That night that year
Text/Song Haiping
(Web Photo)
November of the lunar calendar. Night, five fingers out of sight. With the sound of my parents' hard work, I unconsciously fell asleep.
I don't know how long later, the voice of my parents woke me up, and my father suddenly stopped holding his breath in his hand and looked out alertly: "Baby and mother, I listen to the movement outside the door, like the sound of the door being pushed by someone."
The mother's first reaction was to feed the five large white pigs in the stored cabbage and pigsty in the pit outside the courtyard wall.
Father was not relieved, and he took the flashlight and walked to the courtyard to examine it carefully. The big yellow dog crouched in the grass nest and snored, the door was closed tightly, the door bolt was not loose, and then walked out of the courtyard and carefully inspected the pit of cabbage. To the east of the pigsty to check, let the father worry about the things still happened, blocking the pigsty of the big stone has been removed a big gap, the big stone fence is hard, thick, usually need a few people to push away, today's state is really abnormal. Looking into the pigsty again, the big sow and the four little pigs were missing, leaving only the empty pigsty with a sour smell. My father's first reaction was "here to steal the pig thief."
The parents quickly woke up the second uncle, the second aunt and a few brothers in the courtyard next door. My mother calmed me down, locked the gate, and then each took a flashlight and searched along the front and back streets, fields, and trenches.
I was also terrified, so I quickly got dressed and got up, walked to the courtyard, and looked out at the courtyard wall. In the dark and heavy night sky, the flashlight light flickered up and down, left and right in the field. The mother cried out over and over again, "Pigs nagging, pigs nagging..." The lungs-splitting cries echoed in the empty, cold night sky. At this time, the cold wind blew, the cold was bone-chilling, like an ice knife cutting in my face, and I was shivering with cold for a while, and my heart was very afraid and anxious.
On a silent night, the big yellow dog slept soundly, I walked up to it, kicked it hard twice, and said indignantly: "Big yellow dog, big yellow dog, usually you are loyal, honest, and docile, but tonight you are so sleepy, why didn't you hear the movement, how many screams did you?" White feeds you! ”
These pigs were raised by my mother's hard work, which is the hope of our family and the preparation for the marriage of the third brother. Mother cut vegetables, chopped vegetables, and japanese food all day long, stirred the good food, put it in a large bucket, and then laboriously mentioned it in the pigsty. I also often help my mother to beat her hands, jump into the pigsty, follow my mother to straighten out the pig basins one by one, and pour the food pots one by one. Whenever a few piglets saw them feeding, they would twist their fat bodies, wag their tails, sprinkle joy, and go around in circles and scream a few times. Seeing their cute appearance, the mother closed her mouth happily. Now they are fat and strong, and the mother sees the joy in her eyes. Today they were stolen! How can these pig thieves be so unconscionable! I kept cursing in my heart and fell asleep unconsciously.
It was just dark, and the voices of the people talking and the mother's "nagging, nagging..." shouts to the pigs came from the courtyard. I was momentarily excited, and immediately dressed and walked to the courtyard, only to see my parents gently patting the big sow with a thin branch. The second uncle, the second aunt and several brothers in the courtyard kept shouting and drinking. The big sow obediently walked to the middle of the house, the father blocked the entrance with a thick wooden board, and the mother took a few bricks to block the plank. Excited, I tugged at the corner of my mother's coat and asked curiously how I found it? The mother said: "Fortunately, the big sow was found in the west of the family, unfortunately the four little pigs did not go anywhere." The reason why the big sow was found may be that the pig thief did not tie it tightly, or maybe the car door was not closed tightly, and the big sow was able to escape by chance. The mother smiled when she finished. Although I was a little sorry that I couldn't get the four little pigs back, I was still excited and looked at the big sow repeatedly. The big sow was like a lost child returning to her home, whether frightened or relieved, wagging its tail and walking back and forth in the middle of the aisle, humming and screaming as if looking for its own child.
The parents were anxious and tired for a night and did not close their eyes, and the mother sat on the bed and sighed incessantly, heartbroken for the lost piglet, and condemned and cursed the pig thief over and over again.
The more the mother thought about it, the more angry she became, so she simply walked out of the house and came to the village entrance, shouting loudly from the east to the west: "Which pig thief who has lost his conscience, your conscience let the dog eat, you don't want to think that it is easy for other people's families to live a life..." I was also angry and embarrassed to follow my mother and repeat my mother's words loudly.
"Her sister-in-law don't be upset, the pigs of our village Erliang's family were also stolen last night, it seems that this is the work of a gang." Report to the police station, maybe you can catch the pig thieves! Daxing Niang kept comforting her mother.
The loudspeaker of the neighbor Dachun's house sounded loudly again. Usually, it is pleasant and cheerful to hear the songs played by his family, but today it sounds particularly harsh and irritable.
The loss of the pig slowly passed, and the days gradually returned to normal. In order to prepare for the marriage of the third brother, the parents got up more early and were busy in the dark, running like a gyroscope. Selling cotton, selling grain... Swap back into new or old banknotes. Parents often use rough hands to open a bill, count carefully, and calculate it repeatedly to see how much is still missing and what can be sold.
In that month, the wedding of the third brother was beautiful and lively, and the loudspeaker sang for a day and a night.
It has been more than thirty years now, and the third brother has been holding his grandson. My mother has also been dead for many years. Every time the four of us got together for dinner, we couldn't help but talk about the past, and every time we talked about the loss of pigs that year, we would show a faint sadness. We all think of our mother in our hearts, and endless thoughts well rise in our hearts.
【About the author】Song Haiping, female, post-70s, ancestral home of Yanggu, Shandong, now lives in Liaocheng, educator. He is a member of Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, a member of Liaocheng Writers Association, and a director of Dongchangfu District Writers Association. There are poems and essays published in journals, newspapers and WeChat platforms. I like a passage from the modern writer Mr. Ye Shengtao the most: Literature can expose the darkness, meet the light, and make people abandon the mean and shallow, and tend to be noble and profound.