Prompt: Stranger. Have you ever had a random encounter or fleeting moment with a stranger that stuck with you? (365 Days of Writing Prompts Copyright © 2013 by The Daily Post.)
1.
It was one of those early summer nights in Yiwu, China when the daylight heat would vanish after sunset, and the skies were clear enough that you could catch in your hands one or two sparkles that people call stars.
To put things into context, it was the time when news reports repeated cases like ‘old man died of heart attack on the street as bystanders were too afraid of responsibility to help’ and social experiments showed few people willing to take action even if a child was abducted right in front of their eyes.
We were handing out survey forms for a school project, fluttering across a busy neighbourhood in the centre of Yiwu, accosting every shopkeeper we could find. As we stood by a middle-aged shop-owner who seemed more intrigued by the TV series she was watching than the rest of the world, patiently waiting for her to fill out our form which she was scribbling on, a cheerful voice alerted us.
‘Want some clips? They’re cheap!’
It was a guy in his thirties, with a huge basket full of colourful clips on his shoulders. He was tall, but nothing about him seemed to differentiate the man from the hundreds of passers-by who graced this street every day. Predictably, the shopkeeper was annoyed by just another nomad trader whose goods came from god-knows-where, and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. ‘Well ‘course not, leave!’
It wasn’t until his smile froze for the briefest of seconds that I noticed he had been smiling. He didn’t seem too bothered, though, and left.
We went on to get more answers for our survey.
2.
After a while, the clip guy stopped us.
‘You’re saying that, uh, this can get to the government?’ His large dark eyes sparkled with intrigue.
‘Yeah, if we win the competition, yes.’
‘Let me tell you something. Well…’ He squatted on the sidewalk, apparently exhausted from all the trudging. ‘You know, if you’ve got the chance, there’s some more important stuff you gotta report, right?’
My partner blinked, and I nodded, recalling when our teacher turned down our more ambitious proposals for reasons such as ‘these are China’s national conditions, you can’t win the competition by discussing something so grand’ or simply ‘this is too politically sensitive for students’. I felt bad.
The clip guy didn’t know. He put the basket down, looked at his hands, and then us. ‘There are kids kidnapped by bad guys, I rescued two of them, but I can’t help much. This is much more important than what, people stealing water from fire hydrants you’re investigating, you know? I wish I could do something, but there’s lots of bad people around.’ His voice was kind and gentle, but firm.
I was surprised and rather shaken. There was something pure and fascinating and good that his gaze emanated that touched me. He was special, that I knew. It was rare indeed when even schools taught us to be cautious rather than kind.
He patted his basket and proceeded, in a less serious manner. ‘It’s a difficult job I’m doing, but life is hard, and I’m happy. Well, I just wanna tell you kids to look out, I know I’m nobody, but I hope things can change.’ He smiled, and stood up again. ‘Better get goin’, good luck kids!’
3.
We didn’t change our topic – our teachers surely wouldn’t allow it. We went on to talk about the water stolen from fire hydrants, using the survey forms we collected from bored shopkeepers. But I never forgot that clip guy, and how he smiled in the yellow streetlight.
I don’t know what it takes to be kind and optimistic when you’re selling clips that nobody was buying. But I do know that compassion exists even in the most neglected corners, and that those luminous glows are the most precious things humanity offers.
(Image source: Pixabay)
Dolores Xu 