Page 156 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

thunder. When they had come down just now, it was a clear day; it had changed

so fast! Plum whispered in Lu-er’s ear, doing her best to keep her uncle’s three
sons from hearing.
“Lu-er, do you know why they don’t sleep on the bed? They’re afraid of
being killed by thunder. The thunder in this rapeseed plot is awful: once it broke
uncle and auntie’s bed in half, and they were thrown to the two sides. Uncle is an
experienced old sparrow, and so is Auntie. They aren’t afraid of anything. But
their sons are scared out of their wits—to the point where they can’t even work.
They lie under the bed every day and wait for that thing to come crashing down.
I always wonder if it was on purpose that Uncle and Auntie built their house in
the middle of the rapeseed plot. You know, no one builds a house in this kind of
place.”
“We’re doing just fine! Don’t you dare gossip about us!” one of the guys
under the bed reproached her.
No sooner had he said this than a loud noise crushed and scattered everything
on the ground—jars and vats, kerosene lamps, bowls and utensils. Lu-er felt that
his own head had been crushed. Everything went black in front of him, and he

fell to his knees. He heard Plum shout, “Look! Look! There’s a large hole in the
roof!”
As she shouted, Plum raced up the stairs and disappeared from there. Lu-er
climbed up, thinking of fleeing, but someone pulled at his foot and he fell with a
thump. It was Uncle’s son.
“You coward!” he snapped. “Don’t move!”
The ones under the bed emerged. They ordered Lu-er to close his eyes and
stand motionless. Lu-er heard them climb the stairs one by one and go out. He
opened his eyes and took a look: the stairs had disappeared. Maybe it was a
movable staircase. Claps of thunder crashed down one after the other. Lu-er felt
as if he were in hell. An inner voice kept saying, You’re going to die! You’re
going to die . . . Involuntarily, he rolled under the bed. The roof tiles were
continually being lifted off the house. Some of them fell to the ground. The room

was getting lighter. Imagining Uncle’s sons running in the rapeseed plot, he
couldn’t help but admire them. This was such a strong family! But why on earth
had they wanted to live in such a place? All of a sudden, Lu-er felt exhausted:
even his fear couldn’t stave off an attack of sleepiness. He was dazed.
Several people picked him up. He wanted to break away from them, but he
couldn’t.
“Shall we throw him down there?”
“Yes!”
He was thrown onto a soft thing below.
“Lu-er, did you try to kill me?”