Chapter 7 4

The uninhabited lighthouse stood at the tip of a long embankment that turned a few turns. It was about three meters high and not very big.A few boats used the lighthouse before the waters became polluted and the fish along the coast disappeared completely.It’s not really a port, only simple wooden fences like railway sleepers are built on the seashore, and the fishermen use winches to pull the ropes to pull the fishing boats ashore. There are about three fishermen living by the seaside, taking advantage of the early morning to catch in the breakwater Small fish are packed in wooden boxes to dry.

One is because the fish disappeared, and the other is because the residents in the residential area don’t seem to want to have a fishing village in it, and the huts built by the fishermen on the seaside are originally illegal buildings occupied by the city. For this reason the fishermen left the place.This happened in 1962.It is not known where they went.The three huts were completely deserted, and the old fishing boat, useless and with no place to throw it away, lay in the woods on the beach and became a place for children to play games. After the fishing boats disappeared, the only ships that used the lighthouse were, at most, sailing yachts circling along the coast, or cargo ships moored outside the harbor to take shelter from dense fog or typhoons.In this way, maybe it can only have a little effect.

The lighthouse is stubby and black, as if a bell has been knocked upside down.It also seems to be the back of a man in deep thought.After sunset, when the blue light turns in the afterglow of the setting sun, the handle of the clock lights up with an orange-red light, and the light slowly begins to turn.The lighthouse can often capture that point correctly at dusk and dusk. No matter when the sky is full of sunset or in the dark fog, the moment captured by the lighthouse is often the same.Light and darkness mingle with each other, just at the moment when the darkness is about to overtake the light.

When he was a boy, the mouse visited this beach many times in order to watch the alternation of that moment in the evening.In the afternoon when the waves are not high, while counting the ancient stone masonry on the embankment, we are walking towards the lighthouse.You can also see small fish schools in early autumn from the clear sea. They circled the embankment as if they were looking for something before swimming into the waves. Finally walked to the lighthouse, sat down on the tip of the embankment, and slowly looked around.There were a few strands of thin clouds in the sky that looked like they had been combed with a brush, and the endless blue was full of blue, the blue was so deep that the boy couldn't help shaking his legs, a kind of trembling similar to fear.The aroma of the sea tide, the color of the wind, everything is so vivid that you will be amazed.It took him a long time to dye the surrounding scenery into his heart bit by bit, and then he turned his head slowly.This time, he gazed at his own world, completely cut off by the sea.The white sandy beach, the breakwater, and the green pine forest spread low as if they had been pushed down and flattened, while the blue-black mountains behind them were clearly lined up towards the sky.

There is a huge port in the distance on the left, and you can see several cranes, floating docks, box-like warehouses, cargo ships, high-rise buildings and the like.Along the inwardly curving coastline on the right, there are quiet residential areas, yacht harbors, and the old warehouses of the brewing company. White smoke hazes the sky.And that was the end of the world for a ten-year-old mouse. How many times from spring to early autumn, the mouse has been to that lighthouse countless times throughout his boyhood.When the waves are high, the waves wash his feet, the wind howls overhead, and the mossy stone pavement makes his little feet slippery several times.Even so, the road leading to the lighthouse is still the most intimate place for him.Sit on the tip of the embankment, listen to the sound of the tide, look at the clouds in the sky or the small trevally in the sea, reach out from your pocket and take out the pre-filled small stones and throw them into the sea.

When the sunset began to cover the sky, he went back to his own world along the same road, and on the way home, an elusive sadness always overwhelmed his heart.Because the world waiting for him ahead is too wide and too powerful, making him feel as if there is no extra place for him to dive into. ◇ The woman's home is near the embankment.Every time the mouse visited her, it recalled the vague emotions of boyhood and the smell of evening.Stop the car on the coastal road and pass through the sparse pine forests lined up for sand control on the sandy ground, and there is a sound of dry sand and gravel under your feet.

The apartment is built right next to the former fisherman's hut.If you dig a few meters down, a reddish-brown sea-like land will emerge.The canna planted in the front yard of the apartment house was staggering as if it had been stepped on.The woman's house is on the second floor, and on windy days fine sand knocks on the glass windows.Although it is an elegant apartment facing south, there is an inexplicably gloomy air.The woman said it was because of the sea, it was too close!The smell of the tide, the sound of the wind, the waves, the smell of the fish, everything. It doesn't smell like fish, said the Mouse.

Yes, I have!the woman said.Then pull the cord and the blinds snap shut.You just have to live here to know. Sand beat against the window.