Page 135 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

“Do you think there are a lot of opportunities inside? Could it be the
opposite?” he asked.
“Are you a mason, too?” Woman Wang asked.
“Sort of. I always want to leave a way out, but I can’t. The neighborhood is
too old. Bugle calls are everywhere. Everyone has to forge ahead.”
“You’re right.” Woman Wang stopped, looked at this person, and nodded her
head. “After moving, what will you do? Will you open a tile shop or something
like that?”
“No, I won’t do that. All I’m good for is selling that kind of invisible thing.”

Just then, Woman Wang realized that she was at the door of the diner again;
the door was half-hidden, and it was very dark inside. When the stranger sat at a
table, the light at the entrance came on again. The stranger seemed tired. He
rested his head on his arms, and he looked at the door with wide-open eyes.
Woman Wang thought he was struggling with himself over something.
She decided to go home. She walked fast without looking back.
When she finally got home, she turned on the light and sat at the table to rest
for a while.
All of a sudden, she sensed that someone outside was trying to remove the
latch of her door. Though it was only a slight noise, it was persistent. Woman
Wang was annoyed because she had intended to go back to sleep.
She walked over and opened the door. Standing there was the second mason,
looking quite awkward.
“I’d like to talk with you, but I don’t know what to talk about.”
As he spoke, he looked over Woman Wang’s head. He was really arrogant.
“Talk about your business,” Woman Wang answered quickly. “What do you

actually sell?”
The young guy had no manners. She didn’t invite him in.
“I sell some old things. I can’t explain. Every few months, people come to
talk with me about business. They pay me some money. My words are the only
things they buy from me. Sometimes I wonder if I’m selling the Catfish.”
He looked bewildered and stared blankly.
“That’s what I wondered. Maybe you are selling the Catfish,” Woman Wang
said loudly.
The mason panicked. He turned around and ran off. Woman Wang covered
her mouth and began laughing.
She bolted the door. It was as if a movie of the earth cracking were playing in
her mind: small cubes of bright crystal quartz clanked as they rushed up from the
cracks. Her scalp felt numb. She fell asleep.

She slept until dawn. After she awakened, she was still thinking about what
the mason had said. Did he live here in the Catfish neighborhood? And if so,