People who are dumb, lame, mentally retarded, etc., I classify them as special partners. It is because of them that the plain childhood life adds a lot of fun.
In our village, from east to west, there are dozens of households, one dumb and two lame. Dumbness is caused by congenital, while lameness is caused by acquired disease. They are not much different in age from ours, but parents seldom let them out to play for the sake of protecting their children. It may be due to nature. Once those parents go out, the grandparents at home can’t control them, so they are left alone. Presumably, their childhood is the same as ours, innocent and full of infinite colors.
Fangfang is a brave and clever girl, but it’s a pity that her left leg is lame. Fangfang’s family and my family are a bit close to each other. I should call her sister according to seniority, but she seems to only want to be my sister. She likes to follow me, and she likes to ask me when things happen. Nickname. Fangfang is very playful. She can compete with our boys, catching fish in the water and stealing bird eggs from trees. She is indispensable in everything. Even for something as dangerous as stabbing a hornet’s nest, she is charging ahead. Wasps are not good to bully, you take their nests away, they will not fly to sting you. Out of my concern for her, I advised her not to go with her legs and feet, just hide and watch from a distance, but she insisted on following. I have no choice but to let her stand by my side, if something happens, I can take care of her. After the hornet’s nest was picked up by our gang of ill-intentioned guys, the hornet attacked us like a group of angry warriors, and we lost our helmets and armor, and we were in a panic. I took Fangfang’s hand and ran forward desperately, but she threw my hand away, covered her clothes on her head and crawled on the ground, pretending to be dead. Not to mention this trick really worked, after the swarms of wasps flew away, Fangfang calmly got up and returned to the team. Compared with Fangfang’s strong self-confidence, we who were reborn after the catastrophe really feel ashamed.
After entering junior high school, Fangfang seemed to be a beautiful little girl, and gradually alienated from us. Once, when she walked by us, I didn’t know why I would imitate the way she walked. She told her mother about this, and her mother told my mother again, and in the end I couldn’t escape the end of being beaten and scolded. Fangfang has really grown up, and she must really care that she is lame, let alone others learn her to walk. It is precisely this incident that makes me sad, and there is always a shadow in my heart that cannot be erased. When Fangfang reached the age of marriage, she was married to a foreign country by her parents. About her, I also heard from the villagers later that the man she married was many years older than her, but he treated her very well. Fangfang ran for a while, and then the couple opened an embroidery workshop, and their days were still prosperous.
The other man with lame legs was called Ah Jian, he was not tall and he was dark in appearance. I think that God is sometimes fair, giving you certain flaws in life, and at the same time giving you the good side. Ajian’s family is well-off, his parents are both businessmen, and he has been very fond of him since he was a child. Ah Jian doesn’t play with us often, but every time he appears, it is a kind of gospel to us, because his pocket is like a purse, and what he eats is also what we eat. A Jian is very generous. I remember that a small partner broke the vase in the grocery store. He couldn’t apologize. The owner refused to let the partner leave. He had to leave the name of the other parent so that the parent would come to pay compensation in the future. With tears in his eyes, the little friend turned his eyes for help to Ah Jian. At this time, Ah Jian was like a savior. Ah Jian knew what the other party meant, and without a second word, he took out the money to help him out. The relationship between this little friend and Jian has been getting along very well in the future, and we also heard from him the legendary story of Jian. When Ah Jian was young, he quarreled with his parents about playing truant, so he ran away from home without any news. Many years later, Ah Jian miraculously returned, and brought back a young, beautiful, and normal-legged little wife, a chat with the locals after dinner.
I never knew what the dumb name was. There is only one dumb man in Murakami. Many adults call him dumb, and we call him dumb. I always think that dumb is very kind, no matter how you call him, even if you scold him, he always looks so cheerful. Just because the dumb could not hear or speak, someone instigated him to steal melons grown by other people. The dumb didn’t know that this was an illegal act. The mute swayed into the melon field as if nothing was happening. If the melon person was not there, he would return with the melon in his arms without much effort. However, there are also unlucky times when the melon man hides in the dark, and before you lean over to pick melons, he rushes towards you like a fast horse. The dumb was still alert, and ran away when he saw it, only to hear the man cursing behind him, little chick, stop for me.
Sometimes a dumb person is not stupid when things happen. Most of the time he knows that he has been bullied, he will be harder with you, with a hideous face, and whispering things that people don’t understand. When you meet a younger partner, you will get scared when you see him like this, or hide from a far place to look at him. In the eyes of many people, dumb is still vicious.
After I went to work in the city, I occasionally encountered dumbs when I returned to Murakami. The dumbs wore a cotton army hat on their heads, tied with one ear, and the other ears were drooping. It was ridiculous. His parents are also old, and they don’t have much energy to take care of him, so he just wanders around. If this goes on, I am afraid that the dumb will really get crazy, and my heart feels sorrowful when I think about it this way.
