A man in the boat

When stars were giggling in the dark sky,the moon rose up. Round and bright, it cast a charming light to the lake,making it glittering and mysterious.

Every night I would walk alongside this lake. Since it was far away from the city center, I could enjoy the silence and peace here when I was walking. Each night I would catch sight of an obscure figure. From the ground I could see him wandering in a small boat, lowering his head and sinking into an odd meditation. Each time his figure would make me perplexed, involuntarily I just tried to sweep him out of my mind. But I failed at last. When curiosity made my blood stagnate, I stopped. ”Who is he?” My breath came in shallow gasps. Nobody replied.

Then one morning when I couldn’t conceal my excitement anymore, I knocked on my neighbor’s door. A familiar smiling face appeared, infecting my stagnated heart in no time. “Do you mind coming with me to see something in the lake tonight?” I stammered, and waited for her response.Then she agreed.

So we came out for walking that night. I palpitated with excitement when we reached that place where I encountered that obscure figure in the darkness last time. But we saw nothing. My heart sank. “Maybe you get so tired these days. There’s nothing like obscure figure in the lake.”The cold draft and her giggling scourged me. After that, everytime i visited with someone as company, the obscure figure would be nowhere to be found.However, whenever I visited alone, he would always show up and sometimes I could even hear him sigh.

I was worried that there was something wrong with me, so I went to a hospital. But the doctor said I was alright and couldn’t be better. What an odd thing? I didn’t want to go to that weird place anymore. “Just let him continue his stupid wandering and sigh.” After all that bad, I chose to give up this interminable and meaningless finding.

But strange things continued to happen. One midnight I heard a scream from my neighbor’s house. ”Fire! Fire! “ She yelled out. I dashed out of my house with a bucket of water. But to my surprise,neither did I see thick black smoke nor any blazing fire in her house. “Where’s the fire?” “Just….here…and there…”She was shaking and cramping painfully, as if her body was on fire. Suddenly she clasped her hands and rushed towards the lake at an incredibly fast speed . ”Wa..water..” She murmured and fell into the lake like a lump of lead. My heart stopped. A sudden heart-pang seized me.

In the following months, the same weird and horrible things happened again and again. The inhabitants here became quite terrified and most of them planned to move away. So did I. But before I moved away, I found that horrible things were still happening to them even after they had already moved away. There must be an evil magic or curse that was completely attached to us.

But surprisingly I returned to peace when I knew that. If I was bound to die, why not just grasp every chance to fully taste the present life? I stopped my plan of moving away. When I stepped out of my house confidently and relaxed, I involuntarily fell onto the road where I saw that obscure figure again. Undoubtedly that mysterious figure appeared again and this time I found that he was gazing at me in dismay.

“Hey! No matter what tricks you  are playing, you can’t affect me anymore.” I let out a scornful laugh.

Suddenly, He darted for me convulsively.Panic seized me but I continued laughing. The worst result was just death, butI really wanted to punish this conceited and malicious monster until my last second. He was getting closer to me and I could find that all my feelings and senses were running out. I became more pure, natural and somehow…lofty? Before my last sense betrayed me, I felt a cold hand clasped mine.

……

When I opened my eyes again, I was on my bed. The warmth from the Sun kissed me and birds were singing gaily on the branches. After opening my window, I surprisingly found my neighbor was standing there happily and waving at me. Everything I got through these months seemed to be a dream.

However, from then on, my hands couldn’t feel warmth anymore.