Tick-tack

What the hell am I doing?
Why do I have to pick up a rainy day to visit the zoo?


It was quite ridiculous that a person getting caught under a downpour thought that all the animals would be happy to greet him.
But that was me.

What's even worse, the wind was too cold to bear, as if we were now in January but not September. I felt my fingers went numb, or I couldn't even feel my fingers at all.

The chill was going to eat me from the inside out.
I wonder will the animals come out? They may have penguins, yes, but I doubt that they have any Afican-animals. The wind blew harder.

I can't stand this.


When I barely made my brain started functioning again, I found myself already standing on the bus, driving to my way home.

The bus driver waited patiently for me to hand out the ticket, while there was a strange noise filling the silence, like someone was screaming.
It was not hard to identify where the screaming sound came from. It followed the rhythm of the wiper in front of the glass window, wiping out raindrops seemed never going to stop falling.

I took my seat, threw my dripping umbrella at my side and started counting, hoping that it won't take me too long to get to the train station.


And then I saw her.


She had two ponytails on each side, and she wore a uniform, yeah, the who-knows-it-cost-her one, and hopped on the bus with her parents following behind.

She sat in front of me, one side met my direction, couldn't help kicking her legs in front of her seat. Her dad peered from side to side and finally decided to sit by my side.


They spoke in an unfamiliar Chinese while the female dump her umbrella on the back seat.
They seemed to have been arguing something, but the accent was quite hard to recognize where they came from.


"爸爸，為什麼有個奇怪的聲音？"

The father frowned, seeming interrupted, "－－那是刮雨器的聲音"


"刮雨器"? That's interesting. Though I prefer "雨刷".
And then I knew I only understood the words came from the little girl. The male turned to continue his discussion with the female, only that I couldn't pick out any word from their conversation.


However, the little girl couldn't stop being annoying.


"為什麼刮雨器要叫呢？"

Now it's her mother's turn,
"－－乖乖坐好，怎麼那麼多話呢？真是..."


Yeah, keep your mouth shut.

I didn't speak out the words, though. But I felt awkward when hearing someone speaking the same language, not to mention that they are Chinese, and I'm Taiwanese. Therefore, I pretended I was a Japanese. I'm deaf.


I was about to shut my eyelids. All right, I am exhausted.
But then I couldn't believe what I saw.


She was making faces to the toddler in front of her.
And I could see that the toddler sitting in the baby carriage was definitely frightened.
Perhaps this naughty little girl made faces that scared her out of her wits, and she was about to cry.

Then the Chinese girl seemed satisfied by her reaction, pointing to her at one finger, covering her mouth with the other.
She probably didn't even care what the toddler's mom thought.

Ugh! Stop being a jerk, okay?


Yet she was not quite finished.
I wonder why her parents can't stop her bad behavior. It was quite mean, you know.


Finally, the mother carried her baby off the bus, but then came a woman carrying her dog. She replaced the mother's seat.

I could see what was happening.


Something flashed over the Chinese girl's eyes, and I couldn't help praying for the dog.
To my relief, she was not going to play the dog. Instead, she just kept making faces-- to a dog?
I rolled my eyes.
Okay, that's finer than torturing him.


But I was wrong. The dog seemed to be frightened as well.
He was uncomfortable. I could tell.
Though I can't read a dog's mind, it's not hard to tell whether a dog is scared when he wraps his tail between his legs and hides his head under the seat of his owner's.


"爸，我很喜歡狗耶"

Say as if the dog may like you, too. Huh?


She blurted out, "我們可以養一隻在家裡！"


That was a statement rather than a question.
Then, as always, her dad ignored what she said as any other parents might do.
I realized that it will be smarter to ignore your child's need than reasoning with him.


Still, I felt pity over the dog's feelings. Probably he won't appreciate the thought of playing with a child after his owner gets one.

I was glad that the family finally got off the bus before I reached to my destination.
It was happy to get the annoying little girl out of my sight, anyway. I'm not fond of children.


That day was horrible. Due to the weather, all the museums were closed and I even couldn't manage to get to the zoo. I run the whole way in vain.
What's worse, I drank a cup of bad-tasting instant coffee in the library, because their machine went broken.

"How is it?"

"Bad."

"How bad?"

"...It taste like I'm drinking water that have been washing others stinking feet."

"Sound as if you've tasted before. = ="


I know it smells terrible, so I think the taste is not hard to imagine.
Anyway, that was a bad day.



Bad Day -- Daniel Powter




Eventually, it turned sunny today. The sky finally cleared up.
And I'm now typing my last journal in front of my computer.

Probably not the last one, but I'm going to come back just in a few days. A new college life is waiting ahead of me.


I enjoy my life here, but I miss all you guys already. I'm pleased to see many high school students in fancy uniforms passing by my window now.

At least I picked up some memories of the old days in high school as I saw them. It feels not long ago, though, but the time keeps tick-tacking.

Yeah, I'm going home.