October
Dear Julia:
I think you finish your trip to USA
And I hope you send a back letter soon.
I miss you and I think of past good time
When we spoke English.
It was a good idea.
I am interesting in English.
It is important to me and I want to speak.
But nobody.
I stay at home but not any more at Uncle's house.
On National Day he tells me
Go away, live somewhere.
So I cry to myself because I don't know where.
Then I go look.
I ask the grandmother I worked for when I came.
She tells me she is taking the train north
And I can help the grandfather till she comes back.
So I live there. Now I live somewhere else.
I go to my job every day at 8 o'clock but not on Sunday.
I ride bike to the office. I work by myself.
I answer the telephone. Sometimes my manager tells me
Shop or serve tea or go to Bank of China
Or Friendship Store or the Electric Teapot Factory.
He goes out.
Usually there is not much to do and I am boring.
At 5 is end. Also, not much money.
I do not like my job.
At this time I make a friend in my night class.
She is the same with me from Shan Dong.
Now she has a holiday and has gone away.
So nobody.
I miss my family in Shan Dong very much,
But I am more interesting to stay in Beijing
Because I live here now.
But I have no residence card, no work unit,
So it is change any time.
For weeks, I think, are clouds in the sky.
It is windy and the trees are yellow.
But the air is not golden as they say.
The air is smoke-color
And cold even inside the house.
So I wear slippers you gave to me.
They make the stone softer,
And they make the floor sound like grass.
I wish I can ever see you
But I cannot.
Not in my country.
Not in your country.
Goodbye, I love you,
Jian Hui