related work: shepherd for a Mo
shepherd for a Mo
I was simply walking the other day, when the women suddenly came to me on the street, with a leash one end in her hand and the other attached to a sheep. She asked me with great anxious, if I could possibly look after her sheep for a while, because she had to leave for some emergency and would definitely come back, "in two hours, tops!" said she.
Before I knew, I was leading the sheep to a nearby botanical garden for some adequate sheep food. What a beautiful sheep, I kept thinking. The fleece on its body was pure white, except for that of the face, which was carbon black. I liked the sheep very much that I decided to call it by the name Oscar. We strolled at the garden for quite a while, although there wasn’t much that Oscar liked to taste, but I'd like to believe we had a good time together. It was a pity though that I did not have a clue of how Oscar would tell the story from its side, plus I had a difficult time seeing its face expression through the carbon black.
Two hours flowed by and we headed back to the meeting place where the woman suggested. Oscar spotted a puddle on the side of the asphalt road and went ahead vivaciously to fix its dehydration.
The women was still no where to be found, however a parking-slot watcher showed up his presence by shouting to me from a Land-Rover-distance in a slightly mandatory tone:” hey, you can’t park your sheep here!”. “What? We are not parking! We are expecting a friend to show up”, I was not so light-toned myself. “That's none of my business. This parking slot is for motor vehicles and charges by hour. If you’re going to occupy this spot, you must pay 30 Yuan... per hour”, he continued his speech with a rather softened voice, “why don’t you and your non-motor vehicle just move a few steps? Look, right there. No fee for sheep parking!”.
I had no words. I lowered my head to look at Oscar, who was just either having a space out or finding the back bumper on the Land Rover super attractive, as if this whole conflict with the parking-slot watcher had nothing to do with a sheep.
We retreated to the non-motor vehicle parking zone like the man demanded, the side of pedestrian, where a striking amount of bikes standing alongside. They were those small bikes for urban sharing. Oscar obviously saw it differently, and I could even tell the sudden excitement from its carbon black face. Oscar shuttled back and forth in between the bikes, and "baaed" in sheep lauguage. I became excited too, to finally hear its voice.
A while later Oscar calmed down and fell straight into a state of melancholia of some sort. It tottered toward a tree and stranded still in the following half hour. Until the woman took it away, Oscar never moved again.
The woman showed up herself and apologised repeatedly, and I had to accepted her apologies repeatedly while I was trying to say goodbye to Oscar. I kneeled down to put my arms around its neck and to kiss it on the cheek, then I whispered, “I had a great mo with you. Take care, Oscar”. Oscar didn’t looked at me.
They soon left my eye sight.
那天我正走着，一个女人牵着一头羊向我走来，她慌张地问我，是否有可能帮忙照看一会儿她的羊，她有急事，最多两小时吧，去去就回。
我赶着羊走向附近的植物园，那里一定能找到合适的食物，我心想，这真是一头漂亮的羊，浑身雪白，只有脸炭黑。我太喜欢它了，并决定叫它奥斯卡。我们在植物园晃悠了一圈，没什么好吃的，但我觉得我们处得还不错。遗憾的是我完全琢磨不透奥斯卡一直在想什么，因为我基本无法看清那片黑色块上的表情。
时间快到了，我和奥斯卡回到了我和女人约见的地点。奥斯卡选了柏油马路边低洼处的一个水坑站定，俯下身有条不紊地啜起来。左等右等还是不见女人的身影，却来了一个停车收费的大叔，他隔着一辆路虎的距离有点严厉地命令道：“嘿，这里不可以停羊！”。“什么？真好笑。我们在等人。”我声音也不小。“我不管，这是机动车停车位，你非要占着的话就缴费吧，30一小时。”收费大叔看我理亏词穷，突然柔和起来：“你往后退几步不就解决问题了嘛，你看，非机动车车位，停羊不收费！”。我无话，悻悻地低下头看看奥斯卡，此时的它要么是在发呆，要么就是对路虎的后保险杠产生了格外的兴趣。哼，一副事不关己高高挂起的样子。
我和奥斯卡退回到人行道上的自行车停车位，这里有数不清的长相雷同的共享型小单车，它们在中国的大都市中正流行。显然奥斯卡有些不同看法，因为我分明察觉出它突如其来的兴奋。它来回穿梭于自行车中，还咩咩地讲起了羊话。我也兴奋起来，在此之前我还没听到过它的声音。几分钟后，奥斯卡很快恢复了平静，甚至有些忧伤，它摇摇晃晃地走到一棵树下。在随后的半个小时中，奥斯卡再也没有动一下。
半小时后，女人一路小跑到我们面前，连连道歉。我一边重复着不要紧一边仓促地试图与奥斯卡道别。我双膝跪地，拥抱了它的脖子，并亲吻了它的脸颊。我轻声说：“与你在一起的mo非常美妙，保重，奥斯卡”。奥斯卡没有看我。
它和女人很快就走出了我的视线。