Happy Dreams

by Jia Pingwa

We must have sinned against each other in a previous existence, so that each of us owed something to the other in this life.

In Freshwind, men didn’t normally keep cats, and women didn’t have dogs, because dogs were horny by nature and might lead a woman astray, and a cat might mistake a man’s penis for a mouse.

I found myself wondering why all pretty women were pretty in the same way, but ugly people like Wufu and Eight differed in their ugliness.

“Then tell me how come the Chain-Bones Bodhisattva was a hooker.”

He explained she was a reincarnation of Guan Yin, who had turned herself into a prostitute in order to deliver all living creatures from suffering.

“Our life in the city, it’s like this shop window. If you’re angry, it’s angry too. If you smile, it smiles with you!”

I spent my life doing hard physical labor on a half-empty stomach, and my body parts still worked well for me, so I made a point of thanking and encouraging them. I had only one kidney left, and it now had to do the work of two. It kept me nice and healthy, and that was why I was always polite to my kidney. I leaned against the plane tree. Its leaves had colored up since yesterday. The reds were bloodred and vermilion; the yellows were copper and saffron yellow. There were dark greens and light greens, and sea blue and indigo blue. The sun shone brilliantly, and a leaf spiraled gently down to the ground. “Talk nicely to your leg, and it’ll be all right.”

Wufu sat on the ground and said, “Please move, leg. Please don’t scare me. I’m a dead man if you don’t start moving!” “Hah! Wufu, where did you get such a way with words?” I teased him. Wufu carried on talking nicely to his leg. Then he made a huge effort and tried to lift it. He got it only two inches off the ground, and the effort made beads of sweat stand out on his head. I was at his side now. Something was wrong. “Is it really not working?” I asked. “Happy, I’m really scared. My head aches,” he said. Then he slumped back onto the ground, and I knew it was serious.

I was sure he’d be all right once we got to the hospital. That was always what happened to me. Whenever I got sick and went to the hospital, I always spent so long waiting in line that I never actually saw a doctor. My head or my stomach always stopped hurting by the time it was my turn. Illnesses don’t like doctors.