To the West

The foreigner leaves the temple and walks west on a small alley near Chaoyang Nei Nan Xiao Jie . Leaves the temple with the singing monks who sing on the hour and the foreigner was lucky enough to be there on one. Leave the temple with the painted roof above the Buddha because the real roof was taken to America in the 1930s and is on display in some museum in Chicago. The foreigner walks west and stays on this small alley even as he crosses the six lane boulevards. He walks west and hears the small vendors peddling their bicycle carts calling out their goods. The foreigner's chinese is poor and he doesn't know most of the words for the goods they are selling, but he knows some.

In 30 minutes he passes another type of temple, the Catholic Church at Wangfujing, which is perfectly aligned along the west axis with the buddhist temple. He does not go in the Catholic Church for he's been in many, and instead turns left towards Wangfujing. He passes a cop giving a ticker to a pretty young woman driving a new silver mercedes. He hears a load chant that is fierce and reverberates. His first thought is a group of soldiers must be chanting as the march even though he's never heard Chinese soldiers make such sound. He scans the distance looking for a group of young men that might be responsible for such a sound when he hears the chant again and notices that is is coming from his left front, maybe 20 yards away. A 50ish man with long hair and a long beard and who clearly hasn't showered in a long time is standing in front of the crowd of people waiting to cross at the green light. He looks mad and mad.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh" I scream. How dare these people insult me so. I want to kill them but I need to resist which is why I yell. I am so angry. Why did that man say those bad words to me when all I wanted was a few coins from him. Walk past, ignore me fine. Better yet, drop me a kuai. But to say those words, to say, "what your mama think of you know" without knowing how my mama suffered and how my mama loved me so. "Ahhhhhhhhh". They start to walk past me and I scream again. I see the crossing guard out of my side eye but he not dare intervene. I think to punch the bad man in his stomach and then his back and then his head but he brushes past me along with another man and the quiet woman. The other woman, the one who laughed at the bad man's comment, is moving slower and wider. I move in a hurry, swing my arm, hit her hard in the head. She screams. I feel so satisfied. Everyone and everyone freezes. I see the men turn, they are scared and angry. I know scared and angry. The start to reach for me, but I am too quick and before they can reach me I run. Run into the traffic not seeing the cars but feeling them, and make my way across the street, due west. The men, cowards all, do not follow. I stand in the middle of the street and yell. But my heart is racing so I think it is best to just stand here and be quiet for a while. Cars pass me. People exiting Wangfujing plaza stare at me.

The foreigner was but 10 yards away when the disturbed man hit the woman. He first moved back, then towards the woman, but once he saw that disturbed man move away he decided not to intervene. The woman's husband went after the disturbed man but without conviction and the disturbed man easily eluded the attempts at retribution. The foreigner continued to watch the disturbed man and wondered why the police did not step in. Wondered why the traffic ticket was more important than this.

After waiting a few minutes the foreigner continued west towards xidan where he would buy a hat. Strangers walked up and tried to talk with him but he knew no good would come from that, even if the stranger was a pretty young woman so he ignored them and moved on. The promise of the west, and a new hat, lay before him.