digitS'
Garden Master
I have been reading a book of short stories by Boise's Anthony Doerr, "Memory Wall."
The story I finished this morning is about a woman in a village beside that river, dammed in China. A massive dam, it flooded cities, towns, villages - including the Seed Keeper's Village #113.
She is afraid of losing the place where she has always lived and does not want to leave her old teacher. She is even afraid of her son, who left many years ago to live in the city. He returns as an agent for the dam builders. The children in the village fear him and make up stories about him.
She stays until the last moment, only her and Teacher Ke, who writes letters of protest to everyone involved with the dam. The final letters, she carries down to the river with Teacher Ke. The letters are in bottles with fireflies and they allow them to float away.
They stand in the river as their bottles with the notes drift downstream: "Teacher Ke ... 'All this trouble,' he says, 'and still - doesn't it feel good? Doesn't it make you feel young?'"
"Her mother's voice: Seeds are the dreams plants dream while they sleep."
Steve
The story I finished this morning is about a woman in a village beside that river, dammed in China. A massive dam, it flooded cities, towns, villages - including the Seed Keeper's Village #113.
She is afraid of losing the place where she has always lived and does not want to leave her old teacher. She is even afraid of her son, who left many years ago to live in the city. He returns as an agent for the dam builders. The children in the village fear him and make up stories about him.
She stays until the last moment, only her and Teacher Ke, who writes letters of protest to everyone involved with the dam. The final letters, she carries down to the river with Teacher Ke. The letters are in bottles with fireflies and they allow them to float away.
They stand in the river as their bottles with the notes drift downstream: "Teacher Ke ... 'All this trouble,' he says, 'and still - doesn't it feel good? Doesn't it make you feel young?'"
"Her mother's voice: Seeds are the dreams plants dream while they sleep."
Steve
