After a while, Inman couldn’t hear what others were saying, thinking about how beautiful the woman was in the fire. Her hair was illuminated by the fire, and her skin was white and delicate. The white man suddenly said a strange thing. He said that one day the world order would change, and then people said the word slave was a metaphor.
It’s late at night. Inman walked into the Woods outside the camp with his package, put it on the ground, and lay it down. He could still hear the piano players talking in his ears. He tossed and turned to sleep, lit a wax head, poured the leftover wine into an iron cup, and then rolled it into a barrel of travel notes from his backpack. He flipped through the first sentence and turned around and reread it. Inman could see that it was an unknown plant, which should be similar to cuckoo.
This shrub grows on the sparse and broad heights of tall trees, forming sprouting trees or small forest stems. Many branches grow from roots or erect rhizomes, ranging in height from about four to five feet, near the top of the branches, and the main stems are slightly angled and almost vertical. The medium-sized oval leaves with sharp edges stand almost straight on the short petiole, and the leaves are light yellow or yellow-green in texture. Both sides are smooth and shiny. The tips of twigs at the top of the main stem are long and sparse, and the petals of white panicles or spikes are slender.
Inman has been thinking about the pleasure of this sentence for a long time. He first read it repeatedly until every word is deeply imprinted in his mind, or his attention will jump from one word to another without leaving any trace. After that, he described the background in his mind, a broad highland forest, which filled in the details. All kinds of trees grew there, birds lived on the branches, and ferns grew. When the picture was clearly finalized, he finally conceived this shrub in his mind, simulating its other features until it was vividly presented to his eyes. Of course, he imagined that all the known plants of this shrub were quite different and quite strange.
He blew out the candle, wrapped himself in a small mouth and sipped the leftover champagne to get ready for bed, but his mind drifted to the dark-haired woman, the girl named Laura, who was holding Laura, and her thighs were so soft in his arms. Then he thought of Ida’s champagne four years ago, and he took a long drink with his head against the bark that night, recalling the scene of Ida sitting on his leg by the fireside, which was unforgettable.
Everything had passed away. He remembered that she was hiding her bones in the weight of her legs. She was leaning against his chest and resting on his shoulders. Her hair smelled of lavender. She wanted to sit up, but he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back. He touched Ida’s shoulder muscles and wanted to hug her tightly, but she pinched her lips and took a long breath. She smoothed the wrinkles on her skirt and raised her hand to spread her hair around her forehead. She turned around and looked at Inman.
Well, she said
Inman leaned over and pulled her hand, and the thumb twisted her metacarpal bone on the back of her hand. Then he turned her hand over and straightened his fingers to prevent her from squeezing them into fists. You can see her wrist bending and dark blue blood vessels. There he gently kissed Ida and slowly pulled his hand back, looking down at his palm blankly.
There are no secrets, no things we can read, Inman said
Ida let go that it was an accident and left.
The memory finally faded away. Inman fell asleep. He had a real daytime dream. Like the real world, he dreamed that he was lying in a broad-leaved forest. After a summer growth, the branches were tired. In a few weeks, they would turn yellow and fall into autumn. He read from his travel notes and imagined that the bushes were mixed with pentagonal flowers. The drizzle was like magic. The tissue paper sprinkled on the ground through thick leaves. It couldn’t wet his clothes. Ida was slowly coming to him in the Woods. She was wearing a white skirt, wrapped in a black cloth on her shoulders, but Inman walked from her eyes.
Inman couldn’t figure out how Ida came here, but he got up and stretched out his arms to hold Ida in his arms for three times in a row. When Inman reached out for the fourth time, she finally decided that Inman would hold her firmly in his chest. It was true and true that he said that I had traveled all the way to find you, and I would never let you leave forever.
Ida watched him take off his turban, and her face seemed to agree, even though she didn’t say a word.
Inman was awakened by birds singing in the morning, and the figure of Ada in his dream still occupied his heart. Inman was reluctant to leave and it disappeared. The dew was heavy, and the sun had risen to the top of the tree. Inman got up and walked through the forest camp. The fire had long since gone out next to the caravan. There was nothing to prove that the entertainers were really passing through except a large piece of black ash, which was run over by the wheels of the caravan. Although Inman was disappointed because he could not say goodbye to them, the next day he was in a relaxed mood because he was given that clear dream in the dark.
Rose ash
On a warm afternoon in summer and autumn, Ruby Ida was busy in a sloping field, where she was painted by Lu as an autumn vegetable garden. Sweet Joe Pie grass has grown to seven feet high. They will pick such a sudden flower. The metallic flower heads sparkle in the sun and look like the frost in the morning. People really wake up. first frost horse is coming. Although the sun is still hot, the cow on the sloping grass keeps moving and following the mountains. The walnut shade is cool all day.
Ridge cabbage, radish, kale and onion are still very young. Ada Ruby is hoeing and weeding them. These are their main vegetables for the winter. A few weeks ago, they carefully plowed them first, then fertilized them with furnace ashes and animal manure, and finally raked the ground. Ruby drove the horse in front and Ada sat on the rake and pressed it. They raked it very crudely. It was someone in the Black family. An oak tree fork was so-so that it made do. While the tree had just been cut, a row of holes were forked in the trunk to drive in the dried long black locust nails and waited for the oak tree to dry. When it is not necessary to further reinforce the rake, Ada sits on the fork, hands and feet, steadies herself, drags the rake to the ground, bumps and jumps, breaks the sharp teeth of the locust which have been turned over by the plow, and combs them flat. She looks over the field and falls back behind, and by the way, she finds three broken arrows, a flint knife and a fairly intact bird arrow. It is said that the arrow is a slender triangular arrow cluster for hunting birds. It seems that it is not much to sow Ruby with a small black seed. She said that it takes faith to fill the radish cellar after jumping from this point to many weeks.
Ruby said that the vegetables are growing well, thanks to her firm adherence to the astrological selection. Everything in Ruby’s mind is piling piles on the fence, making pickles and killing pigs. She said that she would cut wood when the moon becomes small after the full moon, otherwise nothing will be as big as squirrel’s ears when the poplar leaves grow in April. Choose to plant corn just after the full moon, or the corn flowers will wither before being pollinated. In November, we will kill pigs when the moon becomes big after the new moon, or the pork will be short of fat.
Monroe will regard these sayings as superstitions or people’s curiosity. Not only Ida, but Ruby’s questions about the growth of various organisms on the ground make her more and more envious. Therefore, she prefers to hide these doorways as metaphors. They are the ability to control the situation, the willingness to care carefully, and I will restrain discipline. They are important rituals of the laws of the material world. Here, our world may be recognized as closely related to another world. Ida feels that these dainties are a way for people to avoid laziness. In view of this, she can respect these sayings from this perspective.
On the afternoon of that day, they were busy in the vegetable field when suddenly the wheels came. A horse sound and an iron drum hit the car board and made a loud noise all over the ravine. The first thing that came into view was a pair of old mules pulling a cart behind the corner and parking in front of the fence was full of bags and people waiting to follow the car. Ida Ruby went to the fence and saw that there were three sad women and five or six very young children who were looked after by a good slave couple. It was known that they had fled from Tennessee and were going to South Carolina. They made several wrong turns by the river. The bend missed the pass to the driveway, and now it’s a dead end. The two slaves followed their masters well and waited on them carefully, although they said that they could easily cut the throats of big and small people when they went to bed at night.
Several women said that their husbands had left home to fight. They hid in Tennessee, and the Union Army left home and fled to Camden, South Carolina. One of the women was there as a sister. They asked if they could spend the night in the hay barn. While they were busy picking up the sleeping place in the haystack, Ada Ruby went to prepare dinner. Ruby even killed three chickens. Now there are chicks everywhere in the yard. When they go to build a spring freezer, they will step on one if they are not careful. It is estimated that it will not be long before they will be enough to castrate the chickens and eat two pieces of chicken. After frying, I cooked beans, stewed potatoes and stewed pumpkins. Ruby cooked three times as many cakes as usual. Dinner was ready. They invited guests to come in and take a seat in the restaurant. So did the slaves, but they ate in pear trees outside.
The guests munched for a long time, and when they finished eating the chicken plate, there were only two wings and a thigh left, and they also eliminated more than a pound of butter. A woman said, Oh, what a comfortable meal. In the past two weeks, we have nothing to eat but dried tortillas. If we order butter, bacon juice or syrup to moisten it, people are choking.
Why on earth are you leaving home? Ida asked.
The federal cavalry killed us and even robbed the slaves. The woman said that this year, they robbed us of food. One person even spared lard. We were stripped naked and searched in his pockets. The man said that it was a female soldier who had Adam’s apple and hid us with no jewelry left. Then they burned our room in the rain and rode away. Soon, there was a chimney left, guarding the dark place alone. The cellar was filled with pungent black water. We had nothing, but we stayed for two days because we could not bear it. On the third day after leaving home, my youngest daughter looked at the cellar. Everything we used to have was smashed and piled up there. The child picked up pieces and said, Mom, I think we will eat leaves soon. Then I know I have to go.
The union army is like this. Another woman said it was their new concept of war and revenge on the dead soldiers at the hands of women and girls.
It was a heartbreaking moment, and the third woman said, you don’t know how lucky you are to hide in this calm ravine.
Adaruby sent them to rest. The next morning, they cooked almost all the eggs and made a pot of corn porridge and more cakes. After breakfast, they drew a map to Shankou and sent them off again.
At noon, Ruby said that she wanted to take a look at the apple orchard on the hillside, and Ida suggested that they have lunch there. They prepared a picnic with fried chicken and pickled cucumber strips with vinegar left over last night and a small bowl of potato salad. Ruby specially mixed mayonnaise. They took the food to the apple orchard in a wooden bucket and laid a blanket on the tree lawn to sit for a picnic.
In the afternoon, the light was even and sufficient, but the sun was covered with a layer of fog. Ruby carefully examined the tree and concluded that Apple was not bad. Then she looked at Ida suddenly and asked which way is north. After that, she walked over and waited for Ida to slowly calculate the southeast and northwest directions according to the setting direction of the sun in her memory. This is Ruby’s recent habit of baffling Ida with similar questions. She seems to be very happy to show how confused Ida is in this world. One day, they were walking by the stream. Ruby suddenly asked if the water had passed. Where did you go? Where did you come from? On the other day, she asked which plants on that hillside could be used to satisfy hunger when there was no food. Can you say four kinds? How many days will it be until a new moon? What are you spending now and what are you bearing? Say two kinds each.
Ida can’t give the answer yet, but she can feel that the day is not far away, and Ruby is her teacher. During the day-to-day work, Ida soon noticed that Ruby still had a lot of farming in her stomach, and it was unrealistic to ask the names of plants and animals. Their liveliness occupied a large part of her mind. She often went to those small plants that lived in seclusion in the corner of the world, where every mantis stayed in a nest made of milk grass leaves, and the corn borer creek had stripes and spots on its stone surface, and it was as hairy as a poisonous pig liver. The fungus that grows on the damp bark of dead trees lives alone in a small stick, fine sand or leaves to build a nest. Every larva, bug and worm has a place in her heart, and there is a story behind every life. It is necessary to show that a life is an independent individual and its will will will interest Ruby.
In this way, when they were sitting on the carpet after lunch, Ada told Ruby that she envied her for being more proficient in farming and cooking than in wild life, and asked how you knew these things.
Ruby said that she knew that these things were common, and many of them came to the local aunts. She wandered around and talked to any old lady for a while, watching them work, but if she didn’t understand, she also learned a lot by helping Sally Swanzo. Ruby said that Sally knew that many things nobody paid attention to were the most inconspicuous weeds than the names of plants, but she said that she had pondered the logic of this world to some extent, and the most important point was to pay attention.
In the first step, you have to try to understand what is like. Ruby said that Ada understands her, which means observing and understanding the common connection between various phenomena.
Ruby pointed to the red spots on the opposite green hillside. That’s why the leaves are the first to change color. Why will they turn red nearly a month before other trees? She asked.
No, by accident, Ida said
Ruby spat lightly, as if to spit out a little dust or a small flying insect stuck on the tip of her tongue. Her point of view is that people always say that things they can’t think of are accidental and random phenomena. Ruby also advocates that lacquer trees and dogwoods are full of maturity at this time of year. We must ask what else is happening and maybe this bird is flying around the clock. You need to look up and know that they are enough to make people dizzy. Then imagine looking down at those green trees in Fang Shulin like a bird on a high cliff. How similar they sound, there is almost no difference between them. No matter whether they are not married, this is what the birds see in their eyes. They don’t know these trees, and they don’t know which tree may be food. Therefore, Ruby concluded that the red color of Rhus vernicifluctus Cornus may be saying to these hungry birds from afar, let’s eat.
Ada said you seem to think Cornus officinalis planned to do this.
Well, maybe they are, Ruby said.
She asked IDA if she had carefully observed all kinds of bird droppings and their droppings.
Rarely did Ada say
Don’t be so lofty. Ruby said that the answer to her face-to-face problem may lie in this. It is impossible for every small dogwood to grow where it fell from the big tree. Because it can’t be moved, it is convenient for birds to carry it and find a more suitable place for growth. The pulp is eaten by birds, but it is completely excreted and covered with manure, which can take root. Ruby believes that whoever is willing to spend it will figure it out, and he may be inspired by it, because everything rotates and lives in a similar way.
The afternoon was warm and quiet. They sat in silence for a while. Then Ruby lay on the carpet and fell asleep. Ida was also very sleepy, but she resisted sleepiness like a child who didn’t want to go to bed. She walked to the edge of the forest. There was a tall branch of Vernonia, sweet Joe, just yellow, indigo, iron-gray flowers, and a big Hua Die butterfly in the corolla. Three birds were busy. The leaves were brown, and the blackberry vine flew away. The golden back was flickering with black wings and disappeared into a cluster of quinoa and lacquer trees at the boundary of the fields and forests.
Ada quietly stared and didn’t focus on things. Gradually, she felt that countless tiny lives were busy. From clusters of corollas to stalks, countless insects flew and crawled and ate. Their energy accumulation was the shining rhythm of life, which filled Ada’s confused vision.