Classification - part 1

In Mandarin Chinese, words are grouped together and classified by the shape of the objects the words describe.

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Tiao – long, narrow things.  Bedsheets, fish and dragons

Feng Mian opens the shutters of the house on the cliff.  Room by room, unhooking each latch and pushing out the creaking, wooden panels.

This has been the start of her day for almost thirty years. Opening the shutters, then folding the clean bedsheets and other household linen and putting it back into armoires in bedrooms and bathrooms.  After that, there is the preparing of food for the evening meal, dusting the house’s old, Normandy wood and changing the water in the various vases and jugs of flowers.

La Famille Chene are living beyond their means - of that Feng Mian is certain - but she supposes she should be at least grateful they choose to still keep her on. Her role as housekeeper certainly doesn’t give her a huge income, but it does provide a room in a house by the sea, the little money she needs and a routine she takes comfort and some pride in.

Because of its prominence on the headland and actually, perhaps more because of its Belle Epoque, gothic towers, the house is known locally as the Dracula House.  Feng Mian knows how much Madame Chene hates the nickname, but she’s secretly pleased at Madame’s discomfort.  She feels it’s retribution of sorts for her snobbery and artifice – her version of retro, French family life ‘au bord de la mer’ that she persists in re-enacting.

It’s to extend Madame’s feelings of discomfort that Feng Mian continues to wear the Metallica tee-shirt she found in Delphine’s old bedroom.  It’s a washed-out scruffy thing, promoting a concert in Nimes, 2009.  It means nothing at all to Feng Mian, apart from its entirely unsuitable look for a small, stooped, seventy one year old woman. 

The look on Madame’s face says it all, but she had actually tried to talk to Feng Mian about it a few months ago.  “You know, I do wish you wouldn’t wear that awful tee-shirt.  Even Delphine didn’t think it was worth taking to university with her.  I don’t understand your attachment to it.”  Feng Mian had looked at her and replied, “I’m sorry, Madame, but it’s comfortable and easy to wash after I’ve been cleaning.  Besides, it reminds me of Delphine.”  Madame had said nothing about it after that and Feng Mian had continued to wear the tee-shirt.

Across the road from the house, the newly built, thalassotherapy hotel has completely blocked their view of the sea.  It never stops making Feng Mian laugh (albeit inwardly) when she serves Madame’s morning coffee on the little balcony as she stares straight ahead of her - no longer gazing at rolling waves, but at a carpark filled with people in thin dressing gowns and disposable slippers, smoking and queuing for the whirlpool.  “Disgusting.  Common bastards”, Feng Mian has heard Madame utter on a number of occasions.

Before she goes on her morning walk by the sea, Feng Mian has to make the fish stew for tonight.  Unusually, Monsieur Chene is eating with his wife – the first time in about three weeks.  Feng Mian puts mussels into the pan with cider, shaking the pan and waiting for the mussels to open.  She’s thinking about the phone conversation she overheard Monsieur Chene have with his lover when he’d called her from the laundry room last night.  “I know, my darling, but she’s such a dragon!  I can’t get away all the time.  I’ll just have to eat with her tonight.”

It occurs to Feng Mian that Madame bears no similarity to any dragon she’s ever thought of.  There’s nothing red, gold or vibrant purple about Madame.  No heat at all in the icy breath she exhales when she air kisses her husband.

Feng Mian finishes off the fish stew and sets it on slow simmer for the day.  Today, she’s missing Mei badly.  It happens like this – out of the blue, long, narrow grief.  She puts on her coat, although it doesn’t feel cold and leaves the house, stopping for a minute to watch the black cat playing hide and seek amongst the hollyhocks. 

Today, the steps from the house down the cliff feel particularly endless.  And that’s the trouble with steps – when you climb down them, at some point, you have to climb back up.

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https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/classification-part-2

https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/classification-part-3