no one can travel alone

Chapter 6 No one can travel alone (3)
The fine and white sand is dyed golden by the setting sun, the lying dead wood is frozen in time, the colorful small stones are as moist as jewels, and the sea water gently takes the little crab home with its arms.

I still don't know the name of this beach, but it exists quietly, from wild to old.

The kangaroo wrote his and Penny's names on the sand, which was wiped clean by the sea.

Such a scene, how lyrical can not be overstated.

The southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere did not separate Penny and the kangaroo, but the kangaroo became extremely busy. He changed a better job and worked part-time in another company during the holidays. He thought that as long as he worked hard for a few years, he would prove it to Penny's parents. my ability. He often didn't see Penny's calls until early in the morning. When Penny was sick, he could only lower his voice and say, baby, I'm in a meeting now, wait a minute.The two gradually became strangers, and even the agreed trip to Tower Island, Kangaroo missed the appointment due to the temporary change of the project.

Penny came to Tower Island by herself. She visited the market by herself, climbed Cradle Mountain by herself, ate oysters for two by herself, and sat by the sea alone and thought a lot.

She wrote an email to Kangaroo, telling a lot of anecdotes about her in Tower Island, and attached a photo of her holding a kangaroo, smiling like high-latitude sunshine.She said, I left a book for you in the youth hostel in Launceston, if you have the opportunity to go to Tower Island next time, look for it.

Kangaroo has been busy earning money and getting promoted, thinking that there will always be a chance to go together again in the future, just waiting and waiting, his centrifugal goal is getting closer and closer, until Penny becomes someone else's bride under the arrangement of his parents.

The kangaroo said: "I came to Australia this time just to see the place where she used to live, walk around the street where red leaves would fall when you clap your hands as she said, and taste the food she mentioned in the open-air shop." Fish tacos, maybe if you are lucky, you can hug the kangaroo that took a photo with her. More importantly, find the book she left for me to fulfill my unfinished trip.

"But what's the use? Even though I'm standing at the same place, there's a year between them; even though I'm experiencing the same second, one is in summer and the other is in winter. I tried to get closer to her, but I came to the whole universe the furthest place."

The sky is getting late, and the world has changed from orange jam to eggshell green. We say goodbye to this beach we met by chance, knowing that the chance of coming back in this life is almost slim.

Looking around in a daze, the koala was gone.The kangaroo and I were a little panicked, shouting: Sabrina! Sabrina!

After a while, a figure stood up, walked towards us staggeringly, rubbed his eyes and smiled apologetically: the wind was so comfortable, he fell asleep for a while.That lazy girl actually fell asleep on the beach leaning on the big tree.I'm really sorry for calling her a koala. A koala sleeps twenty hours a day.

She got into the car as if we were sleepwalking, and then continued to lie down and fall asleep.It wasn't until we drove to the door of the youth hostel Penny mentioned in Launceston and called her that she squirmed and groped for a while.

Suddenly, he shouted like a neurotic: "Where is my doll!"

It should have fallen on the beach where she was sleeping just now.

But it's so late, and it's worth driving more than 200 kilometers back and forth just to find a doll?
As soon as I said my concerns, she began to cry aggrievedly and insisted on looking for her.

The kangaroo persuaded her: "Your flight tomorrow morning may be dangerous if you drive late."

Her sobbing turned into a loud cry, like an innocent child.

I asked: Is this doll important to you?
She nodded without hesitation, tears and snot all over the place.

The kangaroo and I looked at each other and smiled: go!
The sea at night is silent and warm. Who would have thought that we would meet again in the place where we solemnly bid farewell, and this nameless beach would welcome three strangers to visit again and again.If the first time was a chance meeting, then the second time must be fate.

The next day we sent the koala to the airport. She was still like the first time we saw her, holding a doll, her hair loose, and dragging her extended voice to say: I'm leaving first... I'm glad... I met you by chance.

I am also very happy to meet you, much happier than I imagined.

Forgot to say two things, one good and one bad.At night in Launceston, I turned on my mobile phone, which had been shut down for several days without a signal, and dozens of incoming call alerts and text messages popped up.

He said: Where are you?Why can't I get in touch?

He said, "I got the driver's license. You are in a hurry to drive. I don't worry. Where are you now?"
He said: Sorry, the wedding day is not important, what is important is that you will be there every day in the days to come.

He said: Come home, I'm waiting for you.

He said: I am so anxious, stupid woman, I am going to find you.

I hugged my phone and laughed in the dark, feeling really stupid.

Another bad thing is that the kangaroo did not find the book that Penny left in the reading room of this youth hostel. The clerk swore that he had never seen any Chinese books.

Could it be that Penny's book is just a romance that exists in the kangaroo's mind?

The journey has to go on.We passed by a small town with windmills and large fields of oats, and it has been a week since we returned to Hobart.The market is still bustling, the hot dogs are still delicious and tempting, and the old man who sells apples seems to have never left.I found the old couple who sold the mugs and begged them to draw me another mug that was exactly the same.I said I was getting married soon and I wanted to give this to the bride.

I can do many things alone, but loving you is something that I cannot do alone.

On the last night at the Hobart youth hostel, the kangaroo and I were surfing the Internet, reading books, and drinking tea in the lounge. Suddenly, the kangaroo stood in front of me frustrated as if struck by lightning, with a trembling voice: Sangsang...

I looked over, and he was holding a book in his hand, with a khaki-colored hard cover, and the binding was as simple as a notebook. The title of the poetry collection was a line of small characters: I am a place where you wandered.Turn it over, on the title page, there are a few lines of delicate small characters and signatures, the first paragraph of the transcribed poetry collection:
"In the same 100 years, you come and I come
- not too early, not too late

Under the same cloud, you see me and I see you
- not far, not near

There you are, with trees and water So, I love you. "

I seem to see a girl sitting alone in front of the desk lamp, thinking of her lover who is far away in a foreign country, writing down this poem stroke by stroke, and carefully putting it back on the shelf, looking at the book for a long time, looking forward to these silences sentences that will one day be read aloud.The staff said that they didn't know where the book came from, probably because of the book rafting activity they had done before.If the kangaroo wants to take the book away, he can put another book on the shelf.

The kangaroo didn't take the book away. He signed his name beside the small print and copied the last two lines of this long poem:
"I will recognize you and my heart will be close to you

Be quiet, you know it's me, I know it's you."

After returning to China, Koala contacted me once and asked me for a photo of her in the camera.

Not long after, she sent me a link to her Australian travelogue called "Traveling with Mom".

She wrote: "My mother passed away last year, and she spent five years of her life in a hospital bed. She kept telling me that the greatest joy of every day was watching the people downstairs walking around, basking in the sun, Chatting, but she couldn't even get out of bed. She said that she also wanted to travel far away, but she might not have the chance in this life.

"After my mother left, I always wanted to fulfill her wish, but I was afraid that carrying the portrait would be too abrupt, so I took this doll with me. She was a gift from my mother. Before my mother went to work at night, she would always put her in the By my bed, I said that the doll is with me like my mother. The doll is a bit old, but she is smiling and really looks like my mother.

"Thank you to Sister Sangsang and Brother Kangaroo who I ran into on the road. They have always taken care of me and tolerated me. These photos were taken for me. I am really glad to meet you."

I scrolled down with the mouse, and the pictures popped up one by one, and the memories were overwhelming.

They sat on the plane and watched the sunset outside the porthole slowly disappearing into the clouds.

At the Salamanca market, the koala is picking the biggest and sweetest apples with her arms around her.People from all over the world are dancing happily on the lawn to the sound of bagpipes. Koala is holding her hand, jumping in the sun, and she is smiling.

On the top of Cradle Mountain, where everything is silent, they sit back to back, with the lake in the distance, the mountains in the distance, and the end of the world in the distance.Among the hard rocks left over from the ice age, clusters of white daisies stubbornly and exuberantly tell the joy of life.

In the gentle nameless bay, the koala in the corner sleeps sweetly leaning against the dead tree, and her mother is still quietly guarding her by her side as before...

This girl... My heart melted into a corner, and tears welled up.Koalas, kangaroos and I got together by chance on this deserted island, and the people we love in our hearts also accompanied us through the warm journey.

Borges said that every encounter is a prior agreement.

Maybe you have set off like this countless times, wanting to go somewhere, with a rucksack, alone, with the pleasure of riding a horse alone.But you will eventually meet strangers on the road, meet the person you love deeply in your heart, whether you meet by chance or make an appointment, drink a glass of wine together on a full moon night, tell a few stories under the big tree, Exchange each other's pain and joy.Looking back on this journey, what impresses you the most is not the magnificence of mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, but those people who flashed like gifts in your life.

We are born like people who walk alone in the fog, the road ahead is dim, no one looks around, each is trapped in his own loneliness.But if they all live alone, and then die alone, then what's the fun in the world?
And I am willing to reach out in the mist to find you and recognize you.

(End of this chapter)