The Time to Live and the Time to Die
This film
is some memories from my youth
particularly impressions
of my father
"My father came from Mei County,
Canton Province"
In 1947
on the 40th day after my birth
He led a ball team to Guangzhou for
the Provincial Games
He was the Educational Secretary
of Mei County
In Guangzhou he met an old classmate
"from Chung-shan University,
Li Kuai"
"At the time, Li Kuai was"
the mayor of Taichung City
He asked if my father
would move to Taiwan
to be his Head Secretary
One year later
my father wrote home saying
"This is a good place.
There's tap water. "
He asked my mother to bring
the family over
In 1949
My father was transferred
to Taipei Educational Bureau
as the Supervisor
We lived in Hsin-chu at the time
Because of the humidity up north
My father suffered from asthma
When I was in the first grade
We moved to Fengshan in the south
for the sake of my father's health
My grandmother was always
wrapping silver papers
She said the paper money was
to be used in heaven
She was already over 80 at the time
My father was very pious
"Every time we had dinners
he wouldn't start to eat
until grandmother came
"But everyday at meal time,"
grandma would be out to looking
for me
Grandmother was especially good
to me
Because when I was little
a fortune teller said
I was to become a great official
"My nickname in Fengshan, "Ah-ha"
came from grandmother's calling of me
Ah-ha-gu! Ah-ha-gu! Ah-ha-gu! Ah-ha-gu!
Ah-ha!
Did you take the $5 in the purse?
I don't know
"You don't know.
If not you, who else?"
Did you take it?
No
You're lying
Tell me
Where is it?
I didn't take it
Liar!
How dare you! Come down here
Your feet are so dirty
Get down!
Where is it?
It's gone
It's gone
I buried it here. Someone took it
Nonsense
Where is it?
I buried it here
and put a brick over it
Still lying?
It's true! I'm not lying
What kind of man will you turn out
to be after growing up
Here. Over here!
Grandma
"Grandma, where are you going?"
Go back
To find Ah-ha-gu
I can't recognize the road
Ah-Hsiao
Nothing
She hasn't paid me yet
Hasn't paid you yet?
Go get it at the house!
Don't read that while you eat
Go over it once before
and another time after dinner
ABC. ABC
Frog with curry
"Lai"is come"
"Chu"is go"
"Wo bu chi"
I don't know
"Yi ke yang chien,"one dollar"
ABC. ABC
Frog with curry
Frog with curry
"Lai" is come"
"Chu" is go"
"Wo bu chi"
I don't know
"Yi ke yang chien," one dollar"
If you were not a good man in your past
life, your son will be your daughter-in-law
What do you know?
Ah-hsiao! Ah-hsiao
Bath time
You go. I'll wash them
Ah-hsiao! It's okay
You'll find a way when you're older
Kids
This is mine
I have more than you do
"Ah-ha, Ah-ha-gu"
Come here
Grandma's going to take you back
to the mainland
I don't want to go
Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Big cock!
Alright. Alright. It's my turn
You're dead
"Ah-ha, save it"
Nice
First class
OK
Don't bother us if you can't play
Don't let him in
What do you cry for?
Ignore him
"Come on, come. It's my turn"
In an air battle today over
the Matsu Strait
Our courageous Air Force pilots
downed 5 Communist MIG 17's
and damaged two others
This glorious combat will serve
as the greatest gift
to all of our country men
on this Double Tenth National Day
"Despite being outnumbered,
our courageous Air Force
pilots were determined in combat"
Glorifying the spirit
of revolutionary battle
They have won the hearts
of all our countrymen
"In particular,
Colonel Chang Nei-chun"
"In the heat of the combat, to save
a nearby aircraft from enemy fire"
"thinking not of himself, he rammed
his plane into a communist craft"
His patriotic and glorious sacrifice
has once again glorified
the revolutionary spirit
of our forefathers
the spirit of sacrifice and struggle
writing down the most glorious page
in our Air Force history
President Chiang hosted the 47th
National Day Celebration Ceremony
at 10 o'clock this morning
"in the Presidential Building,"
and announced the news
of victory...
Chien-yuan is in Qinman
How come we haven't heard from him
for so long?
I wrote him last month
It's probably the restrictions
in the war zone
Every time I wrote him before
It took at most a week
for his return letter
What are you talking about?
"Chien-yuan, Chiu-ming's son"
"Oh, Chien-yuan!"
It's sad what happened to his dad
I was in Canton attending Chungshan
University. I lived in his place.
"At the time,
he was the brigade captain"
"One day,"
he suddenly contracted malaria
I took a rickshaw to buy him
medicine
The rickshaw boy suddenly stumbled
smashing the rickshaw light
I had an ominous feeling
because he stumbled right
in front of a coffin store
The day Chiu-ming died
his wife had just given birth
to Chien-yuan
She smelled something fishy
in her room
and asked her to mother
if the fish peddler had come
They went to look.
There was no body there
"That night,"
the chickens that the Changs brought
over as a present began crowing
at night
"Grandma said," take it to the
three-road intersection
to cut off its head so
the bad luck would go"
We are going to recover
the mainland!
Liar!
How come I haven't heard the news?
That's what the teacher said!
"I'll shoot you, I'm telling you"
Move away! Stop looking!
There's hot water over there.
Take your bath
"One family, one foot of mouth"
That's a lot of food every day
Your father's salary
is 620 dollars per month
"He keeps 20 for the barber
and his own spending,
Food... the doctor...
Your father is in poor health
"Even if you teach,
you still have to get married"
We have so many children
in the family
"As the eldest,
you have to sacrifice"
The Teachers' Academy is free
"And after graduating,
you can be a teacher"
What do girls need
all that education for?
You just have to be able to cook,
sew, and help the farm work
That will be enough
She's not talking about me
She's talking about Ah-chung
One person attending
Teachers' Academy is enough
But it would be a pity if An-chung
can't go to university
"Ah-chung,
if you want to study more,"
do it yourself
Your father started teaching after
he finished high school
And he wound up going to university
"Before that,"
he went to South Asia to
learn business with uncle Chin
"He studied whenever he had time,"
while others play instead
Uncle Chin knew your dad
wasn't the business type
and told him to go back
to Guangzhou for college
He got accepted
by Chung-shan University
Where's it from?
Auntie An
From South Africa?
What does she say?
Ah-ching-gu stopped
going to school after third grade
The Communists threw him out
of his house
said he had bad background
They're doing some movement called
"Three Red Flags"
They took all of the iron
in our hometown
"Knives, pots, door handles, nails"
even the fire tongs and everything
There's no iron-smelting
Now they have a pile of junk iron
If only we had brought him out
with us...
Did Ah-ha get into the
middle school?
Don't know yet. He went to school
to find if he's passed
I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
Alright. Stop crying!
What happened?
Didn't pass
Crying just because
they didn't pass?
How do you know
if you passed or not?
The teacher just came
Chen Yen Didn't pass so she's crying
"Mom, I passed!"
Really?
I got into Provincial Fengshan
Middle School
There was a chalk mark on my desk
The teacher said that means
you passed
That's great!
Go tell your father
"Dad, I passed!"
I got into Provincial Fengshan
Middle School
There was a chalk mark on my desk
The teacher said that means
you passed
What? A check?
His teacher said he used a chalk
to mark the desks
of those who has passed
the entrance exams
Good! Then you must study hard
Yes
"Ah-chu, what happened to Ah-ha?"
He made it into the
Provincial Fengshan Middle School
Ah-ha!
You made it!
Right!
This is for you
You are so good
"Ah-chung, when will you know
about your exam?"
End of the month
Ah-hsiao made it on his brains
and luck
He's always had the best luck
"When we lived in Hsin-chu,"
remember I went to Taipei to take the
exam for the First Girls' High School?
I was going to take the train myself
But Ah-hsiao insisted
on tagging along
Remember when they used to sell
red bean popsicles on the train?
The ones wrapped in red?
Really good
Ah-hsiao kept saying he wanted one
So I had to spend 50 cents
to buy one
And he didn't even give me a bite
I didn't feel like asking him
for any
I remember Mom told me to look
for Ah-chen at the train station
Remember? The M.P.?
"When I found him,"
he said that I was really capable
Imagining a girl traveling so far
to take the exam
Then he took me on his bike
to father's office
on Chung-ching South Road
"The next day,"
Dad took me to the exam
I bumped into my teacher
in front of the school
The one you said was nice
"After that, I went back to
Hsin-chu to wait for the result"
Dad came back from Taipei
I went outside
to welcome him that day
"He kept laughing when he saw me,
but didn't say anything"
So I asked him:
"Did I pass?"
Dad said:
"Yes. You passed!"
Then he started getting proud.
He was talking about...
whose daughter didn't make it...
whose daughter failed...
Later he told me
that I was No. 41 on the whole list
I scored 100 in math!
What a pity!
I couldn't go to Taipei
for First Girls' High
How good it would be if
I could've gone
Ah-ha
"Grandma's going to take you back
to mainland, OK?"
Come on!
Take the big road
"Before long, you pass a dike,"
then you get to the Mekong Bridge
"A little further down the road,"
"and you get to our village,
Wanshia"
What do we go back
to the mainland for?
Stupid!
Grandma's taking you
to the ancestral shrine
so you can pay homage to
our ancestors!
Old lady...
Can you tell me
where the Mekong Bridge is?
The Mekong Bridge!
What's she saying?
What does she want?
I can't understand
what she's talking about
What?
You don't know?
Mekong Bridge! In Mei County!
Mekong Bridge?
Did she say "bridge"? What bridge?
You don't know?
Can you understand?
I don't know
"If you can't understand,
how can I?"
"Grandma, there're guavas!"
Let's pick some
You try
Not so high
Try again
"Huilan, is the power out?"
Yes!
Get some candles
Mom
Mom
Mom
Dad
Dad
Dad
"Mom, hurry!" What's wrong?
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
"Mom, the doctor is here"
I'm sorry
There's nothing I can do
Fen-ming!
Fen-ming!
"Ah-chung, bring the boys over
to hold father's hand"
ice upon a time, a man passed away
When his family looked after his body,
A cat walked in
And jumped across the dead body
The dead body sat up then
So when you're looking after a
dead body, You can never let a cat in
The captain in my army once said
When they were fighting the Japanese
When they were fighting the Japanese
What?
When they were fighting the Japanese
A lot of people were killed
One day, a man died in the army
is dead body also sat up
after a cat jumped acros
The body even chased people
Chased people?
He hugged whomever he saw
Someone who knew this kind of thing
and gave him something to hug
He lied down when he
got the thing to hug
Don't know why
Some people say there might be a
kind of electricity in the cats
Yin
Might be Yin
Weird
There are a lot of these weird stuffs
"Ah-chu, go take your bath"
I already did
"Then Ah-hsiao, you go"
Fen-ming!
What?
He's playing dumb
He said he's a street peddler
and doesn't earn much
"Come on, his business is good"
What'll we do? Let's corner him!
Right! Corner him!
Right!
"When he leaves, we corner him"
Let's do it this way
Ah-shui,
you go over there with Ah-hou
There! OK!
Le-gu, go to the end of the road
Let me see the one with pictures
I'm going home
No more business today
"Ah-shui, what the hell!"
Can't even stop a motorcycle?
So what's the use of being fat?
What the hell are you standing
there for? Let's go!
Let's go!
Thank you!
Thank you! That time he fell
from the roof
His legs had different length
I didn't know what to do
I almost sent him to
the Chinese martial place
Fortunately I ran into you
"Otherwise,
the child would have suffered"
His brother's home
Ah-hsiao, come
This is Mr. Liu
How are you?
"Huilan, Mr. Liu is leaving"
Goodbye
Watch your steps
Goodbye
You have to wash it first
don't have to behave like
that even if you don't like
"Anyway, I wrote to Fangmei
and we both agreed"
not to pay attention to him
It was written in the Bible, all the men who
aren't married have the right to court girls
"Mom, someone's here"
Mr. Liu
Grandma
I met her under the tall tree.
She's lost
So I brought her home
I've paid for the rickshaw
Thank you
Guavas
Yes. He's of class 5.
"Look, he pasted his little
cheating notes here"
Look how orderly the whole thing is
Imagine how much time and energy
was spent on such an endeavor
"If only that time could be put
into your study,"
"study more history, geography,
wouldn't that be nice?"
You're not stupid
Why did you do such a stupid thing
"He thinks he's smart, that's why"
Let go! Give it to me!
There's nothing!
"Think you're big, huh?"
Why did you beat him?
I heard you're from Red Mountain
What about Red Mountain?
Talking back?
Fight back?
Was it him last time? Yes
You think you're big
Do you think he's the one you can bully?
Where does the other one live?
What are you doing?
Who? Huang Chin-shui
What are you doing?
"Good day, sir"
Grandma
What are you doing?
I'm counting my silver money
Counting silver money?
What are you counting
silver money for?
So I can use them in heaven.
I can use them in heaven.
"Grandma, come on!
We're taking pictures"
"I'm so old, why do I need to be
taken pictures?" It's OK!
Come on!
For souvenir
Come on!
Put it down
"Let's take some pictures, okay?"... OK.
Ah-hsiao!
Come on and take the pictures
Thank you
"Ah-hsiao,
come on and take some pictures"
"Grandma, you have to look that way"
Go get a chair
One more
Put it away!
Put it back!
Little crook! Do you know
what day this is today?
Put it back!
What are you doing?
Hurry up
Put it back
Come here
How dare you...
Get out
Stand here! Stand put!
Stand here!
Listen!
Do you know today is the day of
Vice President Chen's funeral?
Do you know?
Little crook! Get him! Get him!
Come back!
Little crook! Damn it!
Come back!
Come back if you dare!
Mr. Lee...
Your brother should
have been expelled
But in consideration of the fact
that he's already in his senior year
so we decided to give him 2 serious
demerits and a detention
"He's still young, right?"
We give him a chance to start anew
"The problem is that the head teacher
of his class,"
"Mr. Tao,"
doesn't want him to stay
in his class
"After discussing,"
we'll transfer him to another class
"We'll do as you say, Mr. Chen"
Please look after him for us
"Can't go on, can't go on... "
can't go on living
Life without you is darkness
Please come back
Where are you now?
The one I love
"Can't go on, can't go on... "
can't go on living
Life without you is darkness"
My mother brought this piece of jade
back from the South Seas
This ring...
My father bought it in Shanghai
for my 17th birthday
Chunying is so thin
Don't let him stay up too late
Health is the most important thing
Everything else is unreal
When I got married to your father
I didn't know his health was poor
"In our 20-year marriage,"
I served him for 20 years
"Ah-hsiao, stop singing!"
Sounds terrible!
"When I was a teacher,"
there was a colleague
We got along very well
But I didn't dare to tell my parents
I was really stupid
Did Dad know this?
Your father was a very serious man
He would come home
and started reading books
So quietly
"When I just got married to him,"
he even told me to study English
and to ask him if I had problems
"The time we were newlywed,"
your grandfather was out of work
Your father's family didn't
have much money
So we had a traveling wedding
We didn't even have a bed.
We were pinch
"When we got back to Mei County,
we slept in Grandma's bed"
I got bitten by bugs at night
"The next day, I used the hot water
to kill the bugs"
I told your father
He was quite upset
"He said,
we're not as rich as your family"
"The first pregnancy,
I gave birth to you"
We didn't let Grandma know
"The second pregnancy,
I went home to give birth"
And had Ahchin
Your Grandma was very unpleased
She said I kept having girls
She wouldn't help me wash
the diapers
The third day of my recovery month
I went by the pond to wash
the diapers
My tears fell into the pond
I heard people say that
there was a baby boy I could adopt
That was Ah-ching-gu
Ah-ching-gu and Ahchin
were breast fed together
I didn't have enough milk for both
of them
So I didn't let Ahchin have it
and let Ah-Ching have enough
I remember then
"Ahchin would called,"
"Mama, milk"
I hid behind the mosquito net
and didn't dare to make a sound
One day
Grandma took Ahchin
to the ancestors' shrine to play
She ate some unsanitary offerings
At night she vomited
and kept having diarrhea
"I wanted to take her to Mei County,
but it's so far away"
So I bought some medicine at
a local store
It stopped the diarrhea
"But by midnight,
her stomach grew hard"
The next day
She died
Ah-hsiao
Ah-hsiao
Ah-hsiao
Go buy some soy sauce
"Ah-hsiao,"
can you see this thing on my tongue?
It's like a little piece of flesh
"Mom, what's wrong?"
How come you're not sleeping?
I got up to go to the bathroom
Go back to sleep
I'm writing a letter to your sister
I went to the hospital today
The doctor said he needed a specimen
Could be... throat cancer
Nobody cooks at home
"And if nobody looks after Grandma,
she disappears"
"Ah-chung teaches in Shiaokang,
he can't come back"
I don't feel safe
Ah-hsiao knows what to do
"Cooking, washing clothes"
He even knows how to use
the sewing machine
All he has to do is to prepare the
food for the next day's lunch boxes
That's all
We'll ask Auntie Wang across
the street to take care of Grandma
Wednesdays and Saturdays
"and Sundays, I don't have classes"
I can come home
"Besides, the hospital facilities
are better in Taipei"
And there are many more doctors
"Ah-hsiao, the fire's ready"
How come the bathroom smells
like milk?
Ask Ah-chu
"He drinks milk all day,
so his shit becomes milk"
You're drinking milk again
This is the notice for your
physical exam
The neighborhood leader brought to you
What do you drink milk all day for?
What's wrong with drinking milk?
It's very nutritious
"Protein, hemosiderin,
minerals... everything's in it"
And I don't draw maps anymore
"What do you mean,"draw maps"?"
"Draw maps, that means wet dreams"
Does this old lady live here?
Yes
Grandma's back
How much is it?
Why so much?
She's been sitting
in my rickshaw since morning
It's less to go from Kaohsiung
to Fengshan
"She kept telling me to turn,
she even asked me to take her back
to the mainland"
My price is reasonable
I wouldn't charge you a cent extra
Give me 100
Give it to me
Give it to me
How about 10? You want 10?
- "No, I want 100"
- You want 10? - No, I don't
What are you doing?
Let's go
Go in
I don't feel like this
Let's go see a movie instead
What are you talking about?
"You wanted to come, and you want
to go to a movie now"
What the hell are you doing?
Let's go!
Let's go inside
"Since you've come, go inside"
Well?
Nothing
What do you mean nothing?
I didn't
Where's Ah-hou?
They haven't come out yet
Well?
I didn't
What actually happened?
Why don't you tell me?
I tell you I didn't
You went in there so long.
What happened?
A red envelope! Let me see it!
What are you laughing at?
He's got a red envelope
Let me see it
Red envelope!
You lost your virginity!
Wu Su-mei!
Ah-ha is no longer a virgin
Ah-ha
What?
I tell you
I just took my girlfriend
to the movies
Some guys cut in line
You know who?
Cat and his guys
I told them not to cut in
Theu pushed me. Pushed me!
I told them I'm Ah-ha's friend
"Not only did they not apologize,
they hit me!"
"Cat, come"
Why did you hit him?
"When he hit you,"
didn't you tell him whose brother
you are?
I'll pull him away
"Hit him as soon as we meet,
understand?"
"Ah-ha, come here for a second"
"Ah-ha, come here for a second"
What did you beat Cat for?
My friend said he knew you
as well as me
But he beat him anyway
How can I face my friend?
"But if you want to beat him up,
you've got to at least tell me"
I couldn't. He deserved it
So what do you want me to do?
It's up to you
Forget it... Not big deal...
We'll settle this next time we meet
Be careful
Don't let me run into you
in the street. Watch out
Not happy?
Ah-mi
"Grandma, it's time to eat"
Come
Open the door
What happened?
Hurry up!
What's going on?
The West Gate guys are coming
this way
Take the samurai sword in your house
Freeze!
"Ah-mi, did anyone come looking
for me?"
No
Ah-mi
Ah-mi
Get up!
Ah-hsiao
Ah-hsiao
"You forgot to make our lunch boxes,
right?"
Mom
Mom
"Mom, sit down and rest awhile"
Put the bags there
Put the suitcase over by the cabinet
"Ah-hsiao, start up the fire"
And start boiling some water
Mom needs to take a bath
Ah-shui
Ah-shui
What?
Did anything happen yesterday?
No. But Hsienbao got nabbed
So what happened?
His father went to the precinct
to see him
Hasn't come back yet
Where are you going?
My mother is back.
I'm going to buy groceries
Did the Pig's come by?
Haven't seen them
I heard that they really cracked down
at the West Gate last night
Ah-hsiao
Take this in for me
Okay
I put the groceries here
Ah-chung wrote a letter
saying that you spent a lot of money
Did you go gambling?
No
Don't become a gambler
How's Mom's condition?
The doctor intended to cut out her
whole tongue
But Mom wouldn't
She can't speak without a tongue
Then?
Then they gave her
Cobalt 60 treatment
It's not useful
"You don't have to go to school now,
right?"
We're on pre-exam holidays
So you've almost graduated
Any plans?
I want to enter Military Academy
The military teacher said
I could enroll without taking exams
Ah-chung
You said in your letter that you were
going to take a physical exam
When do you have to go to the army?
The results of the
physical exam already came
I weigh 39 kilos
That's "C" classification
So you don't have to go to
the army this year?
There may be a follow-up check
next year
I heard one has to be
checked 3 times
What about your application to transfer
to Tseng-gong Elementary school?
There's no one to transfer with
Ever since he was a baby
Ah-chung's health has been poor
He was born premature
I was teaching then
and had to cook after I got home
and had water filled in
It was different when I had Ah-hsiao
We had more money then
and milk to drink
That time your father went
to Guangzhou
He carried him to the doorway
and said his face was so round
So like your Grandfather
Ah-hsiao
Go get some tissue
Ah-ha
Ah-ha
Ah-ha
"Ah-ha, hurry up!"
Ah-chung got hacked
Just now in front of the theater
Hurry! In front of the theater
I can't today
My Mom's sick. How could I go?
Otherwise give me
your samurai sword. Hurry!
Sleep with the Lord
What bliss
What comfort
No more tears. No more burdens
"Enter into freedom, luminous joy"
Rest in the bosom of Lord Jesus
Return to the Lord forever
Sleep with the Lord
What bliss
What comfort
No more tears. No more burdens
"Enter into freedom, luminous joy"
Rest in the bosom of Lord Jesus
Return to the Lord forever
Wang Cha-he gave 35
Wu Yi-han gave 40
Uncle A-Huo
"Haven't seen him for so long,
and still he gave 60"
Ah-chung
The jewelry is for you to use
when you get married
What's this?
Mother's trust money
Mother was supposed to collect
the final pool of money
"But the woman who organized
the trust, Mrs. Yeh,"
borrowed Mom's share.
This is the I.O.U.
You mean the Mrs. Yeh who lives
in North Gate Second village?
Yes
She borrowed it without even asking
This is father's autobiography
Dad originally planned
To stay in Taiwan for only three or
four years before going back
So he bought bamboo furniture
because it was cheap
and he could throw it away
when he left
Later Mom wanted to buy
a sewing machine
It took so long to persuade Dad
Dad had tuberculosis
So he kept his bowel
and chopsticks away from ours
He kept a distance from us
Avoiding us when he coughed
because he was afraid that we might
be infected
Looks like this one
Mrs. Yeh
Mrs. Yeh
Mrs. Yeh
Mrs. Yeh
Who is it?
Aren't you Hsiao-yen?
Have a seat
Have some tea
Have some tea
Is there anything I can do for you?
"Grandma, time to eat"
Ah-chung
I went to Mrs. Yeh's house today
Their house is even worse than ours
I think we should forget about
that trust money
Let's wait until you pass
the University Entrance exams
"That summer,"
I really took the
University Entrance exams
I didn't go to Military Academy
All because of the words Wu said
"Later, Ah-chung wrote me a letter
from Shiao-kang"
He said he wrote a letter
to Mrs. Yeh
saying that she needn't return
the trust money
Mrs. Yeh wrote back
She was very grateful
And said she will pay us back
when she gets the pension
One year later
"Grandma passed away, too"
I failed the
University Entrance Exams
Wu Su-mei moved to Kaohsiung
with her family
The month before Grandma passed away
she kept lying on the tatami mat
She couldn't control her excrements
At the time my two brothers
and I were the only ones home
We called a doctor
But he said she was too old
"It wasn't until one day,"
when we noticed that ants crawling
on Grandma's hands
did we find out she had died for
who knows how long
Ah-mi
Ah-mi
Get the water and a towel
Hurry up!
Hurry up!
We called the undertaker to clean up
When they turned Grandmother's body
around
they found that the other side
had rotted
The undertaker
gave us a dirty look
Unpious descendents!
He must have cursing that
in his heart
"Even to this day,"
I still often think about Grandma's
road back to the mainland
Maybe I was the only one who ever
walked with her down that road
I remember that afternoon
we picked a lot of guavas home