First Memory
Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, October 28, 2013
Salaroche


It must have been around nine or nine-thirty in the evening. At a given moment, the bedroom door opened and my father came in, looking straight forward into the right-hand side of the bed where my mother was lying. Beside her, on the night table, there was a rather dim lamp spreading a glow of light across the bedroom. The bed sheets were white and she seemed to be tidily tucked under them.

I was in my cradle, just a couple of feet to the left of my mother’s bed and an equal distance in front of it. She and I were both facing the wall whose right-hand side held the door that gave into the room my father was coming from.

As the door opened I could hear the voices of a few people gathered in the next room, and there was the faint sound of music sipping into the bedroom as well. According to the expression in his face, my father was a bit concerned about my mother, who probably had called him to come see her. I wasn’t able to understand any of the things they were saying to each other.

I had been sleeping calmly and almost motionless under a white mosquito net. The sudden presence of my father was probably what woke me up. From my position I could see his face quite clearly as he came in, but I couldn’t see my mother’s at all. I guess I must have gone back to sleep a few seconds later, as this is all I can remember. I was just a few hours old when this happened.

Salaroche