The Big Fish

-          Chen Jo-his (b. 1938- )

 K’uai Shih-fu and Mama K’uai were elderly couple who had no other member in the family. He had been to work and she was in bed with her old backaches.

He asked her whether she had taken medicine and whether she had felt better. She said a neighbouring woman cooked food for her. He was grateful to his neighbour.

The husband had come home earlier than the other days. He worked at the dockyard. Knowing his wife’s sickness, his two junior colleagues had forced him to go early.

The husband said the market was going to be better stocked for the next couple of days because some American newspapermen were visiting the place. So, he asked his wife what she felt like eating so that he could get it easily.

The wife showed her willingness to have fish soup. And the husband took a bicycle jubilantly and went to Tung Jen Street market. The old man felt happy throughout the way. Buying things in the market was a luxury for the people like him. So, he was not so much used to visiting the market.

The market had been well arranged and spotlessly cleaned. There weren’t many customers. The stall keeper had been wearing clean aprons.

There were many kinds of fish in the fish stall. Many people were waiting in a line. The Old man saw Chi’ng fish, all shiny and fresh-looking, at a stall. He requested the stall keeper to weigh half a fish, the top half. But the stall keeper said he would not sell half a fish. He would have to pay almost two or three dollars for a whole fish.

The stall keeper insulted him. Enraged, the old man told him to weigh the whole fish. Though he had chosen a smaller one, the stall keeper weighed a big one which was more than sufficient for the couple for the next three days. The old man had just received his salary, so he didn’t hesitate to pay the price. He imagined his wife’s happy face and felt satisfied. He didn’t notice the other people looking at him curiously.

The vegetable stalls were also full of unseasonal vegetables which would normally be unavailable. But their prices were very high, almost out the reach of the common people. When he asked the price of cucumber to a woman who was selling them, she said they were not for sale. Then, he remembered to buy ginger and bamboo shoot as well so that he and his wife would have fish head with bamboo shoots.

When he was ready to return happily from the market with the fish, a middle aged cadre member of the party called him. He told the old man to take the fish back. He said the fish was not for sale. He said there would be nothing left to show the foreign visitors if all the fish sold out. The old man was not ready to take the fish back to its stall and be refunded.

When a crowd had gathered around, the cadreman grabbed the fish and walked into the fish stall telling the old man to wait for his money.

The old man looked at the fish helplessly. He didn’t want to buy another type of fish, either. A person informed him that they could not buy good things in the market until the foreigner had come and gone. He felt humiliated, and left the market even without waiting for his money.