Chapter 14 The Story Behind Shadow of P Island

From Phuket Island to P Island by boat, the scenery is beautiful all the way. During the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Island P was hit hard and had just opened. Going to Island P at this time felt a little uneasy and hopeful.The beautiful sea scenery does not show traces of the tsunami, but in the hearts of the world, the tsunami is still a nightmare, lingering in the mind from time to time.Natural disasters are terrible, but I think what is even more terrible is the sinking of people's hearts. Is the calm sea hiding a storm? Is there any disaster hidden in my seemingly flat life? Everything is unpredictable.

Perhaps at some inadvertent corner, fate will suddenly be changed. So, I had the urge to write a new book. In fact, this trip to Thailand is a pure tourism, the purpose is to relax my increasingly tense emotions.I have never considered writing a book when traveling, but this time was an exception, which made me feel heavy and burdened, and worried that it would be an unpleasant trip. When the boat arrives at the pier of Island P, we have to wait for two hours before boarding the hotel to pick up our boat. This is a fishing village.Because of tourism development, there are many family hotels in the fishing village, and many backpackers live here.There are many small shops selling tourist souvenirs on both sides of the small street.After eating something, we wandered the side streets.

Entering a small shop, the small shop is empty. The stalls of the small shop are full of old local objects, mostly accessories such as earrings and pendants.My eyes fell on a small ivory pendant.I admit, I was immediately attracted to it, as if possessed by a spirit.The ivory pendant is yellowish, it looks like something old, and there is a small crack in the middle.This should be a woman's pendant, so delicate, even if there is a crack.I just stood there blankly, imagining a woman with an ivory pendant standing in the sea breeze... This is a charming ivory pendant with a story. It was as if a voice was saying to me: Take me away.

I looked around and saw no one. I decided it was the sound from the ivory pendant. I decided to take it with me. The shopkeeper didn't know where it was. I am waiting in the shop. After the wife finished shopping in other stores, she came in and said, "Let's go, the boat is coming soon." I said, "I'm going to buy this ivory pendant." She said, "Didn't you say the old stuff wasn't very good, maybe there was something unclean attached to it?" I said stubbornly: "No matter, I will take it away." She is helpless. After waiting for a while, still no one came.

I paid the price on it, kept the money, and took the ivory pendant. I left the shop with it, and left the fishing village. As if carrying the soul of a woman. Although I don't know who this woman is, what mysterious story happened between her and the ivory pendant, and I don't know what it will bring me. This is the best hotel in P Island.The soft sandy beach, the cabins among the green trees, and the smiling service staff...it seems like being in a paradise on earth.On the other side of the hotel, some workers are still repairing houses. It is conceivable that those houses were destroyed by the tsunami. It is said that Island P was severely damaged by the tsunami. It is indeed not easy to resume business so quickly.

When checking in, the assistant manager in the hotel lobby was a very sissy man, reminding me of the bleak ladyboys I met in Phuket Island. There was a smile on the face of the assistant manager in the lobby, and the smile seemed to be engraved on his face. He said politely to everyone he saw: "Sawady (hello)." He sent us to a small wooden house, just left.I stood at the door, watching his leaving back, feeling an indescribable feeling in my heart, feeling that he was very lonely. In fact, everyone is lonely inside. It was later confirmed that the assistant manager of the lobby was indeed a human demon before.I never discriminated against ladyboys, I just sympathized with them.The question is, while I sympathize with them, am I being sympathized by others?Compassion is not to look down on others from above to show favor, but to be equal and harmonious among lives, to empathize with each other.Nobleness and humbleness both lead to the same goal in the end.

I have always wanted to know the story of the assistant manager of the lobby, but I have no way to understand.I wanted to be friends with him from the beginning, but it ended up being just wishful thinking on my part. This is a huge pity. But he also filled me with the desire to write. On the first night of living in P Island, four things happened. On the island, there is only a TV in the rest hall of the tourists, and there is no such facility in the room. It is also because of exhaustion that we went to bed early, and I fell asleep very quickly. Not long after, I was awakened by a scream.

That was the scream of the wife. She ran out of the bathroom and said, "Spider, spider—" I got up from the bed and said, "What's so scary about spiders." So, I went into the bathroom.Sure enough, on the wall of the bathroom, there was a palm-sized spider lying there, which was very frightening.I've never seen a spider this big either.The strange thing is, the bathroom window is tightly closed, where did it come in from?Or, it's been here all along.I have no intention of killing it, I just want to find something to get it away.I went to the room to find a clothes fork, and re-entered the bathroom, but the spider was gone, and I couldn't find it no matter how I looked.

I am very surprised. During the time we lived on the island, we never saw this mysterious spider again. It was the first thing that happened that night. The second thing happened soon. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall asleep anyway.The cabin we live in is very close to the sea, less than 100 meters away, and the sound of the tide rising and falling is very clear.The sound of the tide made it harder for me to sleep.There is a wave of emotions stirring in my heart, and it seems that there is always a voice saying to me: "Go outside, let's go outside."

Although the wife was frightened by the spider, she fell asleep quickly. She was quite courageous, and dared to watch horror movies in the middle of the night when she was alone at home. I walked out of the room alone. Suddenly feel refreshed, although there is still some heat in the sea breeze.The bright moon hanging in the sky brightened my mood.The sky and the earth seem to be illuminated by the bright moon, together with the dark corner.Living in the city for a long time, it is difficult to see such a bright moon, which is also an important reason why I often want to escape from the city.The city makes me feel suffocated and burdened, and my free body and mind are greatly restricted. I don't know what I will become in the long run.Leaving the city again and again is to keep more of the most authentic things in life, and to gain the innocence lost in city life during the journey.I stepped on the moonlight and came to the beach.Under the moonlight, the sea looks gentle and calm, reflecting the maternal side. At this time, it is difficult for me to connect it with the scene of the tsunami.

I stood silently on the beach, imagining that a boat floated out of the moon into the sea, and took me away, to the other side of the world, where there was no fear, no disaster, no strife...that was my fantasy.On such a night, fantasy is a wonderful experience. Many times, we are tortured by materialistic life so that we don't even have the idea of ​​fantasy. At this moment, I suddenly heard a call, which was the call of an animal. Where did the animals come from on this island? I turned my head in the direction of the sound and saw a baby elephant. It stood on the beach not far from me, looking out to sea. I was very surprised that there are baby elephants on this island. I walk towards it. Maybe because I alarmed it, it turned around and walked in another direction.I trotted up, trying to catch up with it, but unexpectedly, it also ran.No matter how hard I chased it, I couldn't catch it. In the end, it disappeared in front of my eyes without a trace. Then, the third thing happened. I heard a woman's cry. The woman's cry was very sad, like moonlight streaming down from the sky, or coming from the dense forest behind the hotel. The woman's voice may have come from some wooden house, but the lights in those wooden houses were all turned off. I don't know where the woman's cry came from, and I can't explore it. The woman's cry suddenly destroyed my good mood. I decided to go back to the room and continue to lie on the bed, even if I couldn't sleep, I could also think about what kind of novel I wanted to write. The desire to write novels grew stronger and stronger. Back to the cabin where we live, we have to pass the swimming pool of the hotel. While passing the swimming pool, the fourth thing of the night happened. After I heard a "plop" in the swimming pool, it seemed that someone was swimming.I approached the swimming pool in a strange way.By the light, I saw that there was nothing in the swimming pool, just a pool of calm water.Is it my hallucination?I shook my head selfishly, ready to leave.At this juncture, a voice came from behind me: "Sawady——" I suddenly turned my head and saw the assistant manager standing there, smiling at me!He said something to me in English, which I couldn't understand.I can understand that he was asking me why I didn't go to bed so late.I wanted to ask him why he didn't sleep, what he was doing out in the middle of the night.But he definitely can't understand the Chinese I speak, so I don't want to say anything to him.I smiled at him and went back to my room.I walked for a while, looked back, and he was still standing there, smiling at me.There seemed to be a dark shadow swaying past him. Back in the room, I couldn't fall asleep. That black shadow is always dangling in front of my eyes. After dawn, my wife and I talked about what happened at night, she smiled and said I was suspicious. Wife swims in the sea. She is like a fish, free and leisurely. I lie on the beach and bask in the sun. Thinking of what happened at night, the scorching sun turned cold.I always feel that there is a shadow wandering around P Island, and I have goosebumps all over my body. At this time, I saw two girls, yellow-skinned girls.After going to the island, I saw people with the same yellow skin as us for the first time, and I immediately felt a sense of intimacy.They are very young, and they are full of youthful breath. They sat down on the recliner next to me, laughing and talking.I closed my eyes, stretched my ears, and listened to them. It turned out that they were also Chinese.They were talking about a boss who hired a mistress and then tried his best to get rid of the mistress.No matter how hard the boss dumped her, he couldn't get rid of her. He asked her, why?Mistress replied that she fell in love with her.The boss couldn't believe it was true, and stubbornly believed that the mistress was with him only for money. He didn't believe that there was such a thing as love in this world.The mistress stuck to him like chewing gum. The boss had a new love, and it would be very troublesome if he didn't get rid of her.So, the boss actually had a cruel idea to kill the mistress.He took his mistress to Qiandao Lake on the pretext of playing, and pushed the mistress into the lake, and the mistress who couldn't swim drowned in the water... When they told this story in a relaxed tone, my heart was particularly cold. I opened my eyes. Suddenly, I felt a shadow swaying past me. I heard a woman's cry in my ears. It's an illusion, yes, it's an illusion. I turned around and looked at them. They also found me, and one of the girls smiled and asked me in Mandarin: "Are you Chinese?" I smiled: "Yes." She said, "Where are you from?" I said, "I'm from Fujian and settled in Shanghai." They chatted with me.Through the conversation, I learned that they are from Hangzhou, and they are all college students.I asked them if what they just said was true.They were very sure that it was true, because the mistress was their classmate.When we were chatting, two young Caucasian men and women walked by on the beach. The young men were talking about something, but the young woman was speechless, and their faces looked serious.One girl said: "Aren't these the two people who live next to us?" Another girl said: "Yes, that girl was crying last night." I asked, why is she crying?They shook their heads.I suddenly remembered the cry of a woman at night. After chatting for a while, they said they were leaving.They have lived in P Island for two days, and they want to go to other places.I bid them farewell.They boarded the longtail boat with simple luggage, and the longtail boat sailed to the sea.I stood up suddenly and waved to them, and they also waved to me. I could feel their youthful smiling faces exuding a healthy and charming atmosphere in the sun.I sincerely hope that they will go well all the way, on the long road of life, all the way well. They disappeared from my sight, and I heard the cry of an elephant. I searched for the sound and saw a child riding a baby elephant coming from the beach.Ah, there really is a baby elephant on this island. The child riding on the baby elephant wears a wreath around his neck and smiles on his face. Seeing the children and the baby elephant, my mood suddenly cleared up. At this time, the wife also came up from the sea.She was also very excited to see the baby elephant. We walked towards the elephant. A white child fed bananas to the elephant, who rolled up the bananas with its long trunk and stuffed them into its mouth.Seeing the cute little elephant eating bananas, the Caucasian child giggled.I reached out to touch the elephant, and my wife also reached out to touch the elephant.The baby elephant gently let us stroke. The child riding on the elephant kept looking at us with a smile. His eyes are as transparent and beautiful as the sun. That day, after we had dinner, we went to the swimming pool to swim. I saw the young white couple, who were also swimming in the pool. Their faces were gloomy, and it could be seen that they were very unhappy.They were at the corner of the swimming pool, arguing about something, and after a while they quarreled.The young woman slapped the young man angrily, then climbed out of the swimming pool and left without looking back. The young man stayed there silently. After swimming, we returned to the cabin. After taking a shower, the wife turned on the computer, ready to watch the American TV series she had downloaded.At this time, there was a loud noise on the beach.Driven by curiosity, I walked out of the cabin.I saw a circle of people on the beach, with a bonfire burning among them.People were dancing around the campfire and singing songs I couldn't understand.My wife and I walked to the beach. The dancers all wear flower garlands around their necks. Among them are the assistant manager of the lobby, the boatman of the long-tail boat, the waiter, and the woman who works as a horse butcher. There are also many tourists who live here. Spotted the kid on the baby elephant during the day, but I didn't see the baby elephant...why are they partying here?My wife found out what was going on, and it turned out that today is the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Someone put garlands around our necks and pulled us into the dancing crowd. We dance around the bonfire, I will not sing like them, but my heart is like them, pray for the dead in that disaster, let their souls rest in peace in another world, and pray for the living People pray for blessings, hoping to be safe and happy, and to stay away from disasters. The carnival lasted for more than two hours, and at the end, people threw the wreaths into the sea. People leave. I told my wife to go back to the room first, and I wanted to think about something on the beach. I sat alone on the beach, watching the tide bring those flower garlands to the depths of the sea by the silvery moonlight. I imagined that there were many souls struggling and shouting in the sea. I know what I'm going to write.The things I have experienced in the past two days have been strung together in my mind, bit by bit, into a story. Just this night, I had the prototype in my mind. Also on this night, I had a nightmare. I dreamed that I was in the midst of strong winds and huge waves, unable to extricate myself. That was not sea water, but blood water.I am floating in blood, just like floating in the sea of ​​life... I woke up from the nightmare drenched in sweat. For two nights in a row, I had the same nightmare. The wife said, "Is the nightmare related to that ivory pendant?" Holding the ivory pendant in my hand, I couldn't answer her question. I seem to hear a voice begging me: "Don't throw me away, I want to go with you—" The wife said: "You'd better throw it away, I'm afraid it will be bad for you if you take it with you." I gritted my teeth and said, "No way!" I have always believed that this ivory pendant has a soul, and its soul has already integrated into my body. I didn't expect to conceive it so quickly, and there is always a voice saying to me: write it quickly, write it quickly—— So, on the fourth day when I came to P Island, I started writing. In the process of writing, two strange things happened. At that time, I was very energetic, and I didn’t feel tired even if I slept for an hour or two a day. It can be said that I entered the state of creation, which was very crazy.Because I went on vacation with my wife, it is impossible to write day and night, so I still have to play with her.We went out to sea to snorkel and go fishing, and at night, I wrote my novel. That evening I went out to sea to go fishing. When we reached the fishing area, the longtail boat stopped. The boatman hung the bait on the hook for me and started fishing.Before that, we also went sea fishing when we went to the Maldives for vacation.At that time, I met a traveler in Guangzhou. He is a master of sea fishing. He has been to most of the islands in Southeast Asia, and has fished in the waters there, and has rich experience in sea fishing.He went out to sea with us to go fishing and taught us a lot of experience in sea fishing.We caught a lot of fish in the Maldives that time.Unexpectedly, we only caught a few small fish when we went fishing this time.Even the boatman who took us out to sea wondered why no big fish took the bait.When I was about to end this sea fishing, I suddenly felt that I had caught a big fish, and it felt very heavy.The boatman also thought I had caught a big fish, so he hurried over to help.As a result, what was caught turned out to be a woman's shoe. How could such a woman's shoe be so heavy? After catching the woman's shoes, a flash of lightning pierced the twilight on the other side of the sea. After a while, dark clouds came over. On our way back it started to rain heavily. The waves were rough and terrifying. ... The second thing happened that night.I was writing and suddenly I got stuck.Helpless, I walked out of the cabin alone and came to the bar unknowingly.There was a rock singer singing in the bar, and he sang with great devotion and ecstasy.Rock singers are particularly famous on the islands in this area, and they perform back and forth on various islands.It is said that the performance on Island P this time came at the request of a British tourist.The British guest had been to Island P before the tsunami and listened to his songs, which was very memorable. I ordered a beer and drank it while listening to rock singers. Many people danced to the songs of rock singers. The enthusiastic and unrestrained emotions of the people in the bar infected me. My blood is running too. Suddenly, I heard someone call my name. I thought it was my wife who came to see me. I found no trace of her. That voice still calls me. I walked out of the bar and followed the sound. As if I had been hypnotized, I followed the voice without thinking. The sound took me up the hill behind the hotel, and in the dark forest I heard the screams of night birds.After the night bird screamed, the voice calling me disappeared, and I couldn't hear the rock singer's singing. The forest became deadly silent. I stood in the middle of a tropical plant. Those silent trees were like speechless trees. People surround me and I can feel their breath.They seem to be going to tell me some unknown stories left in the dust of the years. A small bug landed on my neck and I felt itching and pain. It was this little bug that woke me up. I suddenly felt fear. The forest has become scary. This is an unknown world. I fled and left the forest. I didn't go back to the bar to listen to music. Instead, he went back to the room. My wife is still watching American dramas on the computer. I told her what happened just now.She smiled and said, "You must be crazy, you imagine yourself as a character in your novel." I said, what I experienced is real. She smiled again and said, "Ghosts believe it." Yes, if you tell it, only ghosts will believe it. That night, I thought like a fountain and wrote until dawn.I believe that the voice calling me must exist, and in that dark forest, something must have entered my brain, and it is that mysterious thing that guided me to complete the journey. Every time I write a book, it is a wonderful journey for me. During that time, on P Island, I always felt that there was a shadow following me. Before leaving P Island, I magically finished writing. After I finished writing, I felt that a compelling opening chapter was missing.This question bothers me.On the plane back to Shanghai from Bangkok, I was still thinking about this question.A novel without a good beginning is just as regrettable as not having a good ending. Sitting on the plane, I held that ivory pendant in my hand.I said to myself, if you really have a soul, you let me come up with a different opening for the novel. I felt the ivory pendant move in my palm. A warm current spread from the palm of my hand to my whole body. I suddenly turned my head and saw that in the seat next to me, a man and a woman were sleeping next to each other. Two words came to my mind: smell! I seem to smell something. I thought of the couple in the book. They died on Island P, how did they return to Shanghai in the end?They were going back to Shanghai with another woman's soul, yes, the plane, it was the plane that brought their bodies back to their hometown.Opening with their dead bodies mysteriously getting on the plane... everything is so magical, I found a fantastic and engaging opening, and I jotted down the idea right away. I held the ivory pendant again in my palm. I said in my heart: "Thank you! No matter what you will bring me in the future, even if it is a disaster that is beyond redemption, I will never abandon you..."