Those Years I Spent Growing Watermelons at Home - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When I was twelve, my snake was six, and I went to middle school in the city.

My dad carried a sack of bedding for me, helped me make the bed, and when he was leaving, he told me to hold out my hand. Then he yanked my snake off my wrist.

The snake opened its mouth, trying to struggle, but my dad smacked it on the head. The snake went still, and my dad grabbed it by the neck and took it away.

I wasn’t still; I followed my dad, wiping tears stubbornly. My dad angrily pinched my ear.

“You look at this snake like it’s closer to you than your own dad.”

“I raised it myself!”

“And I raised you!”

Knowing I couldn’t get it back, I pursed my lips, wiped my tears, and said, “Dad, give it something good to eat to cheer it up, okay? Otherwise, it’ll make a fuss.”

“Scram, scram, go to school! If you don’t do well, I’ll stew that damn snake.”

I was so scared I jolted. Stew… stew it? Fine, now I was still too, begging for my snake to be spared.

The winter break of my first year in middle school, I brought home a certificate for first place. My dad looked at it and waved me off, “Go play!”

I immediately went to find Xiao Bei. That year, Xiao Bei was seven, a pretty big adult snake.

His slender snake body wrapped around my waist over my sweater, and then his head hung over my shoulder, sleeping.

If I opened the collar of my down jacket, I could see him. The little snake was naturally afraid of the cold, and in winter, he clung to me without letting go at all. I didn’t mind.

Our chickens had a coop, the ducks had a coop, even the little fish had a fishbowl.

But my little snake had nothing. He wasn’t my dad’s; he was mine. So, he had no nest; he only had me.

Thinking about it that way, my little snake was a bit pitiful.

So pitiful that I started to feel sorry for him. That day, I asked my dad for a chick to feed the snake, and I got beaten again by my dad.

“He has no nest? That’s because he only sleeps in your bed. You little brat, if you get any more ideas about my chicks, you and that damn snake can go live in the doghouse.”

The doghouse was too small; the bed was more comfortable. So in the end, I never found a nest for the little snake. It was better off sleeping with me.

I kept the snake for a very long time, holding him to sleep at night and holding him when I got up in the morning.

When I washed my face and brushed my teeth, the snake would come over to rinse his mouth.

When I ate lunch, the snake would also eat a bite of chicken.

Xiao Bei could be taken outside; he didn’t run around, but crowded places were a no-go.

Especially when I went to school. Every time he saw me pack my schoolbag, he would quickly sneak inside, but it was useless. He would always be caught by my dad at the school gate and carried home.

Until later, he got used to it. When I went to school, he would curl up in my bed. When I came back, he would hang on me.

Occasionally, he would go out with my dad to look around, check on the watermelon fields.

Watermelons depend a lot on the heavens. When the weather is good, the melons are big and round and sweet.

Our family’s watermelons usually made decent money. Two hundred mu of land, after deducting labor, fertilizer, and other costs, could net eighty to a hundred fifty thousand a year.

But it wasn’t always profitable.

During my high school years, it was always dry. The rivers dried up, the wells dried up, even the reservoir dried up.

The watermelons failed. Over two hundred mu of melon seedlings all died. We lost around two hundred thousand on labor, seedlings, and other expenses, and this went on for three years in a row.

In my second year of high school, one day, I saw my dad squatting at the door, looking at the melon fields and smoking.

He rarely smoked, but that day, he smoked one after another, two packs.

Later, he looked at the empty box and cursed.

He turned and saw me, stood up, and patted off the dust. “Let’s go home and eat.”

After lunch that afternoon, I sat by the window to preview my lessons. The sun was too strong, and people felt listless.

Even the snake didn’t want to move. Xiao Bei lay on the floor, half-dead.

A little dog that burst into the house pretended to bite him, and he immediately bit back, but the next second, he came over pitifully.

I looked at him, and the little snake slipped into my arms.

That year, there were snake buyers in the village. One afternoon, they came to our house and said they wanted to buy Xiao Bei for twenty-eight thousand per snake.

But before he could finish, my dad pushed him out. “Scram.”

My dad closed the door, turned back, and his tone wasn’t great when he saw me.

“Go, go, go study.”

At the end of that summer, the chickens and ducks at home were all sold.

Only Xiao Bei was never mentioned. I asked once, and my dad glanced at me and said, “That’s yours.”

In early autumn, my dad pushed me back to school.

In my senior year, I lived at school and went home once a month. Every time I went back, something felt off about the house.

Later, I finally realized what was off: “Dad, where did you go this past month? Why is there such a thick layer of dust on the table at home?”

My dad paused, silent. He wasn’t the type to lie, but probably didn’t want to answer. He glared at me.

“You’re even bossing your old man around. Just study hard.”

If my dad didn’t say, I couldn’t find out anything.

Senior year passed quickly. By the time I paid attention to my dad again, the college entrance exam was over.

That summer, at night, there was the chirping of crickets in the grass and the calls of cicadas in the trees.

Occasionally, there were some strange bird calls. I slept on the recliner, Xiao Bei nestled in my arms, and the fan whirred.

My dad and I chatted idly. Later, my dad suddenly went inside and came out with a bank card for me.

I looked at that card. Only later did I learn that my dad always felt he had lost too much money.

Afraid I wouldn’t have enough for college, the year before, he secretly worked as a technician in a factory for a year behind my back.

That card had a hundred fifty thousand yuan. I said it was too much, but he said it wasn’t: “You’ll be out there alone for four years! Raise a son in poverty, raise a daughter in wealth.”

He moved me so much that I almost cried, but as I looked up, ready to say something,

I saw his back itching where he couldn’t reach, so he simply took my snake, grabbed both ends, and scratched his back with it.

I burst into tears: “Give me back my snake, you’ve scratched it stinky!”