no one can travel alone

Chapter 4 No one can travel alone (1)
Text/Li Yaocen

I opened the visor and looked out. Below the wing was a cloud layer like a lake, emitting a strange green light.In the distance, there is gold swallowed up by the dark blue sky.There was only one lonely star on the zenith, but it was strangely bright. I had never seen such a dazzling light.

I quickly took out the SLR, clicked a few shots through the two layers of frosted glass, and was looking down to zoom in to check the details. A small pink camera was stretched out in front of me, accompanied by a baby voice like Zhiling's sister: trouble... Sister, can you take a picture for me too... Thank you!

I turned my head and saw a girl about my age, holding a big doll, trying to blink her small eyes with single eyelids to show cuteness to me.

I took her compact camera, took a few pictures and handed it back.

She looked at the photo, seemed a little dissatisfied, and then looked at my camera: sister, your camera... looks good, you are good at taking pictures, right?

I yelled at her in my head: why don't you call me auntie?In the end, he smiled and dealt with it a few words, not intending to talk to this kind of disobedient millennium loli.

On this trip, I don't intend to talk to anyone, I don't want to be in the company of anyone. What I hate now is the human being itself.

I went out just to escape those invitations, dish names, guest lists, phone numbers that gave me headaches... The good life suddenly became trivial in one place.For the issue of odd and even numbers for the date, he and I finally turned over the table in a dark face, and it seemed that we each had sufficient and legitimate reasons.In fact, both of us understand that the date and number are not important anymore, what matters is who will win the first hidden battle in the new life.

Let me put down a sentence: If there is no agreement, it will be postponed indefinitely.

He didn't back down either: That's fine, we all have to think it through before making a decision.

I saw a piece of text that day: "The heart-shaped Tasmania Island has an area equivalent to the sum of Taiwan and Hainan. Since it is very close to Antarctica, the climate and Ice Age relics are very sub-polar. Some people call Tasmania the 'The beautiful heart at the end of the world', Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair is the essence of the right atrium of the heart. Sparsely populated, isolated, with undeveloped primitive mountains and forests, fresh air, pure glacial lakes and strange scenery Landform."

Desperate love is gone, but I haven't tried the travel that can go away.Heart-shaped island, Antarctica, sub-polar region, the end of the world, sparsely populated... The key words are exactly what I am feeling at the moment.Well, the first stop is to hide in this distant heart.

When I showed him the booked flight ticket, he really yelled.

I seem to have won a small victory, but brought myself more misery. This trip is like an unplanned child, not expected from birth.

From the very beginning, there was a lot of oolongs. I got up early, but I just sat there and forgot the time. When I woke up and took a taxi to the airport with my bag, I encountered a rare traffic jam.In the end, I sat in a taxi and watched the plane pass overhead, never to return.I changed the ticket only at night. I remember that there is a prayer room in the airport where I can sleep. I ignored the strange eyes of those people, wrapped myself up like a mummy, and fell asleep on the sofa amidst the sound of prayers like spells. up.

When I was the last one to board the plane with my huge bag on my back, I was in shock, and I was in no mood to look at whether there was a handsome golden-haired guy sitting next to me, or such a neurotic millennial girl.

The girl next door seemed to be full of anticipation for this trip. After a while, I asked me to put the doll by the porthole, "out of a shape looking at the scenery outside the cabin", and then untied the seat belt and tied the doll. , pretending she was drinking a drink.Then it clicked and clicked non-stop.I looked at her so serious, upset and wanted to laugh.Xiao Qingqing likes to play with cute little dolls, but her doll is old and silly, what are you doing, girl?
Fortunately, the distance between Melbourne and Hobart, the capital of Tower Island, is not far, and I will arrive soon. I was afraid that she would pester me to take pictures again, so I hurriedly shook hands and said goodbye, saying that there will be a period of time, and rushed off the plane.

Across the road from the exit of the airport are the counters of various car rental companies. Now I want to drive a car and plunge into the jungle, leaving the world behind.

"Hello, please give me the order number, driver's license and credit card." The aunt of the car rental company moved her fat body and turned around in the narrow counter with difficulty.

Oh, I touched the inner layer of the backpack for a while, huh?What about the driver's license?
I threw the backpack on the ground and touched every floor again, still nothing.

The aunt knocked on the table impatiently: I can't rent the car to you without a driver's license!
I squatted on the ground, looking up at her face, feeling infinitely sad.I thought to myself, damn it, I still have to look at the imperial calendar in the future for a trip that is just a walk away.

I obviously put my driver's license in my bag yesterday. There is only one possibility, and that is, after I fell asleep, it was taken away by an unwilling runaway groom.

How childish!I don't want to marry you!

Suddenly, a friendly Mandarin sounded in my ears, like the sound of nature: If you are on the way, you can take my car.

I turned my head, and a compatriot who was about to rent a car was standing behind me with a smile and a key.

The warm yellow light behind him gave him a golden edge, and he couldn't see his face clearly, but he was as dazzling as a male god.

Okay, I nodded cheerfully.But then I thought about it again, didn't I make an appointment with myself this time, not to be with anyone, and to have a lonely and glamorous trip alone?Seeing my hesitant expression, he said: Don't worry, I'm not alone.I also met a Chinese at Melbourne Airport, and we shared the fuel and car rental fees together.

Hmph, you are a black car driver, right?Here, there were originally two people, but now there are three people, picking them up all the way, are you sure it won't become a tour group?

He looked at my increasingly sad expression and pointed to himself: Hey!You girl is quite vigilant. Are bad guys so kind?Are you so, ah, upright?
He was not stingy when he boasted about himself. I was amused, and it seemed that I had no choice. It was so late, so let's go along for a while before talking.

I went out with him, and a delicate and slow voice sounded: Sister, we met again so soon~~~
It turned out that she was the one he said to pick up.

The girl on the plane stood in the night with her doll in her arms and her hair disheveled. The scene made the voice even more terrifying.

Called my sister again, I was unwilling to ask: How old are you?

She said: 86.

I shook my head: I am younger than you~
She tilted her head slowly in doubt: But, the card on your backpack...

I laughed dryly for a while: They are all born in the 80s, so don't call me sister, my name is Sangsang, what do you call me?

She said: My name is Sabrina.what pull?Seeing her slow speech, he secretly named her Koala.

With a koala, shouldn't the energetic man who drives the car be called a kangaroo?

The kangaroo asked me: You came to Tower Island alone?Planning to drive alone?

Well, relax.

He smiles: Hey, Sabrina is a human too.Girls nowadays are full of guts. Tower Island has the famous Tasmanian Devil and tigers. Aren’t you afraid?
Koala immediately hugged the doll to her chest: I am not alone, I still have her.

I was faintly worried that if I was with this thousand-year-old girl, I would vomit it even if I didn't get motion sickness.

There are not many youth hostels in Hobart to choose from. There are no people on the streets, and the cold wind makes the leaves rustling.After checking in in the dark, I fell asleep early, looking forward to the end of the world when I opened my eyes.

Early the next morning, when the first ray of sunlight fell on my face through the curtains, I knew that Tasmania would really be different. The concentration of sunlight was very high, like a field of gold leaf, which is unique to high latitudes.When Australians mention the lost Ta Island, they will react for a second and say in the same way we describe Tibet: Oh, that is a really good place.Probably like our west, it is remote and wild, has beautiful scenery, and was exiled as a prisoner. Its laziness has not changed much for hundreds of thousands of years, thus unexpectedly leaving a unique temperament.

Later, after walking through several cities in Australia, I deeply felt that only Tower Island can satisfy a traveler's imagination of Australia: it seems like a small town in the 19th century, with endless wilderness, grassland under the sunset, wearing clothes Horses in flowered clothes, nameless beaches, small houses full of flowers, all kinds of cute mailboxes... and when you stand on the bustling streets of Sydney and Melbourne, you will doubt yourself when you look at the logos of the familiar store names. Traveling back to the downstairs of the company: It seems that there are only big and small cities in the world.

But there were too many little surprises when Tower Island welcomed me to Hobart, the first place.

Founded in 1803, Hobart is the second oldest city in Australia after Sydney, only 16 years later than Sydney.But now it is very different from Sydney. Franklin square, the busiest pedestrian street, can be walked in a few minutes. All the shops are concentrated on a main road, and the city is full of ancient Georgian-style buildings in the 19th century.After five o'clock in the afternoon, the entire street was almost empty.

For more than 200 years, a colony that has been in war for many years can become the world's number one hegemony, but it can also save Hobart from the escape of time. It is independent at the end of the world near the Antarctic, guarding Mount Wellington and a side of the sea, living a day. The traditional life of working out and resting in the sunset.Slow down is actually not a bad thing.

Not bad luck, this day in Hobart happened to be Saturday.The famous Salamanca market opens every Saturday, and countless locals and tourists come here to enjoy this leisurely weekend.

The market is somewhat similar to our morning market and creative market, with various handicrafts, garden fruits and vegetables, small food and art performances.But they don't seem to be professional hawkers, they do their own things on weekdays, and come out to play guest appearances on weekends to earn some pocket money.

I didn't call them in the morning, but left a note saying that I was going out first, and we would meet at noon.I was walking alone in the market, buying a hot dog, sausages that were fried until browned on both sides, and covered with onions soaked in gravy, watching the little girl who practiced the piano stutteringly playing the guitar, and the flowers and vegetables were dripping with dew , dolls of boxing kangaroos and tree-hugging koalas with cute eyes.There was a white-haired old couple quietly guarding a pile of shiny glasses. The old lady lowered her head and concentrated on drawing, and the old gentleman watched every stroke of his wife with interest.I leaned over, and there was a very cute character on each glass, and then a line was added, there were children waiting for their mother's breakfast, there were couples holding hands and dancing, and there were babies crying.What the old lady is drawing is a picture of a young man proposing to a girl. The sentence on the glass only completes the first half of the sentence: I can do many things by myself...

The old man smiled at me, and proudly introduced: I burnt the glass with my own hands, and the paintings on it are our lives.

I asked: Is this young man you?

The old man was very happy: Yes, it was the scene when I proposed to her 60 years ago. I was very handsome then!
The old lady had finished writing, and put the cup in the sun to dry.

60 years ago, the young man said to that beautiful girl: I can do many things by myself, singing, dancing, and reading, but only loving you is something I cannot do alone.

I was suddenly moved by this cup.

"Sister! Sister!"

I looked up and saw that koalas and kangaroos were waving to me excitedly in front of an apple stand, like old friends who had not seen each other for a long time.

I walked over, and this apple stand only sold apples, but there were six or seven varieties of red, green, yellow, and striped. An old-fashioned weighing pan was hanging above the sky. The stall owner had a big beard like Hemingway and wore a retro Robe, octagonal hat, surrounded by sweet fragrance.

"Sister, oh, Sangsang, what kind of apple do you want to eat?"

"I don't like apples, you can choose whatever you want..."

The kangaroo stuffed an apple into my mouth, "Stop talking nonsense, taste it first, Tasmania is the hometown of apples!"

This apple has a firm texture, and the juice from the cracked mouth of the peel is sweet and sour, like the taste of eating an apple for the first time.

Koala still held her old rag doll firmly, and asked the doll considerately: You pinch, which one do you want to eat?A burst of bagpipes and cheerful drums sounded in the distance, and the people in the market cheered excitedly and ran over to watch.On a lawn, people are playing bagpipes and dancing. The uncles are wearing traditional Scottish costumes, knee-length red plaid skirts, white stockings, black vests, handsome black felt hats, and a small tasseled bag hanging around their waists. The young girls held their batons and yelled commands, and the young girls danced briskly on tiptoe, their plaid skirts jumping and flickering in the sun.

Everyone is infected by the free music under the blue sky.

Once Tasmania was a place of imprisonment, known as the "Island of Hell".Prisoners in the British Isles who couldn't hold them were transported here by boat. This lonely island at the boundary between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean became a natural prison.

Thieves, murderers, robbers, exiles, these unstable factors of society gathered in the same place, but created a new world.The prisoners made the exquisite stone carvings and fine wood decorations of the church, the prisoners built the oldest stone bridge in Australian history, and the prisoners not only dug the dock, but also began to learn how to build ships.Tasmania did not become a hell of death as expected by the upper class of Great Britain, but moved towards freedom in self-government and checks and balances.

The descendants of Scotland and Ireland are finally free to dance in the sun and play the bagpipes from their northern homeland.

Freedom and imprisonment, destruction and rebirth, prisoner and citizen, are often the same thing.

There are more and more people on the lawn. Tourists, aunts who buy vegetables, and babies with big eyes all start to dance to the music. Koala pulls on my clothes: Sangsang, I want to dance, can you use your camera for me?
I nod.Under the camera, Koala leads her rag doll to spin, jump, and form a circle with strangers. Her single eyelid smiles into a crack, but there is still a bit of oriental shyness on her face.Her rag doll was held up by her and the stranger, and its legs swayed as it jumped. The sun shone on the doll, and I saw that the doll was always smiling.

Kacha Kacha took a lot of pictures in a row. Koala looked at the photos, stuck out her tongue and said to me embarrassedly: It's really beautiful, thank you Sang.

The three of us went to the youth hostel together, ready to start the journey to the next stop.I found that there was a small wooden keychain on the kangaroo's hand, with a name engraved on it, which was a female's English name.I said: You bought this at the market?
He said: Yes, our domestic tourist areas also like to sell such small pendants with names.I just saw it was fun and bought one.

I gossiped and asked: Penny is your girlfriend?Then why didn't she come with you?

He smiled and said: It's his ex-girlfriend, she used to study at the University of Sydney, and we made an appointment to come to Tower Island for a self-drive together.

Koala asked: So have you been here?
The kangaroo patted his chest and made a joke: Well, I put her here and brought her here.

I said: Hey, it seems that there is a story, so I will torture you tonight.

He turned his focus to me: Then why did you come here alone?
I said: I can’t get married anymore, the journey of self-exile of divorced women.Kangaroo and Koala asked: what happened?
I said: It's all a trivial matter, neither of the two families will make any concessions, and the talk has collapsed.

The kangaroo said: Don't, there are too many small things to live through in life, and being together is the biggest thing.In the past few days, Penny is getting married too, and I'm eager to get married and not want me.

I said: Then go get married!Lovers!
He shook his head, and said half jokingly and half wistfully: It's okay, there is an afterlife anyway.

After lunch, when I first started on the road, the highway was smooth, the blue sky and white clouds were always at the end of the road, the sun, the grassland, the lone tree, it was so Australian.Unexpectedly, after crossing the Derwent Bridge, I plunged into the forest, and it was dark in an instant. There were countless winding sharp turns, and it was raining coldly.What's even more peculiar is that when the driver gets motion sickness, the kangaroo swallows hard, opens and closes the window repeatedly, often suddenly grabs the steering wheel with one hand, leans half of his body out of the car, and turns skillfully while facing the outside. threw up.His painful and distorted expression, and his messy look against the wind, actually made me feel very funny.

In the end he couldn't even vomit the gall.He parked the car on the side of the road and squatted to rest. The wind pushed the fog over, and he lost his way.I have to change the driver to drive. I don't dare to pick up the car without a driver's license.

Koala said timidly: How about I drive?

Both the kangaroo and I hesitated: Do you have a copy?
Koala said: Yes, but I have never driven the right drive, you can try it.Let her try it, I sat in the back with the kangaroo, she put the doll next to her, fastened the seat belt, and said to her: Let's go!

Skillfully turned on the ignition, released the handbrake, pushed the gear, stepped on the accelerator, and the car flew out.

Koala's driving is completely different from her usual slow and sticky appearance. The style is fast, precise and ruthless, and she can fly on the rugged mountain road.This girl is interesting.I let the kangaroo lie down most of the place, probably because the fog and vomiting stimulated his nerves, and he began to talk about that unfulfilled trip like talking to himself.

"She is the most beautiful girl and the most talented girl in our college class. She will perform piano solo at the art festival every year." After hearing this, I took a good look at Kangaroo. He is about 30 years old, and Gao Fushuai He's completely irrelevant, and he's almost fat and round. Why did Banhua fall in love with him?Alas, let him blow it up, anyway, the flowers in the school flower factory are all flowers.

(End of this chapter)