Page 213 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

midnight, she got dressed and sneaked out. As she stood at the courtyard gate,
she looked back once. Her home looked dark blue. How could this shabby adobe
home be dark blue? Ordinarily, it was a not-quite-yellow, not-quite-gray color.
Was it because of the moonlight?
Yiping walked very fast, almost jogging. After a while, she reached the foot
of Tomb Mountain. At night, the mountain looked very large, as though it wasn’t
a mountain but was the whole world. But her cousin wasn’t waiting for her at the
foot of the mountain. Yiping was worried and afraid: she heard her heart
thumping against her chest. After waiting a while, she decided to climb the
mountain. She thought maybe Cousin had forgotten what he had said and was
simply waiting for her where they usually met.
As she climbed the mountain, she heard a strange bird calling several times.
She was so afraid that she felt death was approaching. She said to herself, I’m

not afraid to die. After she said this three times, she felt more courageous. She
was proud of herself, too.
Finally, she saw her cousin sitting on a rock next to the hot-air balloon. His
head was drooping; it seemed he didn’t realize she had arrived. Could he have
forgotten their plan?
“Cousin, let’s get going!” Yiping shouted.
“Ah! You’re here!” He was startled. “No need to hurry. Sit down for a while
first.”
Yiping sat on another rock. She was shaking all over.
“The time in the sky and the time on earth aren’t the same,” her cousin said
slowly, one word at a time.
“Show—show me how to—to operate the balloon, okay?” Yiping said, her
teeth chattering.
“I’ve set it on automatic. You don’t have to do much. When she gets close,
we have to be ready. If I do make up my mind and jump over to her, you must
begin landing immediately. It’s easy. All you have to do is pull the switch.”

Xuwu spoke rapidly. Yiping wasn’t very sure of what he had said. She
blinked, and her emotions surged.
They sat in the large wicker basket, her cousin holding the joystick, and the
hot-air balloon began slowly leaving the ground. Yiping was frightened and
didn’t dare look down. She wanted to get control of her feelings. Her cousin
started talking nonstop.
“Yiping, you can’t imagine the encounters I’ve had in the sky. People think
that hot-air balloons can’t fly very high, but this is just what ordinary people
think. I’ve told you that I actually encountered Venus—and not just once, either!
In that moment and that place, I assure you if someone had been helping me
then, would I have flipped over onto it? What do you think? She was dark green.