Post by guo cai mei on Jul 29, 2009 21:46:33 GMT
ooh la, she was such a good girl to me
the world just chewed her up
and s p a t . h e r . o u t
>>mei's outfit today -here-<<
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[/color][/center]Mei used to love the Saturday morning market; she used to love running down with a wad of money from the till in her hand to buy cheap polystyrene containers, discounted material, handfuls of buttons, a carrier bursting with fresh vegetables and some of that kimchi one of their korean neighbours sold cheap on market days, before running back to the restaurant to sort it all out, don her apron and open shop.
She adored it, every second, but that was before she started working at it.
Two months ago, the Guo family had realised they were slipping into debt. New, fancy restaurants had begun to gain popularity around town, so who was going to visit a small backstreet restaurant if they didn’t already know it was there? And many of the locals tended to cook their own food, or only eat very little when they came to Hua Guan Jie. On top of that, Mei’s aunt and the youngest of her older brothers were like leeches on the family accounts.
Mei found her hard earned wages being passed from her own hands to Yuan Da’s as she couldn’t help but give in to his faux sadness when he wasn’t able to afford a new suit jacket, or couldn’t buy a new CD. She scolded him for not working or finding a job, and for simply spending time with his friends all day rather than going to university, but she always gave in. Her aunt, on the other hand, was busy buying new clothes and magazines, then asking Mei why she always insisted on wearing old clothes over and over.
Tired of it, and scared by her father’s suggestion of seeing help from loan-sharks, Mei had suggested she begin her shift earlier. They had constructed a plan, and it materialised soon enough.
Now, pushing the Guo family restaurant moving stall out of the storeroom and down the steps as she did every Saturday since it had been built, Mei listened to the slosh of hot soup in the metal pot as she began to push the heavy contraption down the street towards the market. Mornings were cold and so, wrapped up in a faded blue coat long enough to cover the old school skirt she wore until just the ends of the pleats were sticking out, she shivered slightly as she stomped along in her old black boots, watching her breath cloud up the glass of the cabinet packed with an array of steamed dumplings.
“Why is this…. thing…. so heavy…?” She grumbled as the road began to slope up slightly. Arms straight, she leant forwards to push it with all her strength, until she reached the next road and spotted a number of other vendors making their way to the street used for market. Speeding up, she began to trot along at a faster pace whilst attempting to keep hold of the trolley which had the soup filled canister, and another pot filled with fried rice clanking against each other with every bump.
Reaching her favourite spot, just at a corner in the middle of the street by an alleyway that always had a chair or two in it, Mei kicked the wheel of the trolley to push down the brake and took position behind it. She rubbed her bare hands together – sorely regretting her lack of gloves on the crisp April morning – adjusted her hat and swung her backpack to rest on a chair she’d pulled out of the alley to put beside her. Tugging out packets of rice crackers, she began to hang them on hooks around the trolley, as her cheerful voice began to call out the items she was selling. Fried rice, ramen, pork dumplings, rice crackers, as much as she hated being behind the stall rather than ogling the products as a customer, she always vowed to try her best, and only paused in her calling out amongst the calls of other stall vendors to cough and clear her throat. This morning, she felt a little tight chested. She hoped she wasn’t catching a cold, things couldn't get that much worse, right?
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