Part 5
A journey back to winter
Together we discover the luxury of pizza. Pizza Hut. Wondering
even as the rain comes back, that it is time to leave. Leave
the city and carry the memories. Tomorrow it's the bus to
Nanjing. To meet up with the Scottish friend of the school.
I bid good-bye,
knowing that I perhaps would never see all these friends
again. Never meet the friend who points out the lights of
Hong Kong and shares the sunrise, never meet the friend
who shows Shenzhen and says with all the wisdom of a 24
year old, that in China, it's difficult to let go. Yes,
it's difficult to let go and meet finality. But Nanjing
waits. Partings have to be made. Finality has to be met.
The rain pours. But it takes a while longer before I let
go of Shenzhen. The bus arrives six hours late. Making me
realize that I do possess that which I thought I never had.
Patience. It is a 30 hour journey this time. A journey of
infinite cramps and infinite time. A journey back into winter.
Moving through green and meeting white. Snow. Laid across
the villages and the towns. Rushing past in a blur. I run
my hands across the windowpane of the bus, and I know that
I can feel the snow. Again. Without having to.
Places change but not the people. Kindness still meets me
everywhere. Like total strangers on the bus, who abandon
their own plans of reaching home and instead help me to
find my hotel. Accompany me all the way. Ensure my safety.
And then disappear into the darkness. How does one express
gratitude for acts like this? In words? In money? I know
not.
But there I
am in Nanjing. Meet my friend. Travel stories are exchanged
and new stories are planned. Nanjing. The former capital
of China. The city of history. The city where I would spend
the next five days. The city where I would welcome finally
the Monkey.
