Inman put his left hand in a boot barrel and held the doorknob, while his right hand was still holding a shoeshine cloth. One foot was wearing socks and the other foot was not oiled. His shirt sleeve was almost rolled up to his elbow without a coat.
Inman’s face was surprised that Ida was now here and now. It was the two of them who never dreamed in advance. He was tongue-tied and knew that she should never come in now. He put up an index finger to signal her to wait for a while, just for a little while, and then left her outside the door.
Ida just caught a glimpse of the house. It’s really pitiful. A small window is on the opposite wall. Looking from the window, you can see the wall panels and tiles of the shops across the lane. It’s even more pitiful for the furniture. A narrow iron frame bed, a chest of drawers with a washbasin, a chair and a writing desk are piled up with several piles, which are similar to a prison cell. Ida wants to be more suitable for a monk to live in, but Inman belongs to the male gang in her mind.
Inman ran kept his word and quickly hit him again. His shirt sleeves were already in place, and he was wearing a hat and coat. This time, his feet were wearing boots, but one was dirty and yellow, and the other was as black as a man with an oil stove cover, and he didn’t look so flustered just now.
I’m sorry. He said it was a surprise.
I hope it wasn’t an unpleasant accident.
Very happy, he said, although his face could not see a happy expression
Inman walked to the porch with his back against the railing and his arms in his chest. He hid some parts of his mouth in the sun outside the house and cast shadows on the brim. For a long time, neither of them spoke. Inman looked back and saw that he had forgotten the door. Ida thought to himself that he must regret not opening the door. Now he is not sure what to do better: walk two steps to the door awkwardly or let the doorway expose the narrow bedstead awkwardly.
She said that I wanted to tell you that I thought yesterday ended badly, not because I wanted people to be very dissatisfied.
Inman’s mouth narrowed into a line. He said, I’m not white. What do you mean? Yesterday, I went to say goodbye to Ashley, who lives in the river tour. When I passed by Black Valley, I thought I might as well tell you-so I came to see you. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not dissatisfied.
Ada hasn’t experienced the experience of being rejected. The first thought in her mind now is to turn around and walk the steps and leave Inman behind forever, but she didn’t do it. Ada said that we may never talk again, so I don’t want your statement to replace the fact. That’s not what you mean. Yesterday, when you came here, you were full of expectations but failed to realize your fault. I was saddened by my violation of my heart, but my performance will be very different again.
None of us can have this opportunity to go back to the past and erase it before we know what is not suitable for us and let everything go our way. You can move on.
Inman’s arms were still on his chest, and a small piece of shirt sleeve was exposed at the cuff of his coat. Ida reached out and held Inman’s shirt sleeve with her thumb and forefinger until his arm was loose. Ida picked up Inman’s hand, touched the curved blood vessels on the back of his hand with one finger from knuckles to wrists, and then grabbed his hand. She felt that Ida couldn’t help but think about what the rest of his body would be like.
After a while, both of them dared not look at each other’s faces. Finally, Inman took off his hat in his hand, grabbed the brim of the hat and spun it in the middle. He shook his wrist to let the hat go through the door and care where it would fall. They all laughed. Inman held Ida’s waist with one hand and put the other hand on her head, and her hair was combed. A mother-of-pearl hairpin loosely held Inman’s finger and touched the cold hairpin. He pulled Ida’s head over to make up for a kiss that slipped away from them the day before.
At that time, women of her status had to wear clothes. Ada almost wore clothes. Her body was tightly wrapped in many layers of rigid fabrics. Inman put his hand around her waist. When she took a step back and watched his whale bones rub and squeak with her as she moved and breathed, she guessed that she felt like a turtle in a shell. There was no sign that there was a naked, warm and fresh life hidden inside.
They walked past the door and walked up the steps together. At this time, the door still looked like two people. Ida turned around and put her index finger on Inman’s collar button to stop him.
It’s far enough, she said, go back, like you said, after the meeting
But I hope it won’t be long.
So we want the same thing
On that day, they thought that the difference was only a few months at most, but it turned out that none of them expected the war to last.
Busy
Inman walked through the local people according to the exquisite map of the yellow race. It was said that it was cold in the mountains at night and the leaves had changed color. After more than half a week, he came to the edge of the map. The blue ridge of smoke stood in front of him. It took him another three nights to leave an unlucky place called Happy Valley behind. It was a long and wide valley at the foot of the mountain. It was full of broad farmland and grassland. Inman dared not walk during the day, but his gun was often seen riding torches and passing through the shadows. Inman was never less hiding in the potholes than when he walked. He speculated that the riders were searching for prisoners who escaped from Salisbury
At intervals in the mountains, you can see a mansion with white stone pillars surrounded by scattered humble huts, so the valley seems to be divided into many pieces. Inman looked at the lights in the mansion at night and knew that he had always lived in this kind of house. He was not resentful. He wanted to enter the sparsely populated mountain early, hoping that people there would not give him so much trouble. He got rid of the dangerous valley as soon as possible, took a narrow path to the north, crossed a ridge, crossed a deep valley and then struggled along a steep mountain road. It was difficult to climb to the top of the blue ridge. Inman climbed for a long time, and the next day he climbed for another day. The mountains and roads still stood high in front of him, spiraling endlessly, and soon there was a scene of late autumn around him. There were already as many deciduous trees in the mountains and autumn.
Towards evening, it began to rain cold. After dark, Inman went on his way with depression until long after midnight. He was exhausted and wet like an otter. At this time, he happened to find a hole in the root of a chestnut tree, and the edge of the hole was covered with bark like a thick lip. He climbed into the hole, although he was too small to crouch in it, but he continued to get caught in the rain. His thumb and forefinger twisted the fallen leaves into tight rolls and then bounced them into the dark to stay in the tree hole. He felt like a wet ghost and a small one hiding in the dark. The land god, a little demon or a demon who lives in Qiaoshan Mountain, fled with resentment and was ready to attack passers-by to vent his anger. He waited for Lebanon to arrive in half sleep and half awake, and finally fell asleep and was deeply embedded in the chestnut tree.
He started the dream of the Battle of Fort fredericks again. Shortly after that, he woke up in trembling and felt depressed. He felt that everything was different before he fell asleep. When he remembered it, he found that he was unconscious, his arms were on the ground, and his legs were crawling out of the tree hole. He didn’t feel anything at all. It was like his body was sawed off by the middle. He felt that he was disappearing from the ground, and he was going to disappear in a fog.
The idea of walking like a shadow is not unattractive.
Inman was lying on the ground with wet leaves dripping through the branches, and the leaves looked at the sky. The lead clouds were densely covered with pieces of light blue fog. Pure and fine powder floated from the branches of chestnut oak around the bright autumn leaves. A grouse fluttered its wings in the Woods and made a low and terrible sound, just like Inman’s heart was beating for the last time before it burst. He looked up from the ground and listened and thought that even if it was his last day, he should be vigilant. Soon, he saw a bird flapping its wings and rushing through and disappearing into the Woods. Looking at his body, he found that there was no shortage of base. I don’t know if he was worried at the moment. He tried to move a foot. They had already listened to his palm and rubbed his face. His body was soaked and messy.
He climbed to the front of the tree hole to get his bag, sat up with his back against the trunk and drank a big mouthful of water. There was a cup of corn flour left in the bag. He gathered a small pile of branches and wanted to make a fire and cook some corn porridge. He blew the fire until there was a star in front of him, but the flame flashed, a big puff of blue smoke and then it was completely extinguished.
I’m going to get up like this and walk all the way. I don’t know who I’m talking to
But after he finished, he continued to sit for a long time
My strength is growing every minute, and he encourages himself in his heart, but there is no evidence of his belief.
Inman struggled to get up from the wet ground and staggered like a drunkard. He walked for a while, then bent down involuntarily and had a violent convulsion in his stomach. He retched for a long time and worried that some of his organs had been vomited. He suffered from neck trauma and new head injuries. He not only joined forces to torture him, but then he sat on a stone for a while and then got up and walked in the dark Woods for an afternoon. The road was terrible, and he couldn’t even know the general direction. It seemed that shrubs and ferns kept growing in the same direction. It won’t be long before this little scar on the earth will be healed without any trace. The road has been winding for miles in a tall hemlock forest, and the dense fog will hide their green branches. You can see black trunks inserted into the low sky like a forgotten prehistoric race erected a boulder to commemorate the most tragic event in their history.
Inman has never seen any traces of human activities except this wilderness road. From asking about his current position, he feels completely lost, and the road spirals higher. He still moves forward step by step and has done his best, but even if it is so difficult, he can’t be sure whether he is moving in the right direction to get closer to his goal.
Towards noon, he turned a corner and saw a scrawny man crouching in front of a hemlock tree. His body was blocked by a clump of tall bracken. The bracken on his shoulders was browned by frost, and there was a mist and bright water droplets hanging from the tip of each leaf. From the man’s posture, Inman himself hit an old man who was taking a shit, but when he got close, he saw that it was a shriveled old lady squatting on the ground and putting a plank oil bait in a bird trap.
Inman stopped and said, hey, aunt
The little old lady looked up and took a look, but she didn’t even wave her hand and continued to squat down on the ground. She adjusted the clamp very carefully. It seemed that she was fascinated by the work. After finishing it, she got up and walked around the clamp for a long time and checked it from all angles. She stepped on the bracken in a slippery circle. There is no doubt that she is really old, but despite many wrinkles and fat cheeks, she is a rosy girl. She is wearing a man’s felt hat with sparse white hair hanging freely over her shoulders. The wide skirts and blouses are all made of soft leather. It looks like they are sewn in a hurry after being cut with a folding knife When she got up, she wore a greasy cotton apron around her waist and a small caliber pistol in her face. It seemed that a new shoemaker had a long barrel of shotgun leaning against a tall tree like a sledge skateboard at the toe of his hand.
Inman looked at her for a moment and then said that the smell around you was too strong for you to catch a quail.
I have no taste, said the woman
Then feel free, Inman said. I want to know whether this road will eventually lead to somewhere or not, and it will soon end.