Essay丨Broken photo frame

Baisha walked into her daughter's bedroom with a rag.

The light in the bedroom is a bit dim. Bai Sha walked to the window, pulled the half-covered curtains open, and opened the glass window to let in the wind. My daughter is in her first year of high school, and she only goes home once a month in boarding school. Baisha used to going into her daughter's bedroom once a week to do cleaning.

The bedroom actually looks quite clean. In the past, Baisha was busy with work every day and took care of her daughter's daily life, but now that her daughter lives in school, she only needs to go to her daughter's bedroom occasionally to do hygiene.

This time, my daughter returned to school on Sunday evening. It's been more than two months since school started, and this is the second time my daughter has come home. At first, Bertha was worried that her daughter would not be able to adapt to the life of the school, but she soon realized that her worries were unnecessary. On the contrary, it was Baisha herself, who looked at her daughter on Sunday evening and looked like she was in a hurry to go out, and she felt a little reluctant in her heart.

Baisha took the rag and began to wipe the dust on her daughter's bedside table. On the bedside table is a flannel doll. Bai Sha remembered that the last time she wiped the bedside table, the flannel doll was still in the cupboard, but it was only a day or two after returning home on the weekend, and the flannel doll was put out by her daughter again. Wouldn't it be dusty if you put it outside?, Baisha thought to herself. She wanted to put the flannel doll back in the cupboard, but in the end she forgot about it.

Just half a year ago, when her daughter was still in her third year of junior high school, Bai Sha rarely came into her daughter's bedroom. - In fact, throughout the third year of junior high school, Bai Sha rarely entered her daughter's bedroom. In the morning she goes out with her daughter, who is busy with school and she is busy with work. In the evening, as soon as my daughter got home from school, she hid in her bedroom. When Baisha came back from work many times, she saw that the door to her daughter's bedroom was closed. Sometimes she pushes the door and her daughter answers, "I'm doing my homework." Baisha didn't bother much. Sometimes the door to her daughter's bedroom is open, and as long as her daughter is doing her homework, it is inconvenient for Baisha to enter. Even if you want to enter, you have to carry a rag or a broom. However, even if her daughter didn't do her homework at that time, when she saw Bai Sha taking a rag or a broom, she often complained and said, "Mom, when is this time, what kind of hygiene, I will do my homework later!" Another evening, Bai Sha returned home earlier than her daughter, she pushed open the door of her daughter's bedroom like a novelty, and did nothing when she went in, but looked around at her daughter's bed, desk, desk, bedside table, and wall shelves. Unexpectedly, my daughter suddenly came in with a schoolbag on her back, and when she saw her in her bedroom, she said dissatisfiedly: "Mom, why are you running to my bedroom if you have nothing to do?"

Baisha understood that her daughter had grown up and slowly began to rebel. When her daughter was in the third year of junior high school, her academic performance was always in the lower middle range, and Bai Sha was afraid that she would not be admitted to high school, so she always had to talk to her about studying hard for a while. There is a lot of nagging, and my daughter is naturally annoyed. But her daughter didn't like Baisha to enter her bedroom, but it was as early as a weekend in the second semester of junior high school, Baisha saw that her desk and the shelves on the wall were full of small and scattered objects, so she wiped the dust of those small objects and said casually: "Where did you get the money to buy so many small things?"

The daughter pouted and said, "Sent by my classmates." ”

Bai Sha wondered: "It's all children, why are your classmates giving these things? Are they from boys? Don't accept boys' gifts easily." ”

The daughter said loudly angrily: "Mom, what are you talking about? It was sent by a female classmate! Don't wipe it, don't accidentally break it, I will clean up my own bedroom." ”

Since that time, her daughter's bedroom has been a no-go zone in Bertha, and only occasionally on weekends can she go in for only three or two minutes in the name of hygiene. Many times, Baisha inexplicably felt that her daughter had been guarding herself from entering her bedroom. Bai Sha felt that her daughter was always staring at her, and she didn't start to busy her business until she finished cleaning and left. And many times, her daughter's "homework" makes Baisha often stop at her bedroom door.

The daughter was finally reluctantly admitted to a general high school. Now that her daughter lives in school, Baisha can finally enter her daughter's bedroom freely. Her daughter's bedroom was familiar to Baisha and a little unfamiliar. On her daughter's desk and on the shelves on the wall, the knick-knacks are still quietly displayed. Each one was like an unsolved mystery to Baisha. - Who gave the little porcelain vase on the desk? Who gave the little music box?

Well, it should have been just a female classmate. The daughter is popular and has many good friends. Bai Sha gently wiped the small objects with a rag. - There is a small glass picture frame on the shelf, and in the frame is a picture of a rose. Baisha remembers seeing the frame in her daughter's bedroom many years ago. She didn't know who gave it to her daughter and when. - Don't worry who sent it. Bai Sha thought to herself, her daughter should not have fallen in love so soon.

Bai Sha stood on tiptoe, ready to remove the glass picture frame that had been on the shelf and wipe the dust. She stood on tiptoe for a moment, and when her hand touched the glass frame, she slid off the narrow shelf, and fell down with a "bang", smashing on the floor tiles and shattering.

Looking at the photo frame that was shattered into several pieces, Bai Sha was stunned for a moment. After a long time of relaxation, she hurriedly went to get a broom and a dustpan to clean up the broken glass shards. There were small pieces of glass scattered along the wall, and they couldn't be swept up, so Bai Sha leaned over to pick them up, and was accidentally stabbed in the finger by a piece of glass shard, and blood flowed out.

There were no band-aids at home, so Baisha pulled out a tissue to wipe the blood. The next thing to do is to dust the daughter's bedroom. accidentally broke her daughter's photo frame, and her heart was uneasy. Who will give this picture frame to her daughter? It seems that it should not be expensive, only a few dozen yuan. But friendship is priceless, and this photo frame may be a testimony to the friendship between the daughter and her person. But it was accidentally broken by the mother. - Which boy sent it? Will the daughter think that she did it on purpose? Bai Sha was afraid that the next time her daughter came home and found out, she would complain in a dissatisfied tone, so that the mother and daughter finally fell into the same situation as in the third year of junior high school because of the ease of relationship that only reunited once a month, and the daughter began to be wary of herself again.

For days, Baisha was thinking about the picture frame. She had wanted to buy the same one, and she had searched for it for a long time on Taobao, and she had also paid attention to it when she went to the market, but where could she find the one that was exactly the same as the one that had been broken? If there really was the same one to buy back, wouldn't it be self-defeating? The daughter might think that she was deliberately fooling.

Forget it, let's wait for my daughter to come back and apologize to her, that's all. After weeks of worrying, Baisha finally stopped thinking about it in her heart. After a month, the daughter returned home, and the look on her daughter's face full of spring breeze made Bai Sha mention the matter without too much hesitation.

"The glass picture frame in your bedroom, I accidentally fell off and broke it some time ago. Baisha said. After her daughter answered, Bai Sha was going to emphasize that she had been stabbed with a lot of blood from broken glass shards, so as to arouse her daughter's further understanding. But her daughter's reply surprised her.

The daughter said, "You bought that picture frame for me." ”

Baisha said, "When did I buy you this frame?"

"It's been a long time, like the summer vacation when I was about to start junior high school. ”

Baisha let out a long "oh". After her daughter returned to school, Baisha tried to search for and rescue the situation where her daughter bought this photo frame during the summer vacation before she entered junior high school. She seemed to recall a bit, but she still couldn't remember it really. So for many days at work, she talked to her colleagues about how she was so forgetful.

The author is He Meihong, a native of Xinjian District, Nanchang, Jiangxi. He has completed more than 1.8 million words of essays, poems, short stories, fairy tales, film and television scripts and other literary works. Published work "Why Are You Single".

"Qingdao Financial Daily" "Red Reef" Supplement 2023.11.8 Reprinted in A8 Edition The text is compressed when reprinting

Editor: Zhou Xiaofang

"Qingdao Financial Daily" "Red Reef" Supplement 2023.11.8 A8 Edition