1940. Yunmeng Marsh.
He placed a wooden lotus in her palm and said, “Wait until the lotus blooms again.”
Later, she traced the character for “return” as she waited from spring until the first frost, from her old home to a land far away.
The lotus pond dried up. The reeds turned to ash.
Many years later, someone asked about the wooden lotus.
She lowered her head. Her palm was empty.
The writing was still there. She had simply forgotten who she was waiting for.
