edificio - Capítulo 4
"Stop seeking revenge; you're already ruining your own life."
Wei and I, those two poor souls, could only cry our hearts out on the sidelines, unable to find any suitable words to say.
The old man turned to us and said, "Kind girls, please help me persuade it not to do anything foolish again. I only have one son, and he's already dead. I don't want it to not even have the chance to be reincarnated!"
"Big Ami, please don't..." Wei could only utter these few words before bursting into tears.
“Big Ami, don’t worry about reincarnating. We will take care of your mother. Really, she won’t be lonely. Hurry up and reincarnate. You can still meet her in time, or you can still be mother and child in your next life, okay?” I said, choking back tears.
The door creaked open. Songming appeared in the doorway. Da Ami stirred slightly, but remained nestled in the old man's arms.
Faced with this scene, Songming stood there dumbfounded in the courtyard.
"Have you thought about what it would be like if your son died? Have you ever experienced the pain of being separated from your own flesh and blood? Can't people have the same feelings for small animals? What did the old man do wrong?" I glared at him.
He stood there blankly for a long time, then slowly squatted down, grabbed his hair with his hands, buried his face in his crotch, and stopped making a sound.
"Time is almost up... The monk said this is your last chance, isn't it, Big Ami?" The old woman stroked the cat's head repeatedly. "It's alright, Mommy arrived in time, and I can see you one last time... In your next life, don't forget what Mommy looks like, remember Mommy's face, and be reborn as Mommy's son again..."
The moon rose higher and higher, until it was high in the sky.
The cat lay silently in the old man's arms, looking up at the moon, which was no longer blood red.
"Don't hurt him. He's someone else's father too. If he dies, his son will be heartbroken..."
It was as if suddenly, yet gradually, that we all saw the cat's form fade, no longer a tangible entity, beginning to resemble a shadow, and then, like a wisp of smoke, vanish into thin air without a trace.
The old man smiled contentedly, sat on the steps, and slowly stopped stroking the cat.
Wei and I stood upright. Songming remained huddled between his knees.
The sound of string and wind instruments drifted in from somewhere, and a shooting star streaked across the sky. A night breeze blew by, cool and clear.
It was as if nothing had ever happened; everything had vanished like smoke.
When Wei and I came to help the old woman up, we found her body was already cold. Her soul must have gone with Da Ami, right? Perhaps in the next reincarnation, they will be happier and won't face such a sudden tragedy again.
We ignored Songming.
Because the elderly woman died of natural causes, the procedures were completed quickly. Three days after the cremation, a distant relative, whose origin was unknown, came to collect her ashes. The relative kept grumbling, essentially saying that the elderly woman hadn't died where she was going to, and that it was too much trouble for her to come all this way to collect her ashes.
None of us responded to her.
Song Ming went back to Shanghai.
But on the third day after he returned to Shanghai, Wei told me that the other cats he had taken from the old man had been put into sacks and beaten to death by several temporary workers after being exposed by a kind neighbor.
I imagine that somewhere in this world, on some night, someone is still kept awake by the resentful gaze of a cat. Someone else has had their face torn apart and their heart pierced by a cat's claws.
Listen—the cat demons are howling outside the window. Perhaps next, they'll seek revenge on you.