Chapter 41 monthly pass

During the war, I was evacuated to a place called Suwa in Minohe Town, Aomori Prefecture.After the war, the demobilized soldiers came back in batches, but my father has not come back yet.Later, newspapers published the news that he was captured in Siberia, but there was no news about his life or death after being captured.When the train of the demobilized people stopped at Suwa Station, my mother would run around on the platform and ask questions. But no one ever met Dad.At that time, I was a female student who attended a girls' school in a neighboring town and had to take the train to and from school every day.At that time, the trains were always packed with demobilized people, people who came out to buy and sell food, black market traders, and people looking for missing relatives, so it was very difficult to buy train tickets.But students can still buy a monthly pass every month, but if the monthly pass is lost, it can no longer be reissued, so the monthly pass is very precious.My mother was worried that I would often lose things, so she wove a rope with wool and hung the monthly pass around my neck.

We were only one stop away from school, but it was not easy to get to and from school by train because the trains were not always on time.Sometimes we have to catch up with the school's class time or our own duty time. We run so fast that even if the train has already started, we will jump on it; time.I eat very fast now, because the habit I developed at that time cannot be changed. If I eat bento slowly, my classmates will be left behind, so I try to eat fast, and I have developed such a habit.My bento is also hard-won. My mother sometimes works as a black market merchant. If she meets a farmer she doesn’t know and gets married, she will wear her only kimono and sing at the wedding. In this way, she can get some food for the wedding banquet as gifts. .So my bento at that time was often rice balls made in the shape of sea bream with red dots on top, which could be seen as a gift for wedding banquets at a glance, and I occasionally felt ashamed because of this.

One day, we waited a long time at the station and felt a little bored.At this time, the friends who came from Suwa suddenly wanted to play a rope game.String... String... We were rummaging around, and I found that the woolen rope hanging the monthly pass under my neck was just the right length, so I took the string off my neck and pulled out the monthly pass.I carefully put the monthly pass in the schoolbag on my shoulders, and we happily played the rope game.We made really difficult shapes like frogs and iron bridges with string.During this period, I had many lice on my head, and the only clothes I had was a sailor uniform given to me by my cousin.When we evacuated, my mother accidentally used a tea-colored Gobelin woolen curtain as a burden, and brought it here from my home in Tokyo. Now I wear a pair of stiff pants she made for me with that curtain.This is the only dress I can call a western dress.Even so, we had a lot of fun playing string games.

The train finally came, and I showed my monthly pass at the ticket gate, because there was only one stop, I put the monthly pass in my mouth, and continued to play rope on the rickety train.Although there is only one stop, one stop on the Northeast Line can still play games for a while.We got off at Suwa, and I showed my commuter pass at the ticket gate, held it in my hand, and walked while talking with my friend.There is a bridge a little ahead from my house, and my friend's house has to cross the bridge and go a little further inside.I originally wanted to break up with my friend at the small intersection leading to my home, but I was a little bit reluctant, so we walked to the bridge together.We said goodbye at the bridge.

"What a fun string game! See you tomorrow!" I waved, and my friend waved back on the bridge.I waved my hand harder, and at this moment, something flew out of my hand with a "click" and fell into the river.At first I thought "what is it", but immediately realized that it was my monthly ticket!I ran desperately to the river, and I could still see my monthly pass folder flashing by in the river, and was swallowed in the water in a blink of an eye.The current of the big river was very fast, and the sky had already darkened. I immediately realized that no matter how hard I tried, it would be too late.I once saw with my own eyes that huge logs were instantly swallowed up by the water during a flood, and I know how terrible the river is.I took out the wool rope my mother wove for me, and it was too late to regret it now. ①

"How can I tell my mother..." At that time, although our home was called a "home", it was actually a hut for watching apples in the middle of the apple field.There is a well with a water pump near our house, and water is not a problem, but there is no electricity, so we can only light kerosene lamps, and we rely on the firewood we picked up for cooking.Even so, it was still a happy home for us.But how do I go back now?I was very depressed. Whenever this happens, my mother will never blame me, this is her character.She didn't scold me "Didn't I tell you so"!

My mother would only say "Since I lost it, there's nothing I can do about it".So I blamed myself more deeply, how could I be so careless! The next morning, my mother went to discuss with the people at the station, but the rule of the station was "no reissue under any circumstances", so I didn't have a monthly pass when I went to school that month.It was also my bad luck. It was just the beginning of the month, and there was still nearly a month before I could buy a monthly pass. As a result, although I was not scolded by my mother, due to my own carelessness, I had to leave two hours earlier than my friends who went to school together, and walked to the nearby Sanhe Railway Station.

If I take the normal way and make a big turn, I don't know how many hours the road will take, so I decided to walk along the railroad tracks.According to the people at the station, it takes about an hour and a half to walk to the next station. From the next day, I set off from home every day before dawn. The only luck was that the weather was not cold at that time.At that time, none of us had any shoes to wear, so I walked towards the school wearing a pair of clogs that I managed to get.The clogs rattled on the sleepers.I was in a hurry because I had to get there by myself before the train my friends took (that is, the train I usually take) arrived at Minohe Station, and then I waited for my friends there before going to school together.From Sanhe Railway Station to school, you have to take a bus first, and then walk. The distance is quite long, so students who take the train to and from school all move together.When I was in school, I didn't feel anything when I rushed to school after leaving home, but I felt very uncomfortable on the way back.I went from school to the train station with everyone. Everyone got on the train. I cheered up and said "see you tomorrow" and watched everyone leave. Then I walked on the sleepers alone and walked back behind the train. Home, it's a bit lonely at this time.

When I went back, it was dark when I walked halfway.There are some fields or apple fields around the railroad track, which is not scary, and you can even see some scenery that you can't usually see, which is actually very interesting. Only once, though, did something terrible happen. Because I walked along the railway tracks every day, I gradually figured out the train timetable and knew which section of the train would pass by the southbound train.When the train passed, I just stepped outside the tracks, stood on the dam and let the train pass, then easily returned to the sleepers and continued walking.

But one day, when I was about to reach Suwa Station, I was crossing an iron bridge, and suddenly a train appeared from behind the rocks in front of me.This is a temporary train that is not on the timetable.The river under the iron bridge is very turbulent, and the protruding part of the fence built by the railway workers to avoid the train at that time was broken and removed.It was too late to go back.At that time, there was a train in front of me, and if I wanted to jump into the river, the iron bridge was too high, and I couldn't move forward or backward standing there.I looked down through the cracks in the sleepers, and the river was rushing.At this point there is only one way.

So, still carrying my schoolbag on my shoulders, I grabbed the sleeper with my hands and hung it down, hanging in the air.As soon as I got down, the train passed directly over my head.Because it is a temporary car, I don't know how many carriages there are, but I feel that this train is very long, and it has passed over my head for a long time.The train rumbled and passed over my head without haste.Although I am not good at the horizontal bar, when I was in elementary school, I always hung on the horizontal bar with one hand, imagining myself as a big piece of hanging beef.Being a hunk of meat is a game I'm pretty good at, and that might be a good thing now.When I was sure that the train had all passed, I began to climb up, which was the scariest moment.When I was hanging in the air, I could barely support it, but I didn't have the strength to turn my body up again, and my schoolbag on my shoulders also caused me a lot of trouble.But I struggled desperately, kicked my legs, and used the strength of my jaw, and finally climbed onto the sleepers. I was shaking all over, and for a while I couldn't walk. Finally, when it was time to buy a monthly pass, my mother bought me a monthly pass. I hurriedly put the string on the monthly pass holder and hung it firmly under my neck. I have a lot of necklaces now, but none have made such an impression on me like my mother's tawny cord of mixed wool. ① The story about Xiaodoudou losing the monthly ticket is also described in the book "Xiaodoudou and Me" written by Xiaodoudou's mother, Ms. Heiliu Chao.There may be a slight discrepancy between the two paragraphs due to differences in memory. ———Translator's Note