Inspiration Words: Green and Skip
Guoliang (gwoh lee-ahng) opened his door as carefully as possible; then he crept down the hallway so he could hear his dad and grandpa talking in the living room. He didn’t think about what would happen if one of them walked toward the kitchen for some water and happened to glance at him in the hallway. All he knew was that he had to hear this conversation.
His hand was still aching where he had received the stitches, but that was nothing compared to the way his father had shouted at him.
“What do you think you were doing, skipping classes and climbing over the school wall, Liu Guoliang (lee-oo gwoh lee-ahng)?” At this point, Guoliang knew his father was really angry. His father raised his hand, and Guoliang was afraid his father would hit him, but instead, he just ran a hand through his graying hair and sighed. “Let me guess, you were going to play video games?”
Guoliang didn’t answer, but his father knew he had guessed correctly.
“Don’t you EVER think about doing that again. Go to your room.”
Guoliang sneaked a glance at his grandpa, but the stern expression he saw did little to comfort him. Usually, his grandpa took his side, but he didn’t see any help this time. Guoliang put his head down and went to his room. He took off his green shirt that was now covered in blood where he had wrapped it around his hand as he ran to the hospital.
Right now, Guoliang had to know if his grandpa was as upset with him as his dad was. What would they talk about? He had to know.
“Xiao Liang (ssee-ow lee-ahng) reminds me of you, you know,” his grandpa was saying. He used Guoliang’s nickname, which seemed promising.
“Why, because I was stupid enough to climb a wall and get my hand skewered by a metal spike?” His dad laughed sarcastically, and Guoliang felt his hope of being quickly forgiven disappearing.
How did I get my hand stuck on a spike? That was pretty stupid. Guoliang stuffed his hand into his pocket so he wouldn’t have to see the stitches, but the ache was still there.
“No, but you did your share of running away from school. You should just be glad the walls didn’t have spikes on them, or you would probably have ended up in the hospital, just like Xiao Liang.”
Guoliang’s father grunted, but he didn’t respond.
“I remember one time you ran away to the liquor store so you could have rice wine.”
“Wait, how did you know about that?”
Guoliang wondered if he could peek around the corner of the wall and look at them. He wanted to see his father’s face right now so badly. I can’t believe Dad ran away from school too!
“Your teachers told me, of course. But I didn’t punish you at home because running away and getting caught is part of growing up. I told them to tell me if you did it again, but when you didn’t, I figured you had learned your lesson.”
“Ha, that was my first drink of alcohol, even though it was just rice wine. My friends and I thought we were so cool—until we got back and saw the teachers waiting for us outside our dorm room.”
“And Xiao Liang wasn’t even trying to go drinking; he just went out to play some computer games.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right. Maybe I was too hard on him.”
“I’m just saying that he’s a boy. And he’s smaller than you when you ran away from school.”
“You’re right,” his dad sighed again. “I’ll go get him, and we can have dinner together.”
Guoliang hurried back to his room and just closed the door and hurried to his bed before he heard a soft knock. His dad came in and stood in the doorway.
“It’s time for dinner, let’s eat.”
“Ok.” Guoliang stood up and squeezed past his dad, who ruffled his hair as he went by.