A Party of Three

Translated…

Summer, Autumn, and Huei, they were, originally very close, at school as middle school students, after they’d graduated from separate universities, they’d all found work in the southern regions, all got married too.  Every year, they’d meet up, and gone traveling together, even after they were all married and had children, they were still all, very passionate about their sharing the yearly trip together.  The three of them wouldn’t take along their husbands or children, because what they’re enjoying the most was, that youthful mindset that would get disturbed by an outsider.  This year, they’re all, over forty, they’d gone traveling to Kenting together.

not my drawing…

Like their names suggested, Sunny has a sunny temperament, would focus on the tasks at hand.  She drove out on her husband’s sturdy Volvo, with amazing driving skills.  She works as a technician at the hospital.

The three of them got out of the car, by the side of a dirt road, walked downward from the dune made by the white sand, it was, the start of December, the northeastern wind is started, it’d lifted, the sands from the seaside to onto the hills.  Sunny walked up in front, Huei, in the middle, Autumn, last.  Autumn is a Chinese instructor in a high school, the most in shape of the three of them, she’s also, the most emotional one.  She thought, that this landscape is the least stabilized, because the sand is moving, every second, the world is changing, the older landscapes would vanish in an instant.  The sand came at her face, like small needles that pricked, there is, a relentless side to nature after all.

Huei, who’s the tallest and slender in figure walk in the middle of the three, she’d looked all around this sand dune, there were, a lot of tourists, about fifty, to sixty, all scattered, across, this large patch of sand.  Probably all there, because they’d heard of the reputation of how beautiful it is when the wind start rising, there, to experience the wind as well as the coming on of the sands.

Sunny held her professional camera up, wanted to get the blue frames of the skies to capture them both, in between the dark blue oceans and the ivory white sandy beach, she’d ordered Autumn, Huei, the two models in purple and green wind coats, to stand up straight, to put their hands on their waists.  Autumn called out to her, “Stop torturing us already, the sand is hitting at our face hard here!”

Huei said, “Just do as you’re told, we must keep beautiful photos of us each and every year.”

not my photograph…

At this time, a tall man walked toward them, step, by step, on the sand, Autumn felt, that he had that energy of a bull, he’d stood right beside Sunny, staring at the two of them, models.  He’s about forty, very tall and strong, with a lot of flesh on his face, had that look of anger, radiating from his eyes.

Sunny had, totally ignored this strange, heavy set man by her side.  After the first scene, she’d ordered Autumn and Huei, to turn around, she’s going to shoot the sessions with the sand dunes as the backdrops now.  Sunny said, “We want that feel of we’re in the Gobi Desert!”

Wherever Sunny was that tall man would follow.  When the two of them made their poses, as Sunny was about to click the shutter, the man had, all of a sudden, ran quickly toward the two models.  Autumn seemed to have caught the rush he’d carried with him from running across the sand, there was that half-crazed desire shone from his eyes, he’d started hollering, “give it to me, mine!”, was he, intending on, grabbing them both?  To hit them both?  Autumn was so scared that she’d fallen onto Huei, held tight to Huei’s arms with one hand, started shaking uncontrollably.

Huei stood her grounds, with her body, managed to support Autumn who’d fallen limp onto her, as the man rushed to before her, she’d said to him, very peacefully, very clearly, “You want it, sure, now, it’s your turn.  Attention, turn around;”

And, that man actually, stood, at a halt, before the two of them, and, turned around, faced the camera.  Facing sunny the photographer, Huei said, “Sunny, he wanted to be photographed, you, take one of him.”

And Huei pulled the limped Autumn across the way.  Sunny hollered out to the man, “Don’t wear a straight face, it wouldn’t look good, you must smile!”

Sunny held up a V with her hand told him, “Lift both your arms, give me the victory sign with both your hands, you’ll look real handsome.”

After Autumn regained her stature, she looked toward that large man with disbelief, holding up the victory gesture, flashed his naïve smile, like he was really happy, turns out, he wasn’t a violent mental patient, but a man who’s mentally retarded.

not my photograph…

At which time, a hunched over, very slim white-haired elderly woman rushed over to them, said, “I’m so sorry, so sorry, to have, become a bother to you.”, she’d turned to the man, “Huei, son, it’s time to go home now.”, and that man became like an obedient puppy and, with his head lowered, followed the elderly woman home.

Autumn patted her own chest, asked Huei, “How did you tell that he was mentally retarded?”

Huei said, “As he took his steps, he’d walked heavily.  As he looked upon us and Sunny, his eyes moved very slowly too, probably severely retarded.  Autumn, you’re not bad either, you’d found, that he was, not like a normal person.”

Autumn had that look of shame, “It’s so embarrassing, giving myself a freight, treated him as a nutcase, if I’d hurt his ego, it would be, all my fault.  Huei, you’d lived up to the name of being a psychiatrist, sunny, did you realize, that he wasn’t, normal?”

A smile took over Sunny’s face now, “What’s the big deal if he’d wanted to watch us take photos?  Taking a photograph of him, making him happy, that’s a good thing too.  I don’t think he had any intentions to hurt us at all.”

So, which one of these three do you think, is the wisest?

not my photo still…

So, three women, with three ways of relating, with three ways of interpreting the events, and, they are ALL correct, because these experiences in life are personal and unique to everybody, and, just because you experience a certain thing a certain way, doesn’t mean that another will experience the same events the exact same ways as you, and that just shows, how differently people can react to the same situations.