haimei

He sat alone in the last row without a deskmate, always burying his head on the books. His figure was small and LONELY. His face…? I didn’t know. I had never seen his face since I took charge of English teaching in this class.

I had ever tried to have a clear look at his face by asking him to answer questions, but in vain. Every time he gave me fluent answers but with his head lowered down to his breast. I had ever the intention of asking his classmates secretely, but I didn’t want to be a teacher of bad breeding who only knew how to peep at others’ privacy.

He never spoke to others, nor did others speak to him during the class break. Oh, what a poor guy! He was so lonely. What happened to him? Didn’t he need friends?

I was so curious about him that my eyes, most of the time in the class, fell upon him. Sometimes I even ignored the other students. Could he feel my curious eyes? Maybe yes! I could feel he was a sensitive boy from his behaviours.

That day, I finally saw him, oh, to be specific, I saw his face when he looked up accidentally. His eyes, of course, met mine because I always looked at him in the class. I was so astonished by his face and especially by his eyes that I forgot to continue what I was saying. Obviously he was scared too. He looked away immediately and buried his head again.

I understood why he always buried his head even he wanted so much to look at the blackboard for the notes. I understood why he chose the last row to be far away from others. He must be afraid of meeting eyes with the same expression as mine.

Poor guy! He was so young but he had to suffer so much agony due to his face.

Apparently his face was disfigured by serious burns with many twisted scars. You couldn’t see where were his eyebrows, where was his nose, where was his chin. Everything was mixed on his face except his eyes.

He had two sad eyes. The ever-beautiful eyes were full of unspeakable sadness. How come a child of his age had such sad eyes?

What was he sad for? For the pain that the merciless fire had caused? No, it seemed not. The pain caused by fire had been healed. But there was another kind of pain which was more unbearable, that was, he had to receive the astonished expression from others’ eyes.

My astonished eyes just now must scare him and make him sadder.

But poor guy! How could you escape from all others’ astonished eyes in your whole life? Was sadness your only expression?

There was still a long way for you to go. You couldn’t end your life like this. Your study was so good. Your eyes were so gentle and beautiful. Why not raise your head high and meet bravely with others’ eyes? Don’t let them full of sadness. Please let happiness in.

BELIEVE ME. At the second sight of you, I was not astonished any more, so were the others.

                Life is so fragile (1)

That morning when my colleague was on her way to the class, she received an unexpected call and was told that her dearest cousin died from an electricity shock. At this news, she was completely taken aback. She couldn’t believe the merciful God would have played such a cruel joke on her kind cousin: Yesterday morning, she was still helping her mother-in-law with the housework, but today she can no longer move or walk; yesterday evening, she was still telling fairy tales to her daughter, but today she can no longer open her eyes to see her lovely daughter; yesterday night, she was still chatting happily with her husband, but today she can no longer open her lovely mouth.

Yeah! It is true! She is dead. God is not playing a joke. He has really taken her life away. The 5-year-old daughter will never be able to enjoy the tender love from her; the gloomy husband will never be able to feel the passionate affection from her; the widowed mother-in-law will never be able to get the warm comfort from her.

How come life is so fragile? How come the electricity chose her and brought such a tragedy to her family? She is so kind, so cute. AND she is so young and strong, but in front of the merciless electricity she becomes as fragile as glass. No one can imagine what pain she suffered at the moment she lost her consciousness. Did she see her daughter waving to her? Did she feel her husband kissing her?

How come life is so fragile? How come the heart stops beating so easily? How come the blood stops flowing so easily? How come the brain stops thinking so easily? How come…?

                                 Life is so fragile (2)

Life is so fragile. No one knows what will happen to it the next moment. Maybe one moment ago, it is still freshly energetic, but one moment later, everything is gone.

One of my classmates works in a transportation department dealing with traffic accidents. Since he took charge of this job, he has become more and more pessimistic. He always complains in our group QQ that he is more and more unsure about his future. He doesn’t know what will happen to him and his family the next minute.

He has seen too many lives taken away every day. Whenever he receives a call, his heart will be pinched in pain, because he knows there will be another dead or seriously injured body waiting for him to handle on the spot of the traffic accident.

 “How come life is so fragile?” he often asks himself. Those poor guys were still very happy on their ways to work or home one moment ago, but with a loud crash, they disappear completely, never being able to feel the colorful world. What they leave behind is their family’s weeping, crying, and everlasting pain.

My classmate often claims in the group       QQ that nothing is important to him except life. If no money, no car, no house, ok, that won’t matter. What matters is whether he and his family can live healthily. As long as they are freshly alive, he will be satisfied.

Life is so fragile. Please treasure it. If you lose it, you will never be able to regain it.

Death

View on The Others

Are you afraid of death? To me, yes. I am sure I will be the last lady to commit suicide. In some way, I admire those who have courage to kill themselves. That really needs great courage. I don’t doubt that you have the same feeling with me. Why are we so afraid of death? That may be because death, to us on many occasions, is not simply the end of life in a biological organism. It may refer to horrible ghosts or unrestful souls in another world beyond us. Of course all these ghosts and souls whether happy or sad are created by us living people but at the same time frighten us. It is strange that sometimes we are so bored that we would rather be frightened. As a result, a lot of horror films, based on dead souls, come into being.

The well-known film The Others is created under the background. The others is a 2001 psychological horror/suspense film by the Spanish/Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar, starring Nicole Kidman. In the United States, it is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and frightening moments run throughout the whole film. The film starts with a sharp shriek of a woman who wakes up from her nightmare. She lives in an old big mansion with her two children, Ann and Nigolas, separated from the world by foggy woods. Ann and Nigolas get an incurable disease. They are allergic to light. Any sunlight will kill them. So the mansion is covered with dark heavy curtains all year round. Everywhere is depressingly dark in the big mansion. Anyone living in it for some time may go mad easily. One day three mysterious passers-by appear in their mansion, asking to be their servants. Then many mysterious things happen one after another. Door will be open automatically; the piano will make sounds of itself; Ann claims that she sees a boy named Victor and his family in the mansion. The mysterious others live in the mansion. Not knowing the three servants are faithful or not, the woman becomes suspicious and hysteric. Later she finds out that the three servants have died of lung diseases long ago. Oh, she and her children live with the ghosts for such a long time. Everything seems to so frightening. Just then the woman sees the boy Victor and his family. Only at that time does she think of the horrible fact that she killed her two children with a pillow and then killed herself with a gun. They are already dead themselves and they are the others in the mansion. AH! HOW difficult it is for them to admit they are ghosts.

The film stops here, but the fear about death still continues. When we are dead, what will we become? Is there another world beyond us? If we really become nothing when dead, then what a pity it is that we cannot see our friends and our relatives, and we cannot feel the real world any more! But if we become ghosts, then will a terrible world just as the movies describe wait for us. Nobody can answer the questions. We living people will never be able to know the dead world. That may be the reason why we are so scared about death. Even a small change in our body will create nervousness sometimes. In our life, we are nervous about unruled traffic; we are nervous about diseases; we are nervous about growing old; we are nervous about …many other things. All these are caused by death. Even though we know death is unavoidable natural process, we are still afraid of it. Because we are living people!!!!