roses
Lost in the people sea, another boy gives the boy a bundle of roses and the boy doesn’t know what to do with them…
The boy stands still. After a while an older brother snatches the roses out of his hands Did you steal these? Don’t lie to me, and the older brother speaks the common dialect as poorly as father he mixes his tones he’s suggesting something and as the boy tries to catch his meaning the older brother seizes the boy by his arm and hauls him through the people sea. The boy wants to ask the older brother to help him find mother and they break free of the people sea into a restaurant hanzi flashing bright on the banner turtles swimming in window aquariums. Hostesses show them to a table. The older brother lights a cigarette watching the boy over the flame, Order what you want, but the boy doesn’t want anything and when the waitress comes the older brother orders. She brings a bottle of beer and a glass she pops the beer with the same kind of opener father uses the hanzi for snowflake likewise emblazoned white on the bottle and when she’s gone the older brothers fills his glass. Foam rushes to the top and the boy asks Is the city so big everywhere? The older brother gives him a funny look, China has bigger cities, and he drinks his beer through the foam.
The waitress brings their ricebowls and a plate of sliced potatoes and beef. The boy makes himself eat. He doesn’t know where he is he wants to see mother again. The food tastes bad he wants to see mother again he wants her to cook for him cookoil popping in the castiron pan father talking nonsense and drinking beer Where do you live? the older brother asks and the boy forms a list of answers
→ Close?
→ Far?
→ Here?
and selects the first one the older brother looks startled but only briefly. He recomposes his face and the boy has an uneasy feeling. The older brother lights another cigarette then shouts for the check through a mouthful of smoke he holds it close to his eyes the cigarette burning a hole in the center he grunts and the boy follows him to the front. The older brother pulls a wad of 100 RMB bills from his pocket and hands one to the aunt and stuffs the bills in one pocket, the change in another.
Outside they follow a sidewalk of unsteady blocks swirls of graveldust greying their pants in an evening breeze they duck into a tight backstreet and beneath a spraypainted phone number the older brother asks What do you want to do? The boy tears up. Find mother. The older brother grabs the boy’s shoulders and pulls him close. Stench of cigarettes and beer, father. The older brother stares, entranced by the boy’s eyes, blindstruck in colors his dreams forgot. He blinks. Do you want to earn a lot of money for your mother?
The Boy with Blue Eyes is about a boy with blue eyes who takes a stroll through a smoggy metropolis.
Available for pre-order, to be released on October 9.