The Bungalow And The Backyard River

The scene floating in front of LeHawl's eyes was sheer bright; specifics loomed flickeringly behind a layer of white, as if an idyllic, impressionistic masterpiece from 19th century gently covered by a chicly woven gauze, which, fluctuated by the breeze and bleached by the shimmers, provided a harmonious aura.VxG中国英语学习网

In the scene, there was a house, or rather, a bungalow. The bungalow was not big, but, of course, it was sufficient for a family of four plus LeHawl. The four meager walls that constructed the building had already been peeled from the surface by years of memories and oblivions. The flattened roof had long felt neglected, as well as every door, every window, every tile and every hinge that belonged to the bungalow, despite the idle attempts of the father from time to time.VxG中国英语学习网

Other farmers in the village would not even raise a glance at the bungalow when they happened to pass it, but now under the layer of ambiguity, it looked heavenly.VxG中国英语学习网

In the scene, beyond the bungalow from the perspective, there was a river connected right to the backyard of the building. The river was an ordinary one. Some of the folks used to fish with their kids in the river after a good day's work, but that didn't happen anymore, because of all sorts of horrible rumors of fish dying. Still, when LeHawl peeked at the river, under the effect of the scene, it was purely a beauty of nature, and as if it had always been. It ran peacefully; it waved attractively; it reflected the warm sunbeams; it refracted the lively fish. The river moved along the cadence of motherly nature, sending a homely feeling to LeHawl.VxG中国英语学习网

Slowly, the perspective started some cinematic shifts. LeHawl, a much younger one of him, vaguely appeared at the end of the scene, on the narrow riverbank that barely separated the backyard and the river. LeHawl, the one in reality, was not surprised at all by the sight of an earlier himself at this part of the story, because he had already dreamed that too many times. He simply, and kindly, let the mosaic roll on.VxG中国英语学习网

The younger LeHawl, as we can easily presume from his four limbs limping under the pernicious breeze that also caused the death of those withered sallows, was merely a child and a pitiful one. His youthful, pretty furs had long been tarnished by the foul liquid from myriad sewers and dumpsters that he had visited for a living, and it doesn't take a much closer look to discern those scarlet, fatal scars by others like him. Still, the inextinguishable candle of instinct kept the immature all along. And at this moment in the scene, the magical candle was propelling LeHawl to do something needless of comprehension again.VxG中国英语学习网

Ahead of LeHawl, in the mist of the river, a girl being with two legs was splashing desperately, fruitlessly trying not to be drown by the devouring current; on the shores, bigger beings stood put, shouting and waving their arms busily, but contrast to the rapid, hazardous river that gradually rushed the poor girl away, nobody moved. Suddenly, a being with strawed round hat spotted LeHawl. He first turned to the others, cried something, and then everyone turned toward LeHawl--commanding stares pinned at the very sight of him. The strawed hat folk faced LeHawl, motioned his arms downward from the shore into the river, and then pointed at the struggling girl; and then the whole ritual repeated again and again, as if a priest was preparing a soon to be sacrificed warrior. And LeHawl, after a short while, realized what he must do. He knew he could swim, and was a good swimmer even, but with all the wounds and the last few futile days without food, he was not sure if he could make it alive. But that didn't matter at all. LeHawl briefly backed a few steps to run up, and then bravely plunge into the deadly current. He did what his kind would always do for the two-legged beings.VxG中国英语学习网

Just at that moment, the seemingly motionless picture shifted in time again. Still with the exactly same background--the bungalow and the backyard river, but the texture of the house looked even more weary, crumpled by a couple of new cracks. On the side of bungalow, just at the angle that LeHawl's eye-sight could include both the building and the waterway, a wooden cabinet about two feet and a half had sometime been erected. This time, another LeHawl took place in the scene. He was still a young fellow, but much cleaner, apparently better fed, and the scars were almost healed. Inside the milky scene, he lolled lazily upon his arms, body half stuffed in his room. That LeHawl tranquilly breathed out warm breeze, looked at the backyard river proudly. At this time, our protagonist knew what himself had been thinking in the scene very well. He was proud, very proud of himself, because he, when needed, spared his life to save another being; he was very happy too, because he was well rewarded. The saved girl's family had adopted LeHawl, and they even built a house outside so he could enjoy the views he liked the most. Everyday, after each meal, the family would spare such abundant amount of food for LeHawl, mostly thoroughly bitten meat-bones. Oftentimes, LeHawl felt he was rewarded more than he deserved; he felt the family was just overwhelmingly good to him. So, in return, he treated the family like higher-ups; he paid all the loyalty he could possibly assemble, and he was utterly proud of that too.VxG中国英语学习网

As our protagonist's speculation went on, the drama in the scene had stealthily leaped into the next stanza, along with the moonlight that silverly shed upon the bungalow.VxG中国英语学习网

Everybody had quietly drifted into another world-- some filled with virtues and fantasies, others with allusions of bad ends that reflect the deeds they did while they were awake. The LeHawl in the scene was in one of those worlds too, serenely laying his head on his arms. Suddenly, his innately sharp ears spied some uneven discrepancy within the rhythm of the summer breeze; vigilantly raised his eyelids, he spotted two young beings in guilty sport T-shirts were sneakily tiptoeing across the backyard. He didn't knew why, but his instinct simply told him the two just couldn't be good-intended. He shouted, as loud and as ferocious as he could, as loud as the level at which he could have torn his throat. He shouted partly to scare the two away, partly to warn his benevolent family. He knew that whatever might happen, he must keep harm out of the family's way.VxG中国英语学习网

Momentarily, on one side of the scene, the two youngsters, startled by the cry, hastened to pull out their deadly knives; on the other end, a determined figure slightly curled his hind-legs, ready to strike. at the same moment, beside them, inside the bungalow, the family could vaguely be seen through the window lanes. Their face looked anxious, as if waiting our brave warrior to finish his job and then come out. And then the moment passed on with reflectional lights blended with pale from the knives and canines, and bloody red spread around the battlefield. With all the jumping, biting, being cut and being thrown going on, LeHawl's simple brain told him again and again that he was buying his family time, and his family would come up with a good plan to dispel the bandits in a pretty short while. LeHawl fought the best ever, even better than how he used to fight for himself when he was little. But this short while seemed strangely long. After an unfathomable amount of time, LeHawl started lingering on the edge of consciousness because of the paint, but he didn't faint once, since he thought a good one like him would never let his family down.VxG中国英语学习网

The thieves and LeHawl just fought like that. The two wanted to leave, but LeHawl's assault was too fierce to let them have a gap to do so. Until who knows how much time had elapsed, some tough beings in uniform arrived the humbled bungalow and backyard, and easily cuffed the delinquents. And LeHawl, among a forest of legs, could barely stand. He was awfully proud of himself, proud of how he had fought, and moreover, he was amazed by such a ethereal help he had had that must be summoned by his family. After this night, LeHawl felt a even stronger tie between him and his family, because they somehow saved each other's life once again.VxG中国英语学习网

And now, as if somebody pressed a forward button, the footage of the scene sped up. Every being, every object within the background of the scene came and went like flickers of a sun beam through the gaps of tree leaves, one second one realized it was there and the next it disappeared. The only things that were recognizable in the scene were LeHawl, complacently and proudly looking at the blessed bungalow and backyard river, and the bungalow and the backyard river themselves. Since they were the only immovables, they seemed eternal as well.VxG中国英语学习网

As for now, the scene was still bleached pure, but that didn't last long. As the moving objects vibrated like thorny bees in a hive, the scene was getting darker and darker, more and more obscure, and less and less celestial. Until one point, the time eventually relegated itself to its usual pace, and the panorama turned out to be quite different. The family, contrast to its habitual lazy state, was busy moving luggages toward a fisher boat in the backyard river that had a motor around its tail; on the river, there were other miscellaneous ships too. All aboard with local villagers. Some of them who had bigger hulls brought many necessity with them, such as rations of food and bags of clothing; others not as fortunate could only picked themselves along with this perilous way, not knowing whether they would die because of eyeless blasts or scarcity of food . LeHawl, a much older one of him, was ruefully whining around his family, fruitlessly trying to grad a thread of attention. He was wondering why his family looked so troubled, and he was wondering if he should go aboard now or wait until with the rest of the family.VxG中国英语学习网

This didn't take much of a struggle in LeHawl's simple mind; he soon decided to wait as a loyal member always does. Then he started tamely jogging with big beings around, as if he was contributing his share of business as well.VxG中国英语学习网

Soon the packaging was about to end. LeHawl stood straight on the shore line between the yard and the river, ready to go aboard. However, on the other side of the scene, the father and the elder son of the family seemed to be talking about something disagreeable. When the discussion finished shortly after, they walked toward the shore, looking right at LeHawl. Seeing so, LeHawl erected his proud head even more, as if a faithful soldier waiting for his order.VxG中国英语学习网

Then the father motioned LeHawl to come, and pointed at LeHawl's wooden cabinet as a gesture of commanding directions. The elder son had gone into the bungalow. When he came out, he was carrying a bundle of rope, and LeHawl was already lying on the ground, waiting for the next instruction. On the other end of the scene, two female members of the family were already aboard. The girl was sobbing; and the mother was trying to comfort her. LeHawl didn't know how did that happen, but he was awfully compassionate toward the little being. The elder brother said something to the father, and slowly knelt down to tie LeHawl up.VxG中国英语学习网

Suddenly, a flash of metal appear at the angles of LeHawl's sharp eyes. He turned his head, canines intuitively shown. But it was the father, altogether a utterly different one. The tender he now looked aggresive; the caring he now looked indifferent. LeHawl was confound. His simple mind couldn't fathom such sophistication. leHawl didn't know what to do, because his instinct was contradicting itself, so he hesitated.VxG中国英语学习网

Red. The scalding, filthy red suddenly smeared the whole scene. The red was the most vivid kind, but gave a the darkest feeling. The red was extreme, too, it overpowered everything within the scene: the father, the son, the mother, the daughter, the backyard river, the bungalow and LeHawl himself, except two tiny white spots that seemed like LeHawl's eyes. And then the lens of the scene gradually loomed in. It loomed in, layer after layer, again and again, until the entire red had been tossed behind, and what was left was only the eyes. Now the eyes had become so conspicuous, what was inside could finally be seen: it was sheer bright; specifics loomed flickeringly behind a layer of white. There was a bungalow and a backyard river that looked the most heavenly and god-made in the world. But strangely, other than that, nothing else could be found.VxG中国英语学习网
VxG中国英语学习网