The chicken cried for the first time, and Damaso returned home. His six-month-old wife, Yu Anna, was sitting on the head of the bed waiting for him, without taking off her clothes and shoes. The oil lamp is about to go out. Seeing this, Damasso immediately understood that his wife had been waiting for a whole night without a rest for a second; until now, even though she saw him standing in front of her, she seemed to be waiting for something. Damaso made a gesture to Anna, telling her not to worry anymore. She didn't react at all, but stared at the red cloth bag in her husband's hand with her terrified eyes, her lips closed tightly, and she couldn't help but tremble. Damasso silently grabbed his wife's corset with a sour and smelly smell in his mouth.
Anna lets her husband pick herself up in the air, leans forward, and lies on her husband's red flannel top and starts crying. She tightly clung to her husband's waist until her excitement slowly calmed down.
"I fell asleep while sitting," she said. "Suddenly the door opened, and they pushed you into the room, and you were covered in blood."
Damaso didn't say anything. He pushed his wife away and put it on the bed. Then, he put the cloth bag on her knees and went to the yard to untire his hands. Anna untied the knot on the cloth bag and saw that there were three billiards inside, two white and one red, which had already been dull.
Damaso returned to the house and saw his wife staring at the balls in surprise.
"What's the use of this?" Anna asked.
He shrugged.
"Just play!" He tied the cloth bag, put it in the box along with the temporary master key, flashlight and a knife. Anna lay down her face towards the wall and clothes. Damaso took off his pants, lay flat on the bed, smoking a cigarette in the dark room. In the silent voice of dawn, he tried his best to recall whether this adventure would leave any trace. After a while, he found that his wife was not asleep either.
"What do you think?"
"That's not thinking about anything!" she replied.
Her voice was like a baritone, and now she felt angry in her stomach, and her voice seemed even deeper. After taking a last puff of cigarette, Damaso sucked the cigarette butt on the ground and squeezed it out.
"Nothing great," he sighed. "I stayed in it for about an hour."
"It's just about to give you a gun!" she said.
Damaso trembled suddenly. "Fuck!" he said as he tapped the edge of the wooden bed with his fingers. Then he reached out to the ground to find out the cigarette and matches.
"You really have a donkey liver and lungs!" Anna said. "You should also think that I can't sleep here. Whenever there is any movement on the street, I think they have brought your body back." She sighed and continued, "I've been trying for a long time and got three billiards back."
"Then you only have two cents in the drawer."
"Then don't get anything back."
"Since you've got it in," Damaso said, "I can't come back empty-handed."
"Then take something else!"
"Then you have nothing!"
"Then you have nothing!"
"Then you have nothing!"
"Hmph, no matter how rich you are, you can't compare to the gangster."
"That's what you say," Damaso said. "But get inside, look around, and look around, and you'll know. There's nothing useful."
She was silent for a long time. Damaso opened his eyes wide; he was thinking about what she was thinking. He tried his best to take out something valuable from his vague memories.
"Maybe!" she said.
Damaso lit another cigarette. The alcohol made him dizzy and felt that his body was big and heavy, and he had to hold on.
"There is a cat in the bonnet," he said, a big white cat ."
Anna turned over and put her bulging belly on her husband's belly, and her calf was inserted between his knees. She smelled onion.
"Are you scared? "
" me? "
" Yes," Anna said, "I heard that men are also afraid. "He felt that she was laughing, so he smiled with her.
"There is a little bit," he said. "I always feel that I can't hold it in and want to pee. "
He asked Anna to kiss him, but he didn't kiss her back. Then, he told his wife in detail about the adventure, as if he was recalling a trip.
He knew very well how dangerous the bread was in pregnancy, but he did not regret it at all.
Anna pondered for a moment before saying:
"I was simply crazy. "
" Everything is difficult at the beginning! "Damaso closed his eyes and said. "Besides, this is a good time. "
The sun is in the sky. When Damaso woke up, his wife had already gotten up. He stretched his head under the faucet in the yard for a few minutes before he could fully wake up. This is a row of houses of the same style and are not connected to each other. Damaso's home is one of them. There is a common yard full of ropes for drying clothes. There is a place separated by iron sheets to the back wall, where Anna sets a stove for cooking and cooking irons, and a small table for eating and ironing . When Anna saw her husband coming, she quickly moved the flat clothes, took the iron out of the stove, and heated up coffee. She was older than her husband, pale skin, and quick and quick movements, like a person who often worked. Damaso felt a little headache and drowsy. He saw from his wife's eyes that she had something to say to him. Only then did he notice the noisy sound in the yard.
"They didn't talk about anything else this morning," Anna whispered while drinking the coffee. "The men went there early in the morning. "
Damaso looked around. It was true that the men and the children were not in the yard. While drinking coffee, he listened quietly to the conversation of the women hanging clothes in the sun. Finally, he lit a cigarette and walked out of the kitchen.
"Tresa! "He called out.
A girl agreed, and the wet clothes she was holding were stuck to her body.
"Be careful! "Anna said. At this time, the girl came over.
"What's wrong? "Damaso asked.
"Someone got into the banyan and stole everything," the girl said.
It seemed that she knew very detailedly. She said that someone had broken the banyan into pieces and even moved the ball table. She spoke vividly, and even Damaso couldn't help but believe it.
"Nonsense! "He returned to the kitchen and said.
Anna hummed a song, and Damaso leaned a stool against the yard wall, intending to calm down his restlessness. Three months ago, he had just turned 20 years old. He tried his best to accumulate two beards covering his mouth, adding an adult spirit to his numb face. From then on, he felt that he was an adult. This morning, his head ached faintly. When he recalled the things that happened last night in a daze, he really didn't know how to survive in the future."
Anna ironed her clothes and divided the clean clothes into two stacks of the same size, preparing to go out to the street.
"You go early and come back early!" said Damaso.
"As usual."
Damaso followed his wife into the house.
"I put your plaid shirt over there," Anna said. "Please don't wear that flannel top anymore." After that, she stared at her husband's bright cat-like eyes.
"I don't know if anyone sees you."
Damaso wiped the sweat in his hands on his pants.
"No one saw me."
" Who knows," Anna said again. She held up a stack of clothes with one hand. "Also, you shouldn't go out for the time being. I pretended to be fine first and went around there for a while. "Everyone in the town was talking about this. Regarding the detailed incident, Anna heard several different and even contradictory statements. After she distributed the clothes, she headed straight to the square, and did not go to the market like she did every Saturday.
The people in front of the door of the bonnet were not as many as she thought. Several men gathered in the shade of apricot trees to chat. The Syrians had put away their colorful rags and prepared to have lunch. The canvas shed was shaking as if they were dozing off. In the hotel's front hall, a man was lying on a rocking chair with his mouth open, his hands and feet spread out, and was lying on a rocking chair for nap. The hot weather at twelve o'clock made everything seem paralyzed.
Anna walked up the Danzi room. When she passed the open space opposite the pier, she saw a group of people. At this time, she remembered Damaso once told her that the back door of the Danzi room was facing a building open space. Everyone knows this, but only the old customer of the Danzi room remembered it the most clearly. After a while, she used her arms to protect her belly and squeezed into the crowd, staring at the pried door. The lock was not moved, and only one of the iron rings on the door was pulled out like front teeth. Anna couldn't help but think of her husband as she saw the chaos caused by this inconspicuous work that was secretly done by her, and she couldn't help but think of her husband.
"Who did this?" "
She didn't dare to look around.
"I don't know," someone replied. "I heard that he is a foreigner. "
" That's right," said a woman behind Anna. "There are no thieves in our town.
Everyone in the town knows whom. "
Anna turned her head and took a look.
"Yes," she said with a calm smile. At this time, she was covered in sweat. An old man stood beside her, with deep wrinkles on the back of her neck.
"All things were stolen? "She asked.
"There are two hundred pesos , and there are a few billiards," said the old man. He looked at Anna with an inexplicable look. "Now I have to sleep with my eyes open. "Anna hurriedly avoided his gaze.
" Yes! "She repeated this sentence, covered a piece of rag on her head and walked away, feeling that the old man was still staring at her. The crowd in the open space was silent for a moment, as if there was a dead body behind the pried door. Then, the crowd became turbulent and turned around to rush towards the square. The boss and the mayor of the gangster room, and two policemen, stood at the door. The boss was short and round, and his pants were all tied up with his belly. He was wearing a pair of glasses that looked like children playing with, and he didn't look as arrogant as usual.
People surrounded her. Anna's back was against the wall, listening to the boss' introduction to everyone. Later, the crowd dispersed and she returned home. The neighbors asked her so hard that she was dizzy and couldn't breathe.
Damaso lay on the bed, thinking repeatedly how anxious Anna was waiting for him last night. Besides, she didn't smoke. When she saw her smiling and taking off the rag soaked in sweat from her head, Damaso hurriedly sniffed a cigarette that had only sucked one or two on the ground full of cigarette butts, waiting for her to speak.
"How is it?" "
Anna kneeled in front of the bed.
"You, not only a thief, but also a liar," she said.
"Why? "
" You said there was nothing in the drawer. "Damaso frowned.
" There is nothing! "
" has two hundred pesos! "Anna said.
" nonsense! "He raised his voice and retorted. As he spoke, he sat up from the bed, and then slowed down and said, "It's only 25 cents." "Anna finally believed what her husband said.
" What an old villain! "Damasso said, clenched his fists."They just want to make people ugly."
Anna smiled heartily.
"Okay, don't be so stupid."
He also smiled at the end. When he shaved, Anna told him what he heard and seemed. It was also said that the police were searching for a foreigner. People said he came from on Thursday. Last night, someone saw him walking over on the dock," she said. "I also said that I couldn't find him anywhere today. "Damaso was also thinking about this foreigner he had never met before. For a while, he really thought that this person was the one who stole things.
"Maybe he had slipped away," said Anna.
Damaso spent three hours washing and dressing up as usual. The first thing was to comb the beard one by one. Then take a shower under the faucet in the yard. Anna followed him closely, He looked at him carefully combing his hair with deep affection. When she first saw Damaso last night, she felt this kind of love for him. When Damaso put on a big red checkered shirt towards the mirror and was about to go out, Anna saw from the mirror that she was old and sloppy. Damaso jumped skillfully in front of Anna like an professional boxing master. Anna grabbed his wrist.
"Is there any money?" "
"I am a big rich man," Damaso said jokingly. "I have two hundred pesos. "Anna turned her back and looked at the wall, and took out a stack of banknotes from her arms. She gave her husband a pesos and said:
"Take it, Horge Negret. "Hurrying at night, Damaso and a group of friends met in the square. People who came to the Sunday market from the countryside with products set up tents between the food stalls and the lottery tables. They heard their snoring as soon as they were late. Damaso's friends seemed not very interested in theft of the gang houses, and they wanted to listen to the live broadcast of the gang 3 softball championship game. But tonight the gang wannabe did not open the door, and they couldn't listen. When they talked about softball, everyone talked a lot. While they were talking about it, they walked into the cinema, and didn't know what movie was released.
is screening "Cynic Man". Damaso, who was sitting in the first row, laughed indulgently , his mood had completely calmed down. It was a good night in June. During the performance break, only the projector emitted a faint light. In the open-air theater, people could see the quiet stars in the sky.
Suddenly, the image on the screen blurred, and a sharp shout sounded in a corner of the theater. The lights were suddenly bright, and Damaso thought he was exposed and planned to slip away quickly, but then he was shocked to see the whole audience. A policeman held a folded belt in his hand and slapped a person with a heavy copper drill. This was a tall black man. The women present shouted loudly, and the policeman who beat the black man also shouted loudly, and the voice overwhelmed the women's shouts: "Thief! Thief! "The black man rolled and crawled in the middle of the chair. Two policemen chased behind him, chasing and beating the black man's back, and finally grabbed his back. The policeman who beat the black man tied his arms with a rope. Three policemen pushed and shoved the black man to the door. Things happened very quickly, and Damaso did not understand what was going on until the black man walked past him. The black man's shirt was torn, his face was dirty, mud, blood, and sweat. He whimpered and said, "Kill robber, kill robber! "At this time, the projector lights were on, and the movie continued to play.
Damaso could no longer laugh. He sucked cigarettes one by one, and all he saw was a fragment of an incoherent story. Finally, the lights were bright, and the audience looked at each other, as if he was a little surprised to return to real life. "It's so exciting! "Someone shouted at the people around him. Damaso didn't go to see him.
" The movie "Cynic Man" is awesome! "He said. Damaso followed the crowd to the door.The food vendor went home with the rest of the things sold. At around 11 o'clock, there were still many people on the street waiting for people coming out of the cinema to tell them about the arrest of black people.
That night, Damaso tiptoed into the house. When Anna found out in her sleep that he was back, he was lying on the bed and smoking a second cigarette.
"The rice is warm on the fire," she said.
"I'm not hungry," Damaso said.
Anna sighed.
"I just dreamed that Nora used butter as a villain," she said sleepyly. Suddenly she realized that she had fallen asleep again without realizing it. So she turned toward Damaso and rubbed her eyes with her hands in a daze.
"The foreigner was caught," she said. Damaso was silent for a moment before speaking:
"Who said it?"
"was caught in the cinema," Anna said, ", everyone said so."
Then she told a fictional rumor about the arrest of a black man. Damaso did not correct her.
"Pity!" Anna sighed and said.
"What's pitiful?" Damaso protested excitedly. "So you are willing to ask me to go to prison?"
She knew in her heart that Damaso could not refute it. She felt that he was smoking again, panting heavily, like an asthma patient. In this way, they stayed until the chickens cried. After a while, she felt Damaso stand up and looked around in the room, he was moving not by sight but by touch. Afterwards, she felt that he was digging the ground under the bed and for about a minute. Then, she felt that he had taken off his clothes in the darkness and tried not to make a sound. Damaso didn't know that Anna had been pretending to sleep well in order not to disturb him. Anna instinctively sensed what was going on. Finally, she suddenly realized that Damaso was in the cinema at that time, and at the same time, she also understood why he buried the billiards under the bed just now.
On Monday, the Danzi Room opened again. A group of excited customers rushed in. The ball table was covered with a purple-black velvet, and the bonnet looked a bit like a funeral home. A notice was posted on the wall: "There is no ball in this room, business is suspended." People walked in and read the notice, as if they were reading a piece of news. Someone stood in front of the notice for a long time, reading the notice over and over again in a rhythmic manner, which made people feel inexplicably confused. ’
Damaso was one of the earliest customers. He spent a considerable portion of his life in the billiards auditorium. As soon as the Danzi Room reopened, he would come here immediately. However, for him, visiting the Pinyin Room this time was like coming to pay his respects, and he felt a brief sadness in his heart. He patted the boss on the shoulder through the counter and said to him:
"How is it, Mr. Rock?"
The boss smiled bitterly and shook his head. Then he sighed and said, "You can see it yourself." After that, he was busy calling other customers. At this time, Damaso sat on the stool in front of the counter, looking at the ghost-like ball table covered with purple and black mourning cloth.
"It's really rare," he said.
"Yes," said the man sitting on his stool, "We're like we're having Good Friday."
Most of the customers went home for lunch. Damaso threw a coin into the automatic record player and selected a record of Mexican folk songs. He remembers clearly which floor this record is placed in. At this time, Mr. Rock was moving the small table and small chair into the hall.
"What are you doing?" Damaso asked.
"I want to put some playing cards on it," Mr. Rock replied. "I have to do something before I get billiards."
He slapped a chair on one arm and walked around the dim room, like a newly lost widower.
"When can I get billiards?" asked Damaso. “It won’t take a month, I think."
" In another month, the lost ball should be retrieved," said Damaso. Mr. Rock looked at the tables arranged in a row with comfort.
"No," he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeves, and said, "They have not given black people food since Saturday, and have been hungry until now. But he just refused to tell where to put the ball. "Mr. Rock said as he looked at Damaso through the lenses blurred by sweat.
"I think he must have thrown the ball into the river. "Damaso bit his lip.
" What about the two hundred pesos? "
" was not found either," said Mr. Rock. "Only thirty pesos were found on him. "They looked at each other. Damaso couldn't tell why he always felt that he and Mr. Rock looked at each other as if they had reached a tacit understanding of cheating. That afternoon, Anna saw her husband jumping back home from the laundry pool like a boxer. She followed him into the house.
"Okay," Damaso said. "The old guy thought he was unlucky and had asked someone to buy a new ball." Now, just wait for everyone to forget about this matter, and it will be fine. "
" Where is that black man? "
" It's okay," Damaso shrugged. "If you can't find the ball, they have to let him go. "
After dinner, they sat down at the door of the street, chatted with their neighbors, and chatted until the cinema's megaphone stopped broadcasting. While sleeping, Damaso was very excited.
"I caught up with all the good things in the world," he said.
Anna knew that he had been thinking about this since the evening.
"I plan to transfer from one town to another," Damaso continued. "Steal billiards in this town and get the ball off the next town. Anyway, there are gangs in every town. "
" Maybe one day you will definitely get a gun! "
" What kind of gun is not gun," he said. "This kind of thing can only be seen in movies. "He stood in the middle of the room, feeling proud. Anna began to take off her clothes, pretending to be careless on the surface, but in fact she was always listening to Damaso carefully.
"Then I'll buy such a large row of clothes," Damaso said while using her index finger to gesture a imaginary wardrobe as wide as the wall. "From here to there. Buy fifty pairs of shoes. "
" I hope God can hear what you say," Anna said.
Damaso's face darkened and glared at her.
"Are you interested in these things? "He said.
"From me, all these are still far away," Anna said. She turned off the lights; she lay down on the wall, and then added a sentence with a deep confusion; "When you are thirty years old, I am forty-seven." "
"Don't be so stupid," said Damaso. He reached into his pocket to touch the match.
"At that time, you don't have to fight your life to wash your clothes anymore," he said in an apology. Anna scratched the match for him. She stared at the fire with her eyes blankly until the match was finished, and then she threw the remaining match stick on the ground. Damaso lay on the bed with his back on the sky, and then said:
"Do you know what billiards are made of? "Anna did not answer.
" is made of ivory," he continued. "It's hard to buy, so it will take a month to get it. Do you understand? "
" Go to bed quickly! "Anna interrupted him and said. "I still have to get up at five o'clock. "Damaso returned to normal. He spent the whole morning lying in bed smoking. After a nap, he washed and dressed up again and prepared to go out. In the evening, he listened to the live broadcast of the softball championship game in the ballroom. He has such a virtue: all ideas come quickly and forget them quickly.
"Do you still have money? "He asked Anna on Saturday.
"There are eleven pesos," she replied.Then he said softly, "This is the money to pay the rent."
"I suggest we do a deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"Lend me the money first."
"You have to pay the rent."
"Pay it later."
Anna shook her head, and Damaso grabbed her wrist and prevented her from standing up from the table where she had just eaten breakfast. "It's just a few days," Damaso said. He absent-mindedly stroked Anna's arm and said, "If we sell billiards, we will have money. Buy whatever we want." In the evening, in the cinema, Damaso kept hugging Anna's shoulders. Even when he was talking to his friends during the break, his hands did not leave Anna's shoulders. All they saw was a bit of fragments of the movie, and in the end, Damaso became impatient.
"Then I have to go block the road and rob," he said.
Anna shrugged.
"No matter who I encounter, I will give him a blow," Damaso said, pushing Anna into the crowd walking out of the cinema. "In this way, I will become a murderer and be imprisoned."
Anna smiled secretly, but still refused to give in. The two quarreled all night. The next morning, Damaso hurriedly put on his clothes and deliberately posed for a scary look. When he walked past his wife, he muttered:
"I will never come back."
Anna couldn't help but tremble slightly.
"Look at you to be safe all the way!" she shouted.
Damaso threw the door violently. This Sunday was really empty and long for him. There are colorful sporadic items on the market. The women in colorful glittering clothes watched the eight o'clock mass and led their children out of the church. All of this adds a joyous atmosphere to the square. But the weather is getting hotter and hotter.
Damaso spent this day in the banyan. In the morning, there were a few men playing poker there. Before lunch, there were more people. However, the PMN has obviously lost its appeal. It was only when the softball championship live broadcast in the evening that some of the former lively regained some of the funniest. After the
ballroom closed, Damaso came to a square with no one in the crowd and didn't know where to go for a while. At this time, he heard a cheerful music coming from a distance, and walked along the street parallel to the pier. At the end of the street is a spacious, humble dance hall decorated with faded paper garlands. In the dance hall, the band sat on a wooden table. There was a suffocating fragrance of powder floating in the room.
Damasso stood in front of the counter. After the song was played, the young man who was hitting the cymbals in the band walked out and collected money from the dancers. In the middle of the dance floor, a girl left her partner and walked towards Damaso.
"How about it, Holge Negret?"
Damaso asked her to sit beside her. The hotel owner who was rubbing powder on his face and a flower of dianthus in his ear asked humbly:
"What should I drink?"
The girl asked Damaso:
"What should I drink?"
"Do you drink nothing."
"Do you have nothing to do."
"Do you have to settle my account."
"Not for this," Damaso said. "I'm hungry."
"Oh, it's a pity!" the boss sighed. "Look at these eyes."
Damaso and the girl walked to the restaurant at the end of the dance hall. Judging from the girl's figure, she seems to be very young. But the maternal fat, powder and lipstick applied on her face made people unable to guess how old she was. After dinner, Damaso followed the girl through the black yard and into a room deep in the yard. In the yard, you can hear the breathing of sleeping animals. There is a baby who was just a few months old on the bed in the house, wrapped in a colorful rag.The girl spread the rag in a wooden basin, put the child in, and then placed the basin on the ground.
"The mouse will chew him," Damaso said.
"No," the girl said.
She took off her big red clothes and put on a big yellow dress with her chest and backless clothes.
"Who is his dad?" asked Damaso.
"I don't know either," she said. When she walked to the door, she said, "I'll be back soon."
Damaso heard her lock the door. He lay on the bed with his back and his clothes, smoking several cigarettes in a row. The sound of drums trembled the bed. He didn't know when he fell asleep. When he woke up, the music had stopped and the room seemed even more empty.
The girl was taking off her clothes in front of the bed.
"What time is it!"
"It's about four o'clock," she said. "Didn't the child cry?"
"It seems that there is no," Damaso said.
The girl lay down next to him, unbuttoning the buttons of her shirt for him, while glancing at him sideways. Damaso knew she had drunk a lot of alcohol. He planned to turn off the light.
"Give it aside," she said. "I like to look at your eyes the most."
The room is full of the unique sounds in the rural morning. The child cried. The girl carried him to the bed to feed him, humming a song with only three notes in her mouth, and the three of them fell asleep after singing. When Miss Zhong came at seven o'clock, she woke up. She went out and did not hold the child when she came back. Damaso didn't notice these at all.
"Everyone went to the dock," she said.
Damasso felt that he had only slept for less than an hour that night.
"What are you doing?"
"Go to see the black man who steals billiards," she said. "He will be escorted away today."
Damaso lit a cigarette.
"It's pitiful!" the girl sighed.
"What's so pitiful?" asked Damaso. "No one forced him to be a thief!" The girl lowered her head to her chest, pondered for a moment before whispering:
"It was not his."
"Who said it?"
"I know," she said. "The night when the ballroom was thrown away, the black man was with Gloria. The next day he stayed at her house until late at night. Later I heard that he was arrested in the cinema."
"Gloria can tell the police station these things."
"The black man said it himself," she said. "The mayor went to Gloria's house and turned the house upside down. He also said that she was the owner of the nest and wanted to put her in prison. Later, it took twenty pesos to make up."
Before eight o'clock, Damaso got up.
"Just stay here," the girl said to him, "I'll go slaughter a chicken, let's have breakfast."
Damaso knocked in the palm of his hand with a small comb, and then put the comb into the back pocket of his pants.
"No!" Damaso said, grabbing the girl's wrist and pulling her over. She had just washed her face, and she was indeed very young, with her big and black eyes showing a helpless look. He lived on her waist.
"Stay!" she insisted.
"Always stay here?"
Her face turned slightly red and she pushed him away.
"Scammer!" she said. That morning, Anna felt very tired. However, the town was full of people and she was also infected. She hurriedly collected all the clothes she had to wash this week, and went to the dock to see the escort black people on board. A group of people stood in front of the boat that was about to leave, waiting impatiently. Damaso is there too.
Anna poked his waist with her fingers.
"What are you doing here?" Damaso asked after jumping.
"Come to say goodbye to you," Anna said.
Damaso tapped a pole with his finger joints.
"Fuck!" he said.
He lit a cigarette and threw the empty matchbox into the river. Anna took out a box of matches from her top and put them into her shirt pocket. Damaso smiled on his face for the first time.
"You, you are such a female donkey," he said.
"Hahaha..." Anna smiled.
After a while, the black man was taken to the ship. He came from the center of the square, with his hands behind him, tied with a rope, one policeman tugging on the rope, and two gun-carrying policemen followed. The black man was not wearing a shirt, his lower lip was cracked and there was a hole in his eyebrows, as if he was a boxer. He kept his face calmly and avoided everyone's gaze. Most of the people gathered at the door of the Danzi Room, intending to take a look at the two protagonists in this play. The boss of the Danzifang saw the black man coming over and shook his head silently. The rest looked at the black people with a feeling of watching the fun.
The boat drove away immediately. The black man sat on the top of the cabin, his hands and feet tied to a kerosene bucket. The boat went around the river's heart and emitted the last whistle, and a light flashed on the black man's back.
"Pity!" Anna said.
"What a sin!" said a person beside her. "How can people resist such sunshine!"
Damaso looked at it and spoke with a particularly obese woman. After glanced at the woman, he walked towards the square. "You're talking too much," he yelled in Anna's ear. "You're almost yelling at this."
Anna accompanied him to the door of the Danzi room.
"At least you have to go back and change your clothes," Anna said during the breakup. "You have become a beggar." The news about
brought a group of noisy customers to the tanzi room. Mr. Rock had to wait for several tables at the same time to greet everyone. Damaso waited until Mr. Rock walked past him and said to him:
"Do you want me to help?"
Mr. Rock put half a dozen beer bottles in front of him, with the cup on it.
"Thank you, young man."
Damaso sent the bottle to the table. He asked several customers what they wanted; he continued to move the bottle over until everyone went for lunch. In the early morning, Damaso returned home. Anna knew at a glance that he was drinking again. She took his hand and placed it on her belly.
"Touch," she said to him, "Didn't you realize anything?" Damaso looked cold.
"He is alive," Anna said. "He just kicked me inside that night."
Damaso still said nothing. He was thinking about his thoughts. He went out early the next morning and did not come back until midnight. Just like that, a week passed. Damaso rarely stays at home, and when he gets home, he lies down and smokes, and doesn't want to speak. Anna tried to show care and considerateness to him. When they started living together, he was like this one time. At that time, she didn't know much about him and didn't know that she couldn't ask about his affairs. That time, Damaso pressed her on the bed and rode her on, making her bleeding.
This time, she simply waited and saw it. At night, she put ten cigarettes next to the oil lamp. She knew that Damaso was not afraid of thirst or hunger, but she couldn't stand it if she didn't smoke. Finally, one evening in mid-June, Damaso returned home. Anna was a little nervous. She thought Damaso had to feel unhappy when she came back at this time; while eating, the couple didn't say a word. Before lying down, Damaso seemed a little dazed and seemed kinder. He said casually:
"I want to go out."
"Where to go?" "Everywhere is OK."
Anna glanced at the house. The magazine cover she cut with movie stars was covered with walls. The cover was already very old and the color faded. She could see these people's avatars from the bed every day, but she never noticed that they had become the color they are today.
"You hate me," she said.
"No," Damaso said. "I hate this town." "This town is no different from other towns."
"The ball cannot be removed here," Damaso said.
"Don't worry about what's wrong with the ball," Anna said. "As long as God makes me strong to wash clothes, you don't have to go on the risk." She paused and said softly, "I really don't know how you did this." Damaso smoked a cigarette and said, "
"This is very simple. I can't tell why others didn't do this," he said.
"It's not for money," Anna said. "But no one is so stupid. He specializes in stealing billiards."
"When I went there, I didn't even think about it," Damaso said. "When I got there, I saw a ball in the box behind the counter. I thought it was not worth it to come back empty-handed."
"I'm not lucky," Anna said.
Damasso felt a little relaxed.
"The new ball can't come for the moment," he said. "Someone sent a message saying that the price of the ball has increased, and Mr. Rock said buying the ball is not worth it," he lit another cigarette. As he spoke, he felt that the darkness that was pressing on his heart slowly faded away.
He said that the boss of the tanzi house had decided to sell the ball table. However, it is said that this is not worth much, because the woolen on the counter was broken by careless beginners. It turned out that it was made up with a colored cloth, but now it has to be replaced with a new one. He also said that those customers who spent most of their lives next to the table now have no other entertainment except listening to the live broadcast of the softball championship.
"In a word," Damaso said at the end, "our days were all unknowingly dismissed in this town."
"It's really boring," Anna said.
"The championship game is coming to an end next week," Damaso said.
"This is not the worst thing. The most unlucky person is the black man." Just like when she first got married, she snuggled up on his shoulders, knowing very well what her husband was thinking. When he finished smoking a cigarette, she said gingerly:
"Damaso!"
"What are you doing?"
"Send the ball back." He lit another cigarette.
"I have been thinking about this for several days," he said. "The problem is how to send it back."
They first decided to throw the ball in a public place. Later Anna thought that this could only solve the problem of PMU, but the problem of black people still could not be solved. The police department can give various explanations about this without freeing black people. What's more, there is a danger: someone picks up the ball and doesn't return it, and keeps it and sells it.
"If you want it, make things good," Anna said at last.
They paddled out the balls. Anna wrapped the ball in a letter paper, wrapped it so that the ball could not be revealed, and then put it in the box.
"I have to wait for a chance," she said.
waited and waited, and two more weeks later. On the night of August 20th, two months after stealing the ball, Damaso found Mr. Rock. Mr. Rock sat behind the counter and drove away mosquitoes with a banana fan. The radio turned on, and the surroundings seemed even quieter.
"I told you," Mr. Rock seemed to have finished something to do, and said calmly in his heart, "All these are gone."
Damaso threw a coin into the automatic record player. The number of the record and the indicator light of the record player seem to prove that he is an honest person. However, he felt that Mr. Rock did not pay much attention to this. He moved a seat and wanted to comfort Mr. Rock with some ambiguous words. The boss slapped the fan lazily and listened to him indifferently.
"No way," he said, "the softball championship can't be played for a lifetime."
"The ball may come back."
"No."
"No."
"Black people can't eat the ball.""
" The police searched everywhere," said Mr. Rock in despair. "He threw the ball into the river. "
" may have a miracle. "
" Stop fantasizing, boy," Mr. Rock retorted. "Unfortunate things are like snails. Do you believe in miracles? "
" Sometimes I believe it," said Damaso. When Damaso left the ballroom, the movie was not over yet. The loud conversations of the loudspeaker were heard intermittently, and it was echoing in the dark town. Only a few families were still lit lights, probably something happened temporarily. Damaso wandered around the cinema for a while, then turned to the dance hall.
The entire band was accompanimenting a customer. The customer and two dance girls were also playing. Dancing. The rest of the dancers were sitting honestly against the wall, waiting for their turn. Damaso sat at a table and gestured to the hotel owner to bring a bottle of beer. He drank a bottle of beer in one breath, staring at the man dancing with two dancers like a layer of glass. This man was shorter than both dancers.
In the middle of the night, women who had watched the movie came to the dance hall, followed by a group of men. Damaso's girlfriend was also in the middle of the crowd. She left the crowd and sat next to Damaso's table.
Damaso didn't look at her. He had already poured half a dozen beers, and his eyes were still staring at the man who was dancing with three dancers. The man didn't really answer those girls, just lowering his head to admire the gold and silver thread embroidered on his shoes. He seemed very comfortable. Of course, if he had a tail besides his hands and feet, he would be even more comfortable.
"I hate this guy," said Damaso.
" Then don't look at him," said the girl.
The girl asked the hotel owner for a glass of wine. At this time, the dance floor was filled with pairs of dance partners. The man who danced with three dancers still looked deserted on the dance floor. He turned around and happened to meet Damaso's gaze. He danced even more happily, smiling at Damaso, revealing a rabbit-like broken rice. Damaso stared at him without blinking, and glared at him to put away his smile and turn around.
"He is very proud! "Damasso said.
"is very proud," the girl said. "Every time he comes to the town, he pays the accompaniment fee himself, just like other tourists. "Damaso turned his face and glanced at her with his dull eyes.
"Then you go with him," he said. "Don't let him eat three, just ask him to eat four. "
The girl ignored him and turned her face toward the dance floor, sipping the wine in the glass one by one. The goose yellow clothes made her look timid.
Everyone danced another dance. Finally, Damaso straightened her waist.
"I'm going to starve to death," the girl said, pulling Damaso's arm and pulling him towards the counter. "You should eat something too. "The proud man and three dancers turned from the opposite direction.
" Listen! "Damaso said to him.
The man smiled at him and continued to dance. Damaso pulled out of his girlfriend's arm and blocked the man's way.
"I don't like your teeth! "
The man's face suddenly turned black, but he still had a smile.
"I don't like it either," he said.
The girl was about to step forward to stop Damaso, but he took the lead and punched the man in the face. The other party fell in the middle of the dance floor. None of the customers came out to persuade him to fight. The three dancers hugged Damaso in the waist and shouted. Damaso's girlfriend pushed him deep in the hall. At this time, the man stood up and his face was twisted. The chicken cried for the first time, and Damaso returned home. His six-month-old wife, Yu Anna, was sitting on the head of the bed waiting for him, without taking off her clothes and shoes. The oil lamp is about to go out. Seeing this, Damasso immediately understood that his wife had been waiting for a whole night without a rest for a second; until now, even though she saw him standing in front of her, she seemed to be waiting for something. Damaso made a gesture to Anna, telling her not to worry anymore. She didn't react at all, but stared at the red cloth bag in her husband's hand with her terrified eyes, her lips closed tightly, and she couldn't help but tremble. Damasso silently grabbed his wife's corset with a sour and smelly smell in his mouth. Anna lets her husband pick herself up in the air, leans forward, and lies on her husband's red flannel top and starts crying. She tightly clung to her husband's waist until her excitement slowly calmed down. "I fell asleep while sitting," she said. "Suddenly the door opened, and they pushed you into the room, and you were covered in blood." Damaso didn't say anything. He pushed his wife away and put it on the bed. Then, he put the cloth bag on her knees and went to the yard to untire his hands. Anna untied the knot on the cloth bag and saw that there were three billiards inside, two white and one red, which had already been dull. Damaso returned to the house and saw his wife staring at the balls in surprise. "What's the use of this?" Anna asked. He shrugged. "Just play!" He tied the cloth bag, put it in the box along with the temporary master key, flashlight and a knife. Anna lay down her face towards the wall and clothes. Damaso took off his pants, lay flat on the bed, smoking a cigarette in the dark room. In the silent voice of dawn, he tried his best to recall whether this adventure would leave any trace. After a while, he found that his wife was not asleep either. "What do you think?" "That's not thinking about anything!" she replied. Her voice was like a baritone, and now she felt angry in her stomach, and her voice seemed even deeper. After taking a last puff of cigarette, Damaso sucked the cigarette butt on the ground and squeezed it out. "Nothing great," he sighed. "I stayed in it for about an hour." "It's just about to give you a gun!" she said. Damaso trembled suddenly. "Fuck!" he said as he tapped the edge of the wooden bed with his fingers. Then he reached out to the ground to find out the cigarette and matches. "You really have a donkey liver and lungs!" Anna said. "You should also think that I can't sleep here. Whenever there is any movement on the street, I think they have brought your body back." She sighed and continued, "I've been trying for a long time and got three billiards back." "Then you only have two cents in the drawer." "Then don't get anything back." "Since you've got it in," Damaso said, "I can't come back empty-handed." "Then take something else!" "Then you have nothing!" "Then you have nothing!" "Then you have nothing!" "Hmph, no matter how rich you are, you can't compare to the gangster." "That's what you say," Damaso said. "But get inside, look around, and look around, and you'll know. There's nothing useful." She was silent for a long time. Damaso opened his eyes wide; he was thinking about what she was thinking. He tried his best to take out something valuable from his vague memories. "Maybe!" she said. Damaso lit another cigarette. The alcohol made him dizzy and felt that his body was big and heavy, and he had to hold on. "There is a cat in the bonnet," he said, a big white cat ." Anna turned over and put her bulging belly on her husband's belly, and her calf was inserted between his knees. She smelled onion. "Are you scared? " " me? " " Yes," Anna said, "I heard that men are also afraid. "He felt that she was laughing, so he smiled with her. "There is a little bit," he said. "I always feel that I can't hold it in and want to pee. " He asked Anna to kiss him, but he didn't kiss her back. Then, he told his wife in detail about the adventure, as if he was recalling a trip. He knew very well how dangerous the bread was in pregnancy, but he did not regret it at all. Anna pondered for a moment before saying: "I was simply crazy. " " Everything is difficult at the beginning! "Damaso closed his eyes and said. "Besides, this is a good time. " The sun is in the sky. When Damaso woke up, his wife had already gotten up. He stretched his head under the faucet in the yard for a few minutes before he could fully wake up. This is a row of houses of the same style and are not connected to each other. Damaso's home is one of them. There is a common yard full of ropes for drying clothes. There is a place separated by iron sheets to the back wall, where Anna sets a stove for cooking and cooking irons, and a small table for eating and ironing . When Anna saw her husband coming, she quickly moved the flat clothes, took the iron out of the stove, and heated up coffee. She was older than her husband, pale skin, and quick and quick movements, like a person who often worked. Damaso felt a little headache and drowsy. He saw from his wife's eyes that she had something to say to him. Only then did he notice the noisy sound in the yard. "They didn't talk about anything else this morning," Anna whispered while drinking the coffee. "The men went there early in the morning. " Damaso looked around. It was true that the men and the children were not in the yard. While drinking coffee, he listened quietly to the conversation of the women hanging clothes in the sun. Finally, he lit a cigarette and walked out of the kitchen. "Tresa! "He called out. A girl agreed, and the wet clothes she was holding were stuck to her body. "Be careful! "Anna said. At this time, the girl came over. "What's wrong? "Damaso asked. "Someone got into the banyan and stole everything," the girl said. It seemed that she knew very detailedly. She said that someone had broken the banyan into pieces and even moved the ball table. She spoke vividly, and even Damaso couldn't help but believe it. "Nonsense! "He returned to the kitchen and said. Anna hummed a song, and Damaso leaned a stool against the yard wall, intending to calm down his restlessness. Three months ago, he had just turned 20 years old. He tried his best to accumulate two beards covering his mouth, adding an adult spirit to his numb face. From then on, he felt that he was an adult. This morning, his head ached faintly. When he recalled the things that happened last night in a daze, he really didn't know how to survive in the future." Anna ironed her clothes and divided the clean clothes into two stacks of the same size, preparing to go out to the street. "You go early and come back early!" said Damaso. "As usual." Damaso followed his wife into the house. "I put your plaid shirt over there," Anna said. "Please don't wear that flannel top anymore." After that, she stared at her husband's bright cat-like eyes. "I don't know if anyone sees you." Damaso wiped the sweat in his hands on his pants. "No one saw me." " Who knows," Anna said again. She held up a stack of clothes with one hand. "Also, you shouldn't go out for the time being. I pretended to be fine first and went around there for a while. "Everyone in the town was talking about this. Regarding the detailed incident, Anna heard several different and even contradictory statements. After she distributed the clothes, she headed straight to the square, and did not go to the market like she did every Saturday. The people in front of the door of the bonnet were not as many as she thought. Several men gathered in the shade of apricot trees to chat. The Syrians had put away their colorful rags and prepared to have lunch. The canvas shed was shaking as if they were dozing off. In the hotel's front hall, a man was lying on a rocking chair with his mouth open, his hands and feet spread out, and was lying on a rocking chair for nap. The hot weather at twelve o'clock made everything seem paralyzed. Anna walked up the Danzi room. When she passed the open space opposite the pier, she saw a group of people. At this time, she remembered Damaso once told her that the back door of the Danzi room was facing a building open space. Everyone knows this, but only the old customer of the Danzi room remembered it the most clearly. After a while, she used her arms to protect her belly and squeezed into the crowd, staring at the pried door. The lock was not moved, and only one of the iron rings on the door was pulled out like front teeth. Anna couldn't help but think of her husband as she saw the chaos caused by this inconspicuous work that was secretly done by her, and she couldn't help but think of her husband. "Who did this?" " She didn't dare to look around. "I don't know," someone replied. "I heard that he is a foreigner. " " That's right," said a woman behind Anna. "There are no thieves in our town. Everyone in the town knows whom. " Anna turned her head and took a look. "Yes," she said with a calm smile. At this time, she was covered in sweat. An old man stood beside her, with deep wrinkles on the back of her neck. "All things were stolen? "She asked. "There are two hundred pesos , and there are a few billiards," said the old man. He looked at Anna with an inexplicable look. "Now I have to sleep with my eyes open. "Anna hurriedly avoided his gaze. " Yes! "She repeated this sentence, covered a piece of rag on her head and walked away, feeling that the old man was still staring at her. The crowd in the open space was silent for a moment, as if there was a dead body behind the pried door. Then, the crowd became turbulent and turned around to rush towards the square. The boss and the mayor of the gangster room, and two policemen, stood at the door. The boss was short and round, and his pants were all tied up with his belly. He was wearing a pair of glasses that looked like children playing with, and he didn't look as arrogant as usual. People surrounded her. Anna's back was against the wall, listening to the boss' introduction to everyone. Later, the crowd dispersed and she returned home. The neighbors asked her so hard that she was dizzy and couldn't breathe. Damaso lay on the bed, thinking repeatedly how anxious Anna was waiting for him last night. Besides, she didn't smoke. When she saw her smiling and taking off the rag soaked in sweat from her head, Damaso hurriedly sniffed a cigarette that had only sucked one or two on the ground full of cigarette butts, waiting for her to speak. "How is it?" " Anna kneeled in front of the bed. "You, not only a thief, but also a liar," she said. "Why? " " You said there was nothing in the drawer. "Damaso frowned. " There is nothing! " " has two hundred pesos! "Anna said. " nonsense! "He raised his voice and retorted. As he spoke, he sat up from the bed, and then slowed down and said, "It's only 25 cents." "Anna finally believed what her husband said. " What an old villain! "Damasso said, clenched his fists."They just want to make people ugly." Anna smiled heartily. "Okay, don't be so stupid." He also smiled at the end. When he shaved, Anna told him what he heard and seemed. It was also said that the police were searching for a foreigner. People said he came from on Thursday. Last night, someone saw him walking over on the dock," she said. "I also said that I couldn't find him anywhere today. "Damaso was also thinking about this foreigner he had never met before. For a while, he really thought that this person was the one who stole things. "Maybe he had slipped away," said Anna. Damaso spent three hours washing and dressing up as usual. The first thing was to comb the beard one by one. Then take a shower under the faucet in the yard. Anna followed him closely, He looked at him carefully combing his hair with deep affection. When she first saw Damaso last night, she felt this kind of love for him. When Damaso put on a big red checkered shirt towards the mirror and was about to go out, Anna saw from the mirror that she was old and sloppy. Damaso jumped skillfully in front of Anna like an professional boxing master. Anna grabbed his wrist. "Is there any money?" " "I am a big rich man," Damaso said jokingly. "I have two hundred pesos. "Anna turned her back and looked at the wall, and took out a stack of banknotes from her arms. She gave her husband a pesos and said: "Take it, Horge Negret. "Hurrying at night, Damaso and a group of friends met in the square. People who came to the Sunday market from the countryside with products set up tents between the food stalls and the lottery tables. They heard their snoring as soon as they were late. Damaso's friends seemed not very interested in theft of the gang houses, and they wanted to listen to the live broadcast of the gang 3 softball championship game. But tonight the gang wannabe did not open the door, and they couldn't listen. When they talked about softball, everyone talked a lot. While they were talking about it, they walked into the cinema, and didn't know what movie was released.
is screening "Cynic Man". Damaso, who was sitting in the first row, laughed indulgently , his mood had completely calmed down. It was a good night in June. During the performance break, only the projector emitted a faint light. In the open-air theater, people could see the quiet stars in the sky.
Suddenly, the image on the screen blurred, and a sharp shout sounded in a corner of the theater. The lights were suddenly bright, and Damaso thought he was exposed and planned to slip away quickly, but then he was shocked to see the whole audience. A policeman held a folded belt in his hand and slapped a person with a heavy copper drill. This was a tall black man. The women present shouted loudly, and the policeman who beat the black man also shouted loudly, and the voice overwhelmed the women's shouts: "Thief! Thief! "The black man rolled and crawled in the middle of the chair. Two policemen chased behind him, chasing and beating the black man's back, and finally grabbed his back. The policeman who beat the black man tied his arms with a rope. Three policemen pushed and shoved the black man to the door. Things happened very quickly, and Damaso did not understand what was going on until the black man walked past him. The black man's shirt was torn, his face was dirty, mud, blood, and sweat. He whimpered and said, "Kill robber, kill robber! "At this time, the projector lights were on, and the movie continued to play.
Damaso could no longer laugh. He smoked one by one, and all he saw was a fragment of an incoherent story. Finally, the lights were bright, and the audience looked at each other, as if he was a little surprised to return to real life. "It's so exciting! "Someone shouted at the people around him. Damaso didn't go to see him.
" The movie "Cynic Man" is awesome! "He said. Damaso followed the crowd to the door.The food vendor went home with the rest of the things sold. At around 11 o'clock, there were still many people on the street waiting for people coming out of the cinema to tell them about the arrest of black people.
That night, Damaso tiptoed into the house. When Anna found out in her sleep that he was back, he was lying on the bed and smoking a second cigarette.
"The rice is warm on the fire," she said.
"I'm not hungry," Damaso said.
Anna sighed.
"I just dreamed that Nora used butter as a villain," she said sleepyly. Suddenly she realized that she had fallen asleep again without realizing it. So she turned toward Damaso and rubbed her eyes with her hands in a daze.
"The foreigner was caught," she said. Damaso was silent for a moment before speaking:
"Who said it?"
"was caught in the cinema," Anna said, ", everyone said so."
Then she told a fictional rumor about the arrest of a black man. Damaso did not correct her.
"Pity!" Anna sighed and said.
"What's pitiful?" Damaso protested excitedly. "So you are willing to ask me to go to prison?"
She knew in her heart that Damaso could not refute it. She felt that he was smoking again, panting heavily, like an asthma patient. In this way, they stayed until the chickens cried. After a while, she felt Damaso stand up and looked around in the room, he was moving not by sight but by touch. Afterwards, she felt that he was digging the ground under the bed and for about a minute. Then, she felt that he had taken off his clothes in the darkness and tried not to make a sound. Damaso didn't know that Anna had been pretending to sleep well in order not to disturb him. Anna instinctively sensed what was going on. Finally, she suddenly realized that Damaso was in the cinema at that time, and at the same time, she also understood why he buried the billiards under the bed just now.
On Monday, the Danzi Room opened again. A group of excited customers rushed in. The ball table was covered with a purple-black velvet, and the bonnet looked a bit like a funeral home. A notice was posted on the wall: "There is no ball in this room, business is suspended." People walked in and read the notice, as if they were reading a piece of news. Someone stood in front of the notice for a long time, reading the notice over and over again in a rhythmic manner, which made people feel inexplicably confused. ’
Damaso was one of the earliest customers. He spent a considerable portion of his life in the billiards auditorium. As soon as the Danzi Room reopened, he would come here immediately. However, for him, visiting the Pinyin Room this time was like coming to pay his respects, and he felt a brief sadness in his heart. He patted the boss on the shoulder through the counter and said to him:
"How is it, Mr. Rock?"
The boss smiled bitterly and shook his head. Then he sighed and said, "You can see it yourself." After that, he was busy calling other customers. At this time, Damaso sat on the stool in front of the counter, looking at the ghost-like ball table covered with purple and black mourning cloth.
"It's really rare," he said.
"Yes," said the man sitting on his stool, "We're like we're having Good Friday."
Most of the customers went home for lunch. Damaso threw a coin into the automatic record player and selected a record of Mexican folk songs. He remembers clearly which floor this record is placed in. At this time, Mr. Rock was moving the small table and small chair into the hall.
"What are you doing?" Damaso asked.
"I want to put some playing cards on it," Mr. Rock replied. "I have to do something before I get billiards."
He slapped a chair on one arm and walked around the dim room, like a newly lost widower.
"When can I get billiards?" asked Damaso. “It won’t take a month, I think."
" In another month, the lost ball should be retrieved," said Damaso. Mr. Rock looked at the tables arranged in a row with comfort.
"No," he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeves, and said, "They have not given black people food since Saturday, and have been hungry until now. But he just refused to tell where to put the ball. "Mr. Rock said as he looked at Damaso through the lenses blurred by sweat.
"I think he must have thrown the ball into the river. "Damaso bit his lip.
" What about the two hundred pesos? "
" was not found either," said Mr. Rock. "Only thirty pesos were found on him. "They looked at each other. Damaso couldn't tell why he always felt that he and Mr. Rock looked at each other as if they had reached a tacit understanding of cheating. That afternoon, Anna saw her husband jumping back home from the laundry pool like a boxer. She followed him into the house.
"Okay," Damaso said. "The old guy thought he was unlucky and had asked someone to buy a new ball." Now, just wait for everyone to forget about this matter, and it will be fine. "
" Where is that black man? "
" It's okay," Damaso shrugged. "If you can't find the ball, they have to let him go. "
After dinner, they sat down at the door of the street, chatted with their neighbors, and chatted until the cinema's megaphone stopped broadcasting. While sleeping, Damaso was very excited.
"I caught up with all the good things in the world," he said.
Anna knew that he had been thinking about this since the evening.
"I plan to transfer from one town to another," Damaso continued. "Steal billiards in this town and get the ball off the next town. Anyway, there are gangs in every town. "
" Maybe one day you will definitely get a gun! "
" What kind of gun is not gun," he said. "This kind of thing can only be seen in movies. "He stood in the middle of the room, feeling proud. Anna began to take off her clothes, pretending to be careless on the surface, but in fact she was always listening to Damaso carefully.
"Then I'll buy such a large row of clothes," Damaso said while using her index finger to gesture a imaginary wardrobe as wide as the wall. "From here to there. Buy fifty pairs of shoes. "
" I hope God can hear what you say," Anna said.
Damaso's face darkened and glared at her.
"Are you interested in these things? "He said.
"From me, all these are still far away," Anna said. She turned off the lights; she lay down on the wall, and then added a sentence with a deep confusion; "When you are thirty years old, I am forty-seven." "
"Don't be so stupid," said Damaso. He reached into his pocket to touch the match.
"At that time, you don't have to fight your life to wash your clothes anymore," he said in an apology. Anna scratched the match for him. She stared at the fire with her eyes blankly until the match was finished, and then she threw the remaining match stick on the ground. Damaso lay on the bed with his back on the sky, and then said:
"Do you know what billiards are made of? "Anna did not answer.
" is made of ivory," he continued. "It's hard to buy, so it will take a month to get it. Do you understand? "
" Go to bed quickly! "Anna interrupted him and said. "I still have to get up at five o'clock. "Damaso returned to normal. He spent the whole morning lying in bed smoking. After a nap, he washed and dressed up again and prepared to go out. In the evening, he listened to the live broadcast of the softball championship game in the ballroom. He has such a virtue: all ideas come quickly and forget them quickly.
"Do you still have money? "He asked Anna on Saturday.
"There are eleven pesos," she replied.Then he said softly, "This is the money to pay the rent."
"I suggest we do a deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"Lend me the money first."
"You have to pay the rent."
"Pay it later."
Anna shook her head, and Damaso grabbed her wrist and prevented her from standing up from the table where she had just eaten breakfast. "It's just a few days," Damaso said. He absent-mindedly stroked Anna's arm and said, "If we sell billiards, we will have money. Buy whatever we want." In the evening, in the cinema, Damaso kept hugging Anna's shoulders. Even when he was talking to his friends during the break, his hands did not leave Anna's shoulders. All they saw was a bit of fragments of the movie, and in the end, Damaso became impatient.
"Then I have to go block the road and rob," he said.
Anna shrugged.
"No matter who I encounter, I will give him a blow," Damaso said, pushing Anna into the crowd walking out of the cinema. "In this way, I will become a murderer and be imprisoned."
Anna smiled secretly, but still refused to give in. The two quarreled all night. The next morning, Damaso hurriedly put on his clothes and deliberately posed for a scary look. When he walked past his wife, he muttered:
"I will never come back."
Anna couldn't help but tremble slightly.
"Look at you to be safe all the way!" she shouted.
Damaso threw the door violently. This Sunday was really empty and long for him. There are colorful sporadic items on the market. The women in colorful glittering clothes watched the eight o'clock mass and led their children out of the church. All of this adds a joyous atmosphere to the square. But the weather is getting hotter and hotter.
Damaso spent this day in the banyan. In the morning, there were a few men playing poker there. Before lunch, there were more people. However, the PMN has obviously lost its appeal. It was only when the softball championship live broadcast in the evening that some of the former lively regained some of the funniest. After the
ballroom closed, Damaso came to a square with no one in the crowd and didn't know where to go for a while. At this time, he heard a cheerful music coming from a distance, and walked along the street parallel to the pier. At the end of the street is a spacious, humble dance hall decorated with faded paper garlands. In the dance hall, the band sat on a wooden table. There was a suffocating fragrance of powder floating in the room.
Damasso stood in front of the counter. After the song was played, the young man who was hitting the cymbals in the band walked out and collected money from the dancers. In the middle of the dance floor, a girl left her partner and walked towards Damaso.
"How about it, Holge Negret?"
Damaso asked her to sit beside her. The hotel owner who was rubbing powder on his face and a flower of dianthus in his ear asked humbly:
"What should I drink?"
The girl asked Damaso:
"What should I drink?"
"Do you drink nothing."
"Do you have nothing to do."
"Do you have to settle my account."
"Not for this," Damaso said. "I'm hungry."
"Oh, it's a pity!" the boss sighed. "Look at these eyes."
Damaso and the girl walked to the restaurant at the end of the dance hall. Judging from the girl's figure, she seems to be very young. But the maternal fat, powder and lipstick applied on her face made people unable to guess how old she was. After dinner, Damaso followed the girl through the black yard and into a room deep in the yard. In the yard, you can hear the breathing of sleeping animals. There is a baby who was just a few months old on the bed in the house, wrapped in a colorful rag.The girl spread the rag in a wooden basin, put the child in, and then placed the basin on the ground.
"The mouse will chew him," Damaso said.
"No," the girl said.
She took off her big red clothes and put on a big yellow dress with her chest and backless clothes.
"Who is his dad?" asked Damaso.
"I don't know either," she said. When she walked to the door, she said, "I'll be back soon."
Damaso heard her lock the door. He lay on the bed with his back and his clothes, smoking several cigarettes in a row. The sound of drums trembled the bed. He didn't know when he fell asleep. When he woke up, the music had stopped and the room seemed even more empty.
The girl was taking off her clothes in front of the bed.
"What time is it!"
"It's about four o'clock," she said. "Didn't the child cry?"
"It seems that there is no," Damaso said.
The girl lay down next to him, unbuttoning the buttons of her shirt for him, while glancing at him sideways. Damaso knew she had drunk a lot of alcohol. He planned to turn off the light.
"Give it aside," she said. "I like to look at your eyes the most."
The room is full of the unique sounds in the rural morning. The child cried. The girl carried him to the bed to feed him, humming a song with only three notes in her mouth, and the three of them fell asleep after singing. When Miss Zhong came at seven o'clock, she woke up. She went out and did not hold the child when she came back. Damaso didn't notice these at all.
"Everyone went to the dock," she said.
Damasso felt that he had only slept for less than an hour that night.
"What are you doing?"
"Go to see the black man who steals billiards," she said. "He will be escorted away today."
Damaso lit a cigarette.
"It's pitiful!" the girl sighed.
"What's so pitiful?" asked Damaso. "No one forced him to be a thief!" The girl lowered her head to her chest, pondered for a moment before whispering:
"It was not his."
"Who said it?"
"I know," she said. "The night when the ballroom was thrown away, the black man was with Gloria. The next day he stayed at her house until late at night. Later I heard that he was arrested in the cinema."
"Gloria can tell the police station these things."
"The black man said it himself," she said. "The mayor went to Gloria's house and turned the house upside down. He also said that she was the owner of the nest and wanted to put her in prison. Later, it took twenty pesos to make up."
Before eight o'clock, Damaso got up.
"Just stay here," the girl said to him, "I'll go slaughter a chicken, let's have breakfast."
Damaso knocked in the palm of his hand with a small comb, and then put the comb into the back pocket of his pants.
"No!" Damaso said, grabbing the girl's wrist and pulling her over. She had just washed her face, and she was indeed very young, with her big and black eyes showing a helpless look. He lived on her waist.
"Stay!" she insisted.
"Always stay here?"
Her face turned slightly red and she pushed him away.
"Scammer!" she said. That morning, Anna felt very tired. However, the town was full of people and she was also infected. She hurriedly collected all the clothes she had to wash this week, and went to the dock to see the escort black people on board. A group of people stood in front of the boat that was about to leave, waiting impatiently. Damaso is there too.
Anna poked his waist with her fingers.
"What are you doing here?" Damaso asked after jumping.
"Come to say goodbye to you," Anna said.
Damaso tapped a pole with his finger joints.
"Fuck!" he said.
He lit a cigarette and threw the empty matchbox into the river. Anna took out a box of matches from her top and put them into her shirt pocket. Damaso smiled on his face for the first time.
"You, you are such a female donkey," he said.
"Hahaha..." Anna smiled.
After a while, the black man was taken to the ship. He came from the center of the square, with his hands behind him, tied with a rope, one policeman tugging on the rope, and two gun-carrying policemen followed. The black man was not wearing a shirt, his lower lip was cracked and there was a hole in his eyebrows, as if he was a boxer. He kept his face calmly and avoided everyone's gaze. Most of the people gathered at the door of the Danzi Room, intending to take a look at the two protagonists in this play. The boss of the Danzifang saw the black man coming over and shook his head silently. The rest looked at the black people with a feeling of watching the fun.
The boat drove away immediately. The black man sat on the top of the cabin, his hands and feet tied to a kerosene bucket. The boat went around the river's heart and emitted the last whistle, and a light flashed on the black man's back.
"Pity!" Anna said.
"What a sin!" said a person beside her. "How can people resist such sunshine!"
Damaso looked at it and spoke with a particularly obese woman. After glanced at the woman, he walked towards the square. "You're talking too much," he yelled in Anna's ear. "You're almost yelling at this."
Anna accompanied him to the door of the Danzi room.
"At least you have to go back and change your clothes," Anna said during the breakup. "You have become a beggar." The news about
brought a group of noisy customers to the tanzi room. Mr. Rock had to wait for several tables at the same time to greet everyone. Damaso waited until Mr. Rock walked past him and said to him:
"Do you want me to help?"
Mr. Rock put half a dozen beer bottles in front of him, with the cup on it.
"Thank you, young man."
Damaso sent the bottle to the table. He asked several customers what they wanted; he continued to move the bottle over until everyone went for lunch. In the early morning, Damaso returned home. Anna knew at a glance that he was drinking again. She took his hand and placed it on her belly.
"Touch," she said to him, "Didn't you realize anything?" Damaso looked cold.
"He is alive," Anna said. "He just kicked me inside that night."
Damaso still said nothing. He was thinking about his thoughts. He went out early the next morning and did not come back until midnight. Just like that, a week passed. Damaso rarely stays at home, and when he gets home, he lies down and smokes, and doesn't want to speak. Anna tried to show care and considerateness to him. When they started living together, he was like this one time. At that time, she didn't know much about him and didn't know that she couldn't ask about his affairs. That time, Damaso pressed her on the bed and rode her on, making her bleeding.
This time, she simply waited and saw it. At night, she put ten cigarettes next to the oil lamp. She knew that Damaso was not afraid of thirst or hunger, but she couldn't stand it if she didn't smoke. Finally, one evening in mid-June, Damaso returned home. Anna was a little nervous. She thought Damaso had to feel unhappy when she came back at this time; while eating, the couple didn't say a word. Before lying down, Damaso seemed a little dazed and seemed kinder. He said casually:
"I want to go out."
"Where to go?" "Everywhere is OK."
Anna glanced at the house. The magazine cover she cut with movie stars was covered with walls. The cover was already very old and the color faded. She could see these people's avatars from the bed every day, but she never noticed that they had become the color they are today.
"You hate me," she said.
"No," Damaso said. "I hate this town." "This town is no different from other towns."
"The ball cannot be removed here," Damaso said.
"Don't worry about what's wrong with the ball," Anna said. "As long as God makes me strong to wash clothes, you don't have to go on the risk." She paused and said softly, "I really don't know how you did this." Damaso smoked a cigarette and said, "
"This is very simple. I can't tell why others didn't do this," he said.
"It's not for money," Anna said. "But no one is so stupid. He specializes in stealing billiards."
"When I went there, I didn't even think about it," Damaso said. "When I got there, I saw a ball in the box behind the counter. I thought it was not worth it to come back empty-handed."
"I'm not lucky," Anna said.
Damasso felt a little relaxed.
"The new ball can't come for the moment," he said. "Someone sent a message saying that the price of the ball has increased, and Mr. Rock said buying the ball is not worth it," he lit another cigarette. As he spoke, he felt that the darkness that was pressing on his heart slowly faded away.
He said that the boss of the tanzi house had decided to sell the ball table. However, it is said that this is not worth much, because the woolen on the counter was broken by careless beginners. It turned out that it was made up with a colored cloth, but now it has to be replaced with a new one. He also said that those customers who spent most of their lives next to the table now have no other entertainment except listening to the live broadcast of the softball championship.
"In a word," Damaso said at the end, "our days were all unknowingly dismissed in this town."
"It's really boring," Anna said.
"The championship game is coming to an end next week," Damaso said.
"This is not the worst thing. The most unlucky person is the black man." Just like when she first got married, she snuggled up on his shoulders, knowing very well what her husband was thinking. When he finished smoking a cigarette, she said gingerly:
"Damaso!"
"What are you doing?"
"Send the ball back." He lit another cigarette.
"I have been thinking about this for several days," he said. "The problem is how to send it back."
They first decided to throw the ball in a public place. Later Anna thought that this could only solve the problem of PMU, but the problem of black people still could not be solved. The police department can give various explanations about this without freeing black people. What's more, there is a danger: someone picks up the ball and doesn't return it, and keeps it and sells it.
"If you want it, make things good," Anna said at last.
They paddled out the balls. Anna wrapped the ball in a letter paper, wrapped it so that the ball could not be revealed, and then put it in the box.
"I have to wait for a chance," she said.
waited and waited, and two more weeks later. On the night of August 20th, two months after stealing the ball, Damaso found Mr. Rock. Mr. Rock sat behind the counter and drove away mosquitoes with a banana fan. The radio turned on, and the surroundings seemed even quieter.
"I told you," Mr. Rock seemed to have finished something to do, and said calmly in his heart, "All these are gone."
Damaso threw a coin into the automatic record player. The number of the record and the indicator light of the record player seem to prove that he is an honest person. However, he felt that Mr. Rock did not pay much attention to this. He moved a seat and wanted to comfort Mr. Rock with some ambiguous words. The boss slapped the fan lazily and listened to him indifferently.
"No way," he said, "the softball championship can't be played for a lifetime."
"The ball may come back."
"No."
"No."
"Black people can't eat the ball.""
" The police searched everywhere," said Mr. Rock in despair. "He threw the ball into the river. "
" may have a miracle. "
" Stop fantasizing, boy," Mr. Rock retorted. "Unfortunate things are like snails. Do you believe in miracles? "
" Sometimes I believe it," said Damaso. When Damaso left the ballroom, the movie was not over yet. The loud conversations of the loudspeaker were heard intermittently, and it was echoing in the dark town. Only a few families were still lit lights, probably something happened temporarily. Damaso wandered around the cinema for a while, then turned to the dance hall.
The entire band was accompaniment to a customer. The customer and two dance girls were also playing. Dancing. The rest of the dancers were sitting honestly against the wall, waiting for their turn. Damaso sat at a table and gestured to the hotel owner to bring a bottle of beer. He drank a bottle of beer in one breath, staring at the man dancing with two dancers like a layer of glass. This man was shorter than both dancers.
In the middle of the night, women who had watched the movie came to the dance hall, followed by a group of men. Damaso's girlfriend was also in the middle of the crowd. She left the crowd and sat next to Damaso's table.
Damaso didn't look at her. He had already poured half a dozen beers, and his eyes were still staring at the man who was dancing with three dancers. The man didn't really answer those girls, just lowering his head to admire the gold and silver thread embroidered on his shoes. He seemed very comfortable. Of course, if he had a tail besides his hands and feet, he would be even more comfortable.
"I hate this guy," said Damaso.
" Then don't look at him," said the girl.
The girl asked the hotel owner for a glass of wine. At this time, the dance floor was filled with pairs of dance partners. The man who danced with three dancers still looked deserted on the dance floor. He turned around and happened to meet Damaso's gaze. He danced even more happily, smiling at Damaso, revealing a rabbit-like broken rice. Damaso stared at him without blinking, and glared at him to put away his smile and turn around.
"He is very proud! "Damasso said.
"is very proud," the girl said. "Every time he comes to the town, he pays the accompaniment fee himself, just like other tourists. "Damaso turned his face and glanced at her with his dull eyes.
"Then you go with him," he said. "Don't let him eat three, just ask him to eat four. "
The girl ignored him and turned her face toward the dance floor, sipping the wine in the glass one by one. The goose yellow clothes made her look timid.
Everyone danced another dance. Finally, Damaso straightened her waist.
"I'm going to starve to death," the girl said, pulling Damaso's arm and pulling him towards the counter. "You should eat something too. "The proud man and three dancers turned from the opposite direction.
" Listen! "Damaso said to him.
The man smiled at him and continued to dance. Damaso pulled out of his girlfriend's arm and blocked the man's way.
"I don't like your teeth! "
The man's face suddenly turned black, but he still had a smile.
"I don't like it either," he said.
The girl was about to step forward to stop Damaso, but he took the lead and punched the man in the face. The other party fell in the middle of the dance floor. None of the customers came out to persuade him to fight. The three dancers hugged Damaso in the waist and shouted. Damaso's girlfriend pushed him deep into the hall. At this time, the man stood up and his face was twisted.
He was dancing in the middle of the dance floor like a monkey, shouting:
"Play another song!"
At about two o'clock, the dance hall was almost empty. Dancers without customers all went to have midnight snacks. The room was stuffy. The girl brought a plate of rice, beans and fried meat to the table and ate it with a spoon. Damaso looked at her blankly. She handed over a spoonful of rice.
"Open your mouth!"
Damaso put his chin forward and shook his head.
"This is for girls," he said. "There is no need for a man to eat." He stood up with his hands on the table. As soon as he stood firm, the hotel owner walked up to him with his shoulders.
"A total of nine pesos are eighty tens," he said. "My temple is not opened by the government."
Damaso pushed him aside.
"I don't like my husband."
The hotel owner grabbed his sleeve. The girl gave the boss a wink, and the boss let him go and said, "
, "I really don't know how embarrassed!"
Damaso walked out staggeringly. Under the moonlight, a mysterious light flashed on the surface of the river. His mind became clear and then he became confused again. Damaso walked to the other end of the town and saw his home. He didn't know if he fell asleep while walking. He shook his head, feeling confused and urgently that he needed to be careful from now on. He pushed open the door gently, trying not to let the door shaft make a sound.
Anna found her husband rummaging through the box. She turned over, faced toward the wall, avoiding the light of the flashlight. After a while, she felt that her husband had not taken off his clothes yet. Suddenly, a thought made her sit up suddenly from the bed. Damaso was standing next to the box, holding a paper bag with a billiards and a flashlight. He put his index finger on his lips.
Anna jumped out of the bed. "Are you crazy?!" She muttered and ran towards the door. She quickly latched the door. Damaso put the flashlight, a knife and a sharp file into his pants pocket, then clamped the paper bag tightly under his armpits and walked towards Anna. Anna pressed her back against the door. "As long as I'm alive, you don't plan to go out," she whispered.
Damaso wants to pull her away.
"Get out!" he said.
Anna clutched the door frame with both hands. You stared at me without blinking, and I stared at you.
"You are such a stupid donkey," Anna whispered. "God only gave you such a pair of eyes, but he didn't give you a good brain."
Damaso grabbed Anna's hair, twisted her wrist, pressed her head down, and said gritting her teeth:
"I told you, tell you to get out!"
Anna was like a yoked ox, turning her head and looking at Damaso with a squint. For a moment she forgot even the pain, and she felt that she was stronger than her husband. But Damaso grabbed her hair and kept crying.
"You are going to kill the child in my belly," she said.
Damaso picked her up in the air and threw her onto the bed. As soon as he let go, Anna jumped up and stopped him from behind. The two of them fell on the bed together, and they were so excited.
"I'm shouting!" Anna whispered in Damaso's ear. "If you move again, I'll shout!"
Damaso was so angry that he blew up. He used the paper bag to wrap the ball to hit her knee hard. Anna uttered a sigh of relief and her legs loosened. She hugged her husband again, preventing him from going to the door. She begged him and said:
"I promise you that I will send the ball tomorrow," she said. ? I must have put the ball back without realizing it. "
They were getting closer and closer to the door, and Damaso smashed her hand with the ball. When it hurt, she let go of her hand, then hugged him and continued begging him.
"I go and say I stole it," she said. "I'm like this, they won't put me in jail."Damaso broke free.
"People in the town will see you," Anna said. "You are simply a fool, and you don't see how bright the moon is! "As she said that, she hugged him again before her husband had completely pulled the door bolt. She closed her eyes, slapped his neck and face, and almost got up in her mouth: "Beast! brute! "Damaso stretched out his hand and came from his guard. Anna hugged the door latch, snatched it from her husband, and hit him on the head. Damaso flashed to the side, and the door latch hit his shoulder, just like a piece of glass.
"Stinky bitch! "He shouted.
Damaso didn't care to make a sound, and he punched Anna in the ear with a backhand. He could only hear a deep oh-oh sound and the plop of his body slamming against the wall. But he didn't go to see her at all. He rushed out of the room, and the door was not closed.
Anna lay on the ground, unconscious in pain. She guessed something would happen in her stomach. Someone seemed to call her outside the wall, and it sounded like it was from a grave. Anna bit her lip and forced herself to cry. She stood up and put on her clothes. She didn't expect--as she didn't expect the first time--Damaso was still standing at the door, waiting for her to scream and run out, and then Tell her that he didn't plan to go. But Anna made the same mistake for the second time: she didn't come out to chase her husband, but put on her shoes, closed the door, and sat on the bed waiting for him to come back. As soon as the door was closed, Damaso thought in his heart that there was no room for retreat. The barking of dogs sent him to the end of the street, and then there was a grave-like silence. He did not walk on the sidewalk, because in the quiet town, his footsteps sounded loud, and it sounded like someone else's footsteps. When he walked to the open space facing the back door of the bonnet, he became a hundred times more alert.
This time he didn't have to turn on the flashlight. The door was only reinforced at the last time when the door knocker was unplugged. A piece was dug from the original place The brick-sized wood was replaced with a new piece of wood, and nailed the original door knocker. Everything else was the same. Damaso pulled the lock with his left hand and used the tip of the file to penetrate the nail of the unreinforced door knocker. He turned the file a few times like a car shaking handle. The decayed wood chips burst open and the door knocker was pried off. Before he pushed the door, he lifted the uneven door panel upwards in order to reduce the friction between the door panel and the brick floor. The door was half opened. He took off his shoes, put the paper bag of shoes and balls into the crack of the door, and then he hand-tamped into the bulwark full of moonlight.
First, what appeared before him was a dark aisle, with empty bottles and empty boxes piled on both sides. Going forward, from the round skylight A ray of moonlight came in, and the ball table was under the moonlight. There were a few cabinets facing in front. Finally, there were tables and chairs that held the door. Except for the moonlight and silence, everything was exactly the same as the first time. Until then, Damaso controlled his nervous nerves and felt a rare ease.
This time he didn't care about the loose bricks on the ground at all. He pushed the door up with his shoes, walked through the moonlight, turned on the flashlight to find the box to put the ball behind the counter. He casually used the flashlight to illuminate from left to right, only to see a pile of dusty bottles, a pair of stirrups and spurs, and a rolled-up shirt full of oily dirt. Finally, he saw the ball box restlessly placed in the old place. He shone the place with a flashlight. There was a cat squatting there. The cat looked at him listlessly through the light. Damaso kept shining it with a flashlight. Suddenly he felt a cool air flowing across his spine. This was something he had never felt when he came to the bonnet during the day. He shone the flashlight forward and said, "Shh!" The cat still didn't move. At this moment, he felt a hoarse explosion sound in his head, and the cat immediately disappeared from his mind without a trace. When he figured out what was going on, he quickly threw away the flashlight and put the paper wrapped in the ball tightly on his chest. The tanzanzi room was suddenly illuminated.
"Oh!"
He heard that this was Mr. Rock's voice. He slowly straightened his waist and felt his waist hurt very much. Mr. Rock came from the depths of the gangster, wearing only a pair of shorts and holding an iron stick in his hand. The light made him squint his eyes. Hang a hammock behind the empty bottles and empty boxes, not far from where Damaso passed when he came in. This is also a different place from last time.
Mr. Rock walked towards Damaso. Less than ten meters away from him, Mr. Rock jumped and immediately became alert. Damaso covered the paper bag with his hands. Mr. Rock wrinkled his nose. He didn't wear glasses and stretched his head forward, intending to see who was coming in.
"Young man, it's you!" he shouted.
Damasso feels that something endless has finally come to an end. Mr. Rock lowered the iron rod in his hand and walked over with dumbfoundedness. He didn't wear glasses or pretended to be dentures, and he looked like a woman.
"What are you doing here?"
"Nothing," Damaso said.
His body moved slightly and changed his posture.
"What are you holding in your hand?" asked Mr. Rock.
"I took nothing."
Mr. Rock's face turned red and he shivered all over his body.
"What are you holding in your hand?" He shouted, and raised his iron stick and took another step forward. Damaso quickly handed him the paper bag. Mr. Rock took it with his left hand a hundred times more vigilantly, touched it with his fingers, and then he suddenly realized it.
"This is impossible!" he said.
He was a little panicked, put the iron stick on the counter, opened the paper bag, as if he had forgotten that Damaso was still standing there. He quietly admired the billiards.
"I came here to send the ball," Damaso said.
"That of course," said Mr. Rock.
Damaso's face turned pale, and the alcohol had completely passed, leaving only a smell of soil and a vague sense of loneliness on his tongue.
"That's how it's a miracle," Mr. Rock said as he wrapped the paper bag again.
"I can't believe you're so stupid," he raised his head and raised his face.
"What about two hundred pesos?"
"There is nothing in the drawer," Damaso said.
Mr. Rock looked at him in contemplation, chewing something in his mouth, and then he smiled slightly.
"There is nothing," he repeated several times, and there is nothing to say." He grabbed the iron stick again and said:
"So, let's talk about this with the mayor." Damaso wiped the sweat from his hands on his pants.
"You know very well that there is nothing inside." Mr. Rock was still smiling.
"There are two hundred pesos," he said. "Your flesh is suffering a little now. It's not because you are a thief, but because you are a fool."
"Damaso broke free."People in the town will see you," Anna said. "You are simply a fool, and you don't see how bright the moon is! "As she said that, she hugged him again before her husband had completely pulled the door bolt. She closed her eyes, slapped his neck and face, and almost got up in her mouth: "Beast! brute! "Damaso stretched out his hand and came from his guard. Anna hugged the door latch, snatched it from her husband, and hit him on the head. Damaso flashed to the side, and the door latch hit his shoulder, just like a piece of glass.
"Stinky bitch! "He shouted.
Damaso didn't care to make a sound, and he punched Anna in the ear with a backhand. He could only hear a deep oh-oh sound and the plop of his body slamming against the wall. But he didn't go to see her at all. He rushed out of the room, and the door was not closed.
Anna lay on the ground, unconscious in pain. She guessed something would happen in her stomach. Someone seemed to call her outside the wall, and it sounded like it was from a grave. Anna bit her lip and forced herself to cry. She stood up and put on her clothes. She didn't expect--as she didn't expect the first time--Damaso was still standing at the door, waiting for her to scream and run out, and then Tell her that he didn't plan to go. But Anna made the same mistake for the second time: she didn't come out to chase her husband, but put on her shoes, closed the door, and sat on the bed waiting for him to come back. As soon as the door was closed, Damaso thought in his heart that there was no room for retreat. The barking of dogs sent him to the end of the street, and then there was a grave-like silence. He did not walk on the sidewalk, because in the quiet town, his footsteps sounded loud, and it sounded like someone else's footsteps. When he walked to the open space facing the back door of the bonnet, he became a hundred times more alert.
This time he didn't have to turn on the flashlight. The door was only reinforced at the last time when the door knocker was unplugged. A piece was dug from the original place The brick-sized wood was replaced with a new piece of wood, and nailed the original door knocker. Everything else was the same. Damaso pulled the lock with his left hand and used the tip of the file to penetrate the nail of the unreinforced door knocker. He turned the file a few times like a car shaking handle. The decayed wood chips burst open and the door knocker was pried off. Before he pushed the door, he lifted the uneven door panel upwards in order to reduce the friction between the door panel and the brick floor. The door was half opened. He took off his shoes, put the paper bag of shoes and balls into the crack of the door, and then he hand-tamped into the bulwark full of moonlight.
First, what appeared before him was a dark aisle, with empty bottles and empty boxes piled on both sides. Going forward, from the round skylight A ray of moonlight came in, and the ball table was under the moonlight. There were a few cabinets facing in front. Finally, there were tables and chairs that held the door. Except for the moonlight and silence, everything was exactly the same as the first time. Until then, Damaso controlled his nervous nerves and felt a rare ease.
This time he didn't care about the loose bricks on the ground at all. He pushed the door up with his shoes, walked through the moonlight, turned on the flashlight to find the box to put the ball behind the counter. He casually used the flashlight to illuminate from left to right, only to see a pile of dusty bottles, a pair of stirrups and spurs, and a rolled-up shirt full of oily dirt. Finally, he saw the ball box restlessly placed in the old place. He shone the place with a flashlight. There was a cat squatting there. The cat looked at him listlessly through the light. Damaso kept shining it with a flashlight. Suddenly he felt a cool air flowing across his spine. This was something he had never felt when he came to the bonnet during the day. He shone the flashlight forward and said, "Shh!" The cat still didn't move. At this moment, he felt a hoarse explosion sound in his head, and the cat immediately disappeared from his mind without a trace. When he figured out what was going on, he quickly threw away the flashlight and put the paper wrapped in the ball tightly on his chest. The tanzanzi room was suddenly illuminated.
"Oh!"
He heard that this was Mr. Rock's voice. He slowly straightened his waist and felt his waist hurt very much. Mr. Rock came from the depths of the gangster, wearing only a pair of shorts and holding an iron stick in his hand. The light made him squint his eyes. Hang a hammock behind the empty bottles and empty boxes, not far from where Damaso passed when he came in. This is also a different place from last time.
Mr. Rock walked towards Damaso. Less than ten meters away from him, Mr. Rock jumped and immediately became alert. Damaso covered the paper bag with his hands. Mr. Rock wrinkled his nose. He didn't wear glasses and stretched his head forward, intending to see who was coming in.
"Young man, it's you!" he shouted.
Damasso feels that something endless has finally come to an end. Mr. Rock lowered the iron rod in his hand and walked over with dumbfoundedness. He didn't wear glasses or pretended to be dentures, and he looked like a woman.
"What are you doing here?"
"Nothing," Damaso said.
His body moved slightly and changed his posture.
"What are you holding in your hand?" asked Mr. Rock.
"I took nothing."
Mr. Rock's face turned red and he shivered all over his body.
"What are you holding in your hand?" He shouted, and raised his iron stick and took another step forward. Damaso quickly handed him the paper bag. Mr. Rock took it with his left hand a hundred times more vigilantly, touched it with his fingers, and then he suddenly realized it.
"This is impossible!" he said.
He was a little panicked, put the iron stick on the counter, opened the paper bag, as if he had forgotten that Damaso was still standing there. He quietly admired the billiards.
"I came here to send the ball," Damaso said.
"That of course," said Mr. Rock.
Damaso's face turned pale, and the alcohol had completely passed, leaving only a smell of soil and a vague sense of loneliness on his tongue.
"That's how it's a miracle," Mr. Rock said as he wrapped the paper bag again.
"I can't believe you're so stupid," he raised his head and raised his face.
"What about two hundred pesos?"
"There is nothing in the drawer," Damaso said.
Mr. Rock looked at him in contemplation, chewing something in his mouth, and then he smiled slightly.
"There is nothing," he repeated several times, and there is nothing to say." He grabbed the iron stick again and said:
"So, let's talk about this with the mayor." Damaso wiped the sweat from his hands on his pants.
"You know very well that there is nothing inside." Mr. Rock was still smiling.
"There are two hundred pesos," he said. "Your flesh is suffering a little now. It's not because you are a thief, but because you are a fool."
