su & hao

FARMERS

PP-chan plants strawberries in his garden. He is an alright strawberry farmer, just alright. His strawberries are plump and juicy but not exceptionally big or red.
PP-chan grows very good aubergines though he hasn't been planting them for over three years. The aubergines that PP-chan grew were delicious. When I wanted to try my hand at planting aubergines a year ago, he taught me how. And yes, my aubergines grew shiny into a deep hue of violet. Happie!

Last night, bending over his little strawberry plot, PP-chan told me that he might just start growing aubergine again. Why not? I said. Cause he’s good at it. But it wasn’t so simple to PP-chan. He confessed that the smell of aubergines made him itch.
When he grew aubergines three years ago, he couldn’t sleep from the itch and the first thing that came crashing into his wakeful reality every morning was the itch. He itched when he walked, itched when he talked, itched when he was alone and itched when he was with friends. Now that he had shaken it off, he didn’t want to itch again but he wanted to own a plot of blooming aubergines again – for the market place. Because the market place didn’t like his strawberries… they said his heart wasn’t in it when he grew them so they just didn’t work.
At this point, PP-chan gave a :( expression.
He said whether his heart was in it or not the strawberries just grew the same way. And they were not all that bad, were they? I shook my head but didn’t say anything. To tell the truth, I had never bought PP-chan’s strawberries because 3P-chan grew them better and sold them cheaper.

Then I told PP-chan, why don’t you just grow the aubergines and put up with the itch?

PP-chan agreed. Perhaps the itch isn't something that he cannot put up with. Afterall, sometimes when he saw how healthy his aubergines were growing, he even forgot about his itch for several hours! Besides, in time to come, he may grow numb to the itch and accept it. In time to come, a special medicine may be invented to combat his itch.

3P-chan came and asked what we were talking about. I told him. He told PP-chan that nothing was worth the itch. If it were him, he’d live his life as itchlessly as possible.

But 3P-chan is 3P-chan and I am I and we all have different opinions. So it really doesn’t matter what we think.

我們也只不過是PP-chan生命的過客。PP-chan的故事，對我們來說也只是收音機播放的另一首歌罷了。



Narrator: P-chan
Characters: PP-chan & 3P-chan