Thank you, Auntie Mei · Camden takeaway

地点与时间

• Camden Town Chinese takeaway · London · United Kingdom 2009–2011 Saturday shifts in the back kitchen

当年的 TA

Auntie Mei · 当时大约 52 岁

The head cook at the Chinese takeaway where I washed up on Saturdays. Small, quick, with flour up to her elbows and a pink radio above the fryer that she turned up whenever the Cantonese opera came on.

当年的我

The skinny sixth-former in the too-big apron who washed up on Saturdays and ate cold dumplings behind the freezer.

我为什么写这封信

道谢 · 只想把话带到

I was seventeen and washing dishes for cash. Every Saturday before service you put a bowl of something hot in front of me and watched until I finished it. When I dropped a whole stack of plates, you did not shout. You handed me the broom and kept chopping. In the spring you slipped extra char siu into my rice box and said I should study so I would not wash dishes forever. I am a teacher now. Last week I heard myself telling a pupil the same thing, in the same voice.

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这封信写的，会不会就是你？ 这是我