When I was about ten years old, I started carrying water from the well.
My father was a brigade accountant at the time, and he was always too busy to go home, and when my mother was sick, the matter of carrying water fell to me and my brother. My brother wasn't much older than me, and he had a leg injury when he was a child, so I couldn't tire my brother too much.
At that time, I was thin and small, and the two wooden barrels looked tall and large. I went to fetch water and could only pick up two halves of buckets. On the way from Inoue to home, it takes three or four breaks to say the least. The feet were not very stable, dangling around, and the uncles and aunts in the village saw it, and they talked about the well-known riddle of the person to tease me - "three dolls as tall, get up early in the morning to take a bath." Just laugh and see me staggering away, they just shake their heads and smile.
We have Hirakawa there, there is no spring, only a well. The wellhead is a meter square in size, and it is surrounded by very thick and large materials and stones, and the edge of the well has long been polished by the well rope of an unknown number of dynasties and generations, and there are deep grooves. A thick willow tree grows by the side of the well, and a large shade is thrown out. The willow tree likes to be wet, old and still vibrant, hanging down a dense willow wire, on which it is screaming white-faced finches and doves waiting for the opportunity to fall down to drink water; there is a small shrine by the well, which contains a statue of a god whose facial features have been blurred, and I don't know whether it is a water god or a well god, the people in the village can't say it, only know that it is a good god. Under the willow tree by the well, there are often a few people who come to fetch water, the water is pulled up, put there, but they are not willing to carry it home first, and they have to stand and talk a few gossip. We have very little mulberry there, there is very little hemp, the Zhang family woman Li Jia Hanzi said some pig babies, under the dog baby, rushing to the scene, mending pots, steaming dough skin and other chores, the well side has become a place for the villagers to communicate.
When I first tried to fetch water, I put the empty bucket down into the well, and the bucket was always floating on the surface of the water in the well, and it couldn't scoop up the water. At this time, there was the same person who came to carry the water to teach me how to set the bucket. He said, "Left, right, left, right, let go!" "When he said let go, the bucket was poured and the water was scooped. The water scoop is too full, it is not easy to pull up, so I have to shake the full bucket of water out of the half bucket and then pull it up. Sometimes, when I go to fetch water, I can't put down the bucket, so anxious that the sweat comes out, but after waiting for a long time, I still can't meet the person who comes to fetch water, and I am very sad. When carrying water for the second time, I had to bring the falling well stone. A falling well stone is a circular stone that is attached to a barrel beam, and because the barrel beam is heavy, the bucket can be poured over by itself. It took about half a year for me to learn to set the bucket, and I stopped carrying the falling well stones to fetch water like those stupid people.
Pulling a bucket from the well upwards is tiring and dangerous, and someone in the village accidentally falls into the well every three years and five years.
In the dry season, the water surface of the well water is as deep as one zhang, or even two zhang, and the well rope should be long, and the shoulder is a large plate on the wrist. Every time I pulled out a bucket of water, I had to take a few breaths, my head was dizzy, and my waist hurt.
In many early mornings, without waiting for others to carry water, I will pick the first one myself. The water was pulled up, the well water was blue, reflecting the stars and the moon, it was a little excited, first crouched down, crooked neck to drink two sips, and then crooked neck to drink two sips, it is really refreshing. Carrying water later, with buckets, well rope will bring down some dirty things, in a short period of time too late to settle, well water may not be so clear.
The most difficult thing to carry water is on a rainy day. Just one day or two days after the rain, the mother put large barrels and large pots and small basins under the eaves, and saw the eaves water as a line falling into the bucket and basin, and then pouring the water urn into the bucket and basin. When it didn't rain and the water in the urn ran out, he had to go up to the well to pick it up. The road to the well is a lot of dirt, it's like a sauce tank, and the mud is so rotten that it can trap no one's feet and calves.
I remember that whenever our neighbors in the west had such a day, the two of them would quarrel. The man said, "You are two years older than me, I call you sister, you have to be considerate brother!" The woman replied: "Sister is old, still not considerate of the elder sister?" "Three words and two words and a quarrel. In the end, it is often the sister who goes to fetch water, which makes the neighbors scold the man for being a slacker and a villain.
In my memory, every winter, my mother would go to the well to wash her clothes.
The north wind whistled, the sky was cold, and the water dripped into ice. But the well was steaming with white heat, and the water pulled out was not so deep into the bone. My mother sometimes washed the family's large and small clothes at the well, and sometimes I used red and white radish, green onions, garlic and coriander for a few days... Although the well water was somewhat hot, my mother's hands were red, swollen, cracked, and bleeding almost every winter. At that time, no one had plastic gloves at all, so my mother squeezed the plaster into thin strips and stuffed them into the blood hole on her hands to block the blood, and continued to wash and wash until the spring came for a long time, and the wounds on her mother's hands would slowly heal.
At that time, there were nearly four hundred people in our village, all counting on the water supply from that well. The well never withered, the water was exuberant, and it always seemed to be clear.
One side of the water and soil to support one person, a well is more related to the fate of the people in a village, the trace elements in the well water affect the body and intelligence of the large and small people in the village for a long time, of course, it also affects the existence and development of the ancestors of a village.
Think of it this way, that well is really a good well, because our village had some figures in ancient times, and before liberation, there were also several large households in the village, and they were very famous, and later, Murakami was admitted to a lot of college students.
Well is a meaningful word; going to the well to fetch water is a divine thing.
It is impossible for a person to leave the well easily, unless fate has changed unexpectedly. Even if you "leave your hometown", you are still inseparable from the well.
Thinking of the well, thinking of carrying water, I sink into a big fantasy. I even thought: Let me be a well, let my words be a well, with the water of the well that is always cool and sweet, not muddy and dry!
(Text/Huang Wenqing)
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