, one day after another for years.? They eventually developed feelings for each other and got married.? He continued being a policeman while she changed jobs to the mess hall of the traffic police station.

M was already crossing the road.She noticed someone across the road taking a photo of the policeman standing on the round stand.She drew up close behind this person, looking first at the camera and then at the policeman.? Are you a reporter?M tried to enquire. The man’s eyes and hands did not leave the camera.But, his mouth opened a closed. No. Then are you a photographer? M progressed.The photographer wound the film.? His mouth moved again. Nope. You don’t look like a tourist. M used a negative in her sentence.? Her tone was sure. What makes you think I’m not a tourist?The man with the camera finally moved his hands and eyes away from the camera. He turned to face M, delivering this time a full sentence. I don’t know.? You just don’t like one. M’s eyes beamed for a second. You probably think tourists only take pictures of temples, not police, right??The man reasoned on behalf of M. Right!? How did you know that’s what I was thinking? I saw it in your eyes.? The man played along.

That’s not all I know.?I know your name is M.? You work at an ad agency.? You didn’t go to work today.?That’s because your boss gave you the day off. You had planned to go shopping to buy some lipstick.? That’s where you were going when you noticed me taking a picture of the policeman. Its simple you see. Your father was a policeman too. M listened to the string of confessions the man offered. She was speechless. Shocked. She didn’t know who this man was.? She thought of something she had read recently in a weekly magazine, something to do with a persons’ right to privacy. Could it be that this man was a detective hired by her boss’s wife to spy on her? If this was the case, then the trip to look at houses was nothing more than a ploy by the wife. But, what good would it do to have this man spy on her when she was all alone and not together with the boss??M couldn’t figure it out.?When she regained her senses, she discovered that the man with the camera was no longer there.

December 6, 1999

Translation by Robert Bernell