Envying the Kite

Zuo Yu can't remember much of what happened over the past three years.

Like the torrential rain, the scar on her wrist, or whose feet she once knelt at.

Chang Anyan says, “It's all right. I remember enough for both of us.”

But he only wants to talk about the good things.

No one tells Zuo Yu what really happened, the bad things.

Only Li Jingping came to see her.

Holding up a photograph, he said, “You begged me once. Don't you remember?”

Zuo Yu thinks he's crazy.

Jiang Yuan never says anything, either.

He just stays close to her, but never too close.

When he notices her shoelace has come undone, he crouches to tie it for her, a little too tight.

Sometimes he gives her a candy, peach-flavored.

Many years later, she still dreams of peaches.

Only later does Zuo Yu learn that

Jiang Yuan had seen her many years ago,

through a screen, in a video, in a faceless, lightless night.