Memories of childhood, what this woman’s grandmother, managed, to instill in her, the values she’d taken with her, to this day and age, translated…
For the sake of those three Moonlight Brand of perfume pencils in the pencil case, grandma went out, in the heat of the weather, to solve this case.
Guei-Ying Wu, with watery eyes, thick lips, overall, cute looking, but, when it came to homework, she’s, no good, as the teacher start whipping her, she’d cried, even more often.
And because of this, I’d been, assigned as her tutor. 6+8, 23+9, she’d learned how to add the numbers up, and, she’d not written the characters with one more or one less extra stroke, her math grades improved, and, she’d, gotten rid of the C in math, she’s now, a straight B student. Mrs. Wu was super glad of it, and gave me three perfumed pencils as a reward for helping her daughter out. Before I had the opportunities to tell my parents about the pencils, my older brother, the tattle tell told my parents, and pops was doubtful over what I’d told him, how can there be three pencils rewarded to me at once? And so, he’d, asked the “highest court judge’, my grandma to help clarify things.
Grandma took an umbrella, with her white shirt and black pencil skirt, kept wiping away the sweat all the way. Actually, what had, intrigued me more, was the skirt, it’d not had the elastic bands around the waist, it’s, tied up on grandma’s waistline with a string cloth, so, how come it doesn’t loosen up when she walked around? Even though, the curiosities rose up in me, I’d, not inquired, because it would be, rude.
illustration from the papers online
Grandma isn’t a steady walker, she’d had her feet bound, then, released, and so, the back of her feet were, arched up, it was difficult, for her to walk around in the wooden slippers; I was, having a hard time too, the tarp on the road had melted from the sun, making it harder for me to walk, sometimes, the tarp would get attached like caramel you used with the bananas, stuck onto the wooden slippers, carelessly, as the wooden slippers moved, the heels would, get attached to the ground. Seeing how hard I was walking around, grandma taught me to walk on the pebbles.
My classmates were, scattered all over the places, all the way from Hengyang Road to Danshui, and so, every couple of steps, we’d, bumped into someone we knew. Grandma taught me how to say hi to them using a quiet voice, and those from the opposite streets, I’d only, needed to, wave to them; and that I must bow to offer the respects as I pass by a parent, to remove the banana peels that I saw lying around the roads, to never pick things up off the grounds, to not pick the flowers on someone else’s properties, and that I shouldn’t, walk and eat at the same time either…………
Finally, we’d, arrived at Guei-Ying Wu’s house, as Mrs. Wu came to answer, her face, forearms are, blackened, it’d, almost, made me laugh, it was, just like Guei-Ying Wu as she’d shown up at school, they’d sold charcoal, and firewood, it’s quite ordinary, that they all got their hands dirty. As Mrs. Wu started urging my grandmother, after she’d put out the teas and treats, grandma finally, picked out the piece at the end for me, and, took the other piece, we’d, carefully, eaten it up, Mrs. Wu kept commending me on how I’d, taught her daughter to do the assignments, and said that the next time, she’s going to buy me a brand new backpack, grandma told her thank you repeatedly, and that it’s right that classmates, should help one another out.
After she’d, cleared up the case, we’d, gone home, the sun was still, too bright, and grandma taught me how to walk, so I don’t, cluck around with my wooden slippers a lot, and, thanks to her teaching me to, for the sixty years that followed, I’d, walked up and down the stairs in high-heels, silently.
Grandma was illiterate, but, she’d, managed, to teach us a ton of rules, I’d, met up with her again, from the Chinese texts on how to act right many, many, many years later in life.
As I saw the tarp melting on the road on my way to the banks today, I’d, recalled how grandma went out in the heat of day, trying, to CRACK the case of where I received those mystery pencils, oh, how I, miss those days!
And so, this, is how the grandmother taught the granddaughter, without teaching her from the books. The elderly set a good model for the young granddaughter to follow, and, that still just showed, how actions are always, LOUDER than words, because as the woman is elderly-ish??? She still remembered EVERYTHING her own grandmother taught to her as a young child once.
Life, the Obstacle Course 