Unit 9 A Wedding in Blue

　

Author: Sheng-Nan Hung(洪勝男)Shiao-Yun Shu(許曉芸)  Translator: Nikki Wang(王月玲)

On the red brick stove, white steam was rising from the big iron pot. The little door underneath the stove was stuffed with firewood; the burning wood cracking loudly. The kitchen floor was dirty with sweet potato peels.

Looking into the living room through the gate, I could see my mother’s slightly round figure on a wooden stool, playing four-color cards with her friends from the neighborhood. I had never got to know the rules of the card games; the only thing I knew was that no matter what I said to my mother at this moment, she would say to me in Taiwanese: “You are a kid, you should play on one side.” Of course I would go out the door, and run as fast as I could to play outside because I did not want to wait until my mother changed her mind, then my afternoon would be ruined.

What was so attractive to me outside? I did not even know. At the sight of the blue sea against the blue sky, I would suddenly find myself in the world outside very quickly. Being a short, dark kid with very short hair, I was easily ignored so that people did not notice my coming and going.

If you walked along the only cement road in our village, you would find the port for our village. It was the gathering place of the adults, and they would arrange fish nets or make dried squids there. With the smell of various kinds of seafood mixed together, it felt like there was a half-opened pot and all the smell kept coming out from it. The adults and the kids loved the village port for different reasons; the adults used the port but the kids took the port as their best friend. We loved it and it also loved the excitement we brought.

Splash! Splash! Wow! Yes! My splash is smaller than yours!

The one who made the smallest splash was the best diver of all, and he would be the hero of our village.

    So, I am the hero!

    The water was not aware of my jumping in and it remained still and smiling, so there was only a little bit of splashing.

My friend Peanut said that the way I dived like those Olympic competitors. I would jump up high in the sky, bend my body like a bow, and enter the water with both hands stretched out. I was really the best!

Another friend Meat Cake explained that I could dive well because I was skinny, but in fact he was only half right.

My father said he was very good at swimming, so like father like son, I was good for I am his son. I remember my father’s teacher in elementary school often put the remark ”wrong interpretation of the topic” on his compositions; It looked like my father had not improved much all those years.

It was not until I grew older that I knew the difference between the underwater world and the world on land. When you entered the water with diving equipment, the sea seemed to be awesome and dreadful. If you insisted on disturbing the order of the underwater world, some more powerful sea animals would attack you in self-defense; on the other hand, if you pretended to be a small fish, swimming quietly around schools of fish, then the fish would come surrounding you and even remind you of any danger. Once I saw an octopus which was bigger than me rush out from the rock and fought with a big fish. The cupules of the octopus were stuck to the fish tightly, and it reminded me that if it was me the octopus was attacking, with no sharp teeth and acantha, what should I do? 

Therefore, I hid enduring the smell of blood in the air, just like the way Penghu people hid in the air raid shelters from bombing by the American Air Force during the Japanese Occupation.

A human being is really nothing in the vast sea, and maybe I had learned this as early as I could dive in the water. Nevertheless I fell in love with diving because through it I found the beauty of world under the sea.

In the 1980’s, when kids went to the seashore, they would pick the whelks on the rocks to sell for some pocket money. With the money, they could buy candy and comfit in the grocery store. Moreover, the corals in the sea were very colorful, and there were numerous lives in every hole of the rocks. The big fish were always peeping in, looking for opportunities to eat them. 

    In the 2000’s, there are no more enough whelks for people to pick. The corals in the sea have faded, and there are no schools of fish swimming around any more. However, the big fish is still trying hard to eat small fish; the small fish is still trying to hide desperately; I am still trying to pretend to be a fish in the sea.

    The following is a story about what I witnessed in the under water world in 1990’s:

When I swam in the water like I was dancing the Waltz, (My steps were like when the banana met with the yoghurt, after turning around, they would hug each other naturally.) everything I saw in the sea looked as if it was covered by blue silk, and I had to remove the veil from the bride to see her face clearly.

A big whale fell in love with a little silver sprat, but the love affair was not accepted by others.

“These two just don’t match! One is so big, while the other is so small. It is even hard for him to kiss her.” laughed a sole. The sole had a lop-sided face when it laughed exaggeratingly, the mouth seemed to be able to talk to the eyes, and the eyes seemed to be always listening carefully. The two eyes and the one mouth cooperated so well!

“I don’t think they fit, either. If they built a house the size of the whale, the silver sprat might be cooked accidentally when they are cooking; if the house was to fit the silver sprat’s size, then the whale might have to sleep on the street because he can not enter the house.” More and more fish remarked. They were all saying the same thing, and it was hard to tell who was saying what. 

“You know when the whale opens his mouth, he might swallow the silver sprat without being aware of it, because the water would just flow into his stomach automatically and it is no use trying to stop the natural movement of the water.” a grouper felt upset and in its opinion, love should not be harmful. 

“Maybe the whale needs to change his way of eating. If he can eat in the way a gentleman eats a steak, it will make the steak feel more comfortable when eaten, and it means that the silver sprat will not suffer when she dies.” This is a bad joke by the Clownfish, and it was surprising that everybody laughed.

The only character which remained silent was the crab, and that was because it was foaming at the mouth and was speechless. 

Neither did the coral utter a word, because corals were working hard as the settings of the sea world and it was improper for them to say anything.

As for me, of course I did not say anything, either. I had to remember everything clearly so that I could tell other people how marvelous it was in the sea, and that many stories were taking place there.

“Then, you go tell him!”

“No! You go and tell her!”

An argument was raised in the sea world. Whenever there were quarrels in the sea, the seabirds would feel very happy because it would become easier for them to locate their food in the water.

The wedding is going to be a wedding in blue, and those who were crowding outside were all murmuring to each other; some of them swayed their tails eagerly; some of them opened their fins to look around curiously; however, the bridegroom was the only one everyone could see at the wedding.

The bridegroom stood there without the company of the best man and bridesmaid, he was also without any bouquet and red cloth. It looked dark, though it was huge yet it was lonely.

    The schools of fish waited and waited from that afternoon till the next morning, and finally they saw a silver belt appear in the distance. The silver sprat charmingly waved its round body, moving towards the crowd. Everybody breathlessly awaited its announcement, and when it opened its tiny mouth, there came out just two or three bubbles.

The two or three bubbles looked lonely. At last, the wedding in blue left nothing but some blue color.

At this time of the year, it is forbidden to catch silver sprats. However, fishing boats often sail out during the night and put down some fish nets using machines. The nets will float with the water currents, spreading out like bags, and those bags will stop the passing silver sprats and other sea lives. As soon as the silver sprats are delivered onshore, they will be sent immediately to the fish market for sale. The silver sprats also can be made into dried silver sprats which can be cooked with Penghu peanuts and served as a good side dish. When you see the plastic bags with words like “Penghu specialty” on top, you will know silver sprats are shining names. They are the treasure of Penghu, and always shine with a silver treasure-like sheen.

In the evening, there were colorful clouds, returning birds and some yelling voices.

“It’s time for dinner! Here is salty congee for you!”

Oops! My mother’s loud voice reminded everybody that I had not yet returned home, and everybody now knew my family was going to eat salty congee for dinner. I had to hurry home or else everybody would soon know I had been fooling around for the whole afternoon.

On the table for playing four-color cards was a big bowl of salty congee consisting of bamboo shoot, sweet potato, taro, onion, shrimp, silver sprat, squid and some rice. My mother said that we depended on nature for our livelihood and the sea built our characters, we had to eat up everything in the bowls so that we could continue to get delicious meals. Those who wasted food were doomed to be beggars in the future.

“Nobody in Penghu likes to waste food.”

As the teacher standing on the podium, I talked to the students who were having their lunch, and they all nodded their heads agreeably with their mouths full of salty congee.