Life and Death are Wearing Me Out

coldly. “Everything’s fine.”
    “That’s good,” he said. “It’s all a comedy of errors anyway, but you’re a man of standing. And women? Well, they are what they are.” He rubbed his thumb against two fingers, then drew an imaginary official’s cap, and added, “As long as you’ve got those, they’ll come when you call them.”
    Hezuo walked toward me, with Baofeng’s help. Our son, who was holding his puppy in one hand and his mother’s shirttail with the other, was looking up at her. Baofeng handed me some anti-rabies medicine and said:
    “Put this in the refrigerator as soon as you get home. The instructions are on the box. Follow them exactly, in case . . .”
    “Thank you, Baofeng,” Hezuo said as she gave me an icy glare. “Even dogs can’t stand me.”
    Wu Qiuxiang, stick in hand, had taken out after the dog, who ran straight to the kennel, where she snarled at Qiuxiang, her eyes green.
    Huang Tong, whose back by then was badly bent, was standing beneath the apricot tree; he railed at my parents:
    “You Lan people have so little feelings for family, even your dog bites its own! Strangle the damn thing, or someday I’ll burn down that kennel with her in it.”
    My father poked his nearly bald broom in the kennel. The yelps of pain from inside the kennel brought my mother hobbling out the door.
    “Kaifang’s mother,” she said apologetically to Hezuo, “don’t be angry. That old dog was just trying to protect her pups, and that’s the only way she knows how.”
    No matter how insistently Mother, Baofeng, and Huzhu tried to get her to stay, Hezuo was determined to leave. Jinlong looked at his watch and said:
    “It’s too late for the first bus, and the second one won’t leave for a couple of hours. If you don’t think my car is too run-down for you, I’ll drive you home.”
    With a sideways glance at him, she took our son by the hand and, without saying good-bye to anyone, limped off in the direction of the village. Still holding the puppy in his arms, Kaifang kept turning to look back.
    My father came up beside me. The years had softened the blue birthmark on his face, and the fading sunlight made him look older than ever. With a quick look at my wife and son up ahead, I stopped and said:
    “Go on back, Dad.”
    He sighed and, obviously crestfallen, said, “If I’d known I’d pass this birthmark on to my descendants I’d have remained a bachelor.”
    “Don’t talk like that,” I said. “I don’t consider it a blemish, and if it bothers Kaifang he can get a skin graft when he grows up. There have been lots of medical advances lately.”
    “Jinlong and Baofeng belong to somebody else now, so your family is the only real worry I’ve got.”
    “We’ll be fine. Just look after yourself.”
    “These past three years have been the best of my life,” he said. “We have more than three thousand jin of wheat stored up and several hundred more of other grains. Your mother and I will have food to eat even if we don’t harvest a thing over the next three years.”
    Jinlong’s Jeep drove up on the bumpy road. “Dad,” I said, “you go on back. I’ll come see you when I get some free time.”
    “Jiefang,” he said sadly, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him, “your mother says that two people are fated to be together. ...” He paused. “She wants me to tell you to be faithful to your vows. She says that people in official circles can ruin their future by divorcing their wives. Hers is the voice of experience, so keep that in mind.”
    “I understand, Dad.” As I looked into his homely, somber face, my heart was gripped by sadness. “Go back and tell Mom not to worry.”
    Jinlong pulled up and stopped next to us. I opened the passenger door and got in.
    “Thanks, your eminence,” I said. He turned his head and spit the cigarette in his mouth out the window.
    “Eminence be fucked!” he replied, and I laughed with a loud sputter. “Watch what you say when you’re around my son, okay?” He grunted. “Actually, what difference does it make? Males should start thinking about sex when they’re fifteen. If they did, they wouldn’t always complain about women.”
    “Then why not begin with Ximen Huan?” I replied. “Maybe you can coach him into becoming a big shot someday.”
    “Coaching alone isn’t enough,” he said. “It all depends on what he’s made of.”
    We caught up with Hezuo and Kaifang. Jinlong stuck his head out the