|
By Micah Park
The heat permeated Moses, drying his skin, radiating into his gut. Perspiration drenched him as he stopped for the red light. He abhorred the heat more than the cockroaches, the typhoons and even the way the Taiwanese drove. Today was already an awful day.
Sammy had flipped in class again. Working as an English teacher wasn't easy for Moses, but he needed the money to pay off his student loans. Five years of college hadn't prepared Moses for maniacs like Sammy, with his clawing and kicking, his pencil throwing and his screaming and shouting.
Almost as much as Sammy, the traffic in Kaohsiung got to Moses: the lack of turn lanes, the red-light runners, the scooters speeding down the wrong side of the road. He knew that there'd be an accident if his eyes wandered from the road for a millisecond.
Easing the gas, Moses kept his scooter at the middle of the pack - the safest place. The pollution swept into Moses' lungs, and he wished for a rainstorm. The dripping clouds that cleansed the city had stayed away for two weeks. Black-tasting smog tainted what Moses breathed. He reviled the bad air.
He yearned for the pollution, the lawless driving, the imps that passed as students and the heat that made him run rivers of sweat to all pass away. He wished Kaohsiung could become a temperate city with sane drivers and angelic pupils.
A sweat-bead rolled down his nose. Then he saw it: a blue butterfly. The intrepid creature floated above the croaking sputtering pack of mopeds and scooters. The insect didn't heed the streaming chaos underneath, but only continued on its upward path.
The pack roared and lurched, but Moses didn't move. Around him horns howled, but still he stared at the butterfly. Unaware of the traffic parting around him, he gave thought only to the black-laced leaves of blue fluttering above, until his eyes lost track of their motion.
As the chaos of traffic swarmed around Moses he uttered, "Beauty is fleeting, but her aura lingers, like the images fading after a dream." |
