【FICTION】Diddy Jack's Missing Tooth(2)
Chocolate milk from the convenient store. Straining to poke a hole in the covering. Harder, try harder, almost there. The eagerness cracked open a memory, long ago when life was simpler and “wilder” for a lonely little girl.
...
I called it “the woods”.
A randomly combined hodgepodge, dust, soil, dried-out riverway, endless trees, 10min walk from our apartment. No one remembered when it first existed. White walls of deserted houses remained still, where, as my neighbour told me, long hovered ghosts of murdered victims. I found pale skeletons of unknown creatures hidden in bushes, or here and there, the body of a dead crow. I sneaked through fractured fences of vegetable plots, expecting its maintainer to come and talk to me or hiss me out. But I met no one. A long forgotten wasteland.
Dad used to tell me the story of Diddy Jack, a great great great great grandfather of mine who lived in the very same location of the woods long, long ago. There was a herd of dragons who searched for metal to build their nests and they stole Diddy Jack’s front tooth. I didn’t ask him it’s the left or the right one, or how anybody could steal one’s tooth. But I did, as Mom who feared I’d be lost in the wild had expected, dared not go to the woods anymore, afraid that dragons would take all my teeth away so I wouldn’t be able to eat an apple or smile or speak human language. I wondered if our teeth were really made of metal, and if so, were our skeletons the same. Phones, pen, TVs, wedding rings, Olympic medals, all made from human bones.
...
I called it “the woods”.
A randomly combined hodgepodge, dust, soil, dried-out riverway, endless trees, 10min walk from our apartment. No one remembered when it first existed. White walls of deserted houses remained still, where, as my neighbour told me, long hovered ghosts of murdered victims. I found pale skeletons of unknown creatures hidden in bushes, or here and there, the body of a dead crow. I sneaked through fractured fences of vegetable plots, expecting its maintainer to come and talk to me or hiss me out. But I met no one. A long forgotten wasteland.
Dad used to tell me the story of Diddy Jack, a great great great great grandfather of mine who lived in the very same location of the woods long, long ago. There was a herd of dragons who searched for metal to build their nests and they stole Diddy Jack’s front tooth. I didn’t ask him it’s the left or the right one, or how anybody could steal one’s tooth. But I did, as Mom who feared I’d be lost in the wild had expected, dared not go to the woods anymore, afraid that dragons would take all my teeth away so I wouldn’t be able to eat an apple or smile or speak human language. I wondered if our teeth were really made of metal, and if so, were our skeletons the same. Phones, pen, TVs, wedding rings, Olympic medals, all made from human bones.
云亮细s车
