Chapter 67 railway bento

My elder brother's child came to Taipei to play and wanted to go back to the countryside, so I sent him to take the train. At the station, my nephew suddenly said, "Uncle, can I buy an ekiben later, I like ekiben very much." "What's the problem?" I immediately ran to buy an ekiben for him to eat on the train. Watching the Ziqiang train go far away, I also bought a railway bento myself and sat on the iron chair on the platform to eat. In the twenty-seven years since I left home, the world has changed. Only the ekiben is one of the few things that remain the same. It is always a piece of ribs, a stewed egg, a piece of dried tofu, and a few pieces of dried radish. The film box has become a carton.

Even the taste of the bento has hardly changed. Eating ekiben makes me sink into memories. I used to study in Taipei, because my family was not well-off, and in order to reduce the burden on my parents, I always took an ordinary car when I took the train back to my hometown. It took more than ten hours to arrive in Kaohsiung from Taipei to the south.When it's time to eat, I buy an ekiben. I am always very careful, eating the bento in small bites, fearing that if it is finished soon, I will not be able to taste the deliciousness of the bento. Because I was so deeply immersed in the taste, the memory of the railway bento is so deep that even if I close my eyes, I can smell the fragrance immediately.

Once, my father and I took the train to Taipei. During the meal, my father ate two railway bentos in one go. I was surprised. I didn’t expect my father to eat so much. It is already a great enjoyment to have an ekiben! I saw my father enjoying and focusing on eating, and I was deeply moved. I looked at my father's face intently. My father was embarrassed by me and said: "This railway bento is really delicious. I can't eat two boxes. !" After eating, my father told me that after World War II, he was repatriated from Nanyang to Taiwan, landed in Keelung, and took the train from Keelung back to his hometown in the south. He didn’t eat a drop of water, let alone bento. up.

"I think back then, if I could have a mouthful of food, I would kneel down and kowtow to thank you!" Dad said, "Now every time I eat a railway bento, I feel very grateful and satisfied. I think people should cherish this kind of blessing!" Recalling what my father said at the time, suddenly a few little sparrows fell from the sky and jumped around my feet. what!Are these sparrows coming to share my bento? I sprinkled some rice grains on the ground, and the little sparrows jumped, screamed, and wagged their tails to grab the food. They were eating and screaming so enthusiastically, as if they could also enjoy the deliciousness of the bento!

All beings in this world exist to taste a better life!The good life is not a pursuit, but a taste of the things in front of you. Even a small bento can have a deep and beautiful experience. Now, how much I wish I could buy two more bento boxes for my dad, and then we would take the train and run across the vast fields together, but this tiny wish was impossible.