No One Returns from the Ferry Crossing

[Synopsis]

On the winter solstice, at a ferry crossing in Jiangzhou, I chartered the entire ferry boat, clutching the pouch holding his ashes.

That summer in 2008, I broke my old bicycle and met Zhou Xu, crouching downstairs to fix bikes.

He was top of the grade and wanted to build a bridge so the ferry operators would no longer have to toil at the oars.

He often came to my house for meals. Whenever we talked about our dreams at the table, his eyes shone brightly.

But the bridge was never completed, and he was lost forever on the other side of the river.

Ten years passed. I stayed aboard the Evening Star, the boat I'd converted into a floating bookstore. An old fifty-cent ferry ticket remains carefully sealed in plastic, but at the crossing, I can never again wait for the one who was supposed to come home to me.