Classification - part 2

https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/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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Gen – thin, slender things.  Needles, bananas and lollipops

The day is grey, with a wide, sullen sky overhanging the sea.  The sort of day that teases by secretly firing fine sand at you, leaving your face coated and rough by evening.

The whole area is known as La Baie and as usual, Feng Mian walks down into it, past the apartments on the front converted from the old, failed hotel.  The whole building has the incongruous look of a huge, Swiss chalet and Feng Mian’s friend, Valerie, lives on the fourth floor.  Valerie is looking out of her open window and she waves at Feng Mian as she walks past.

Feng Mian wonders what will happen to Valerie when she gets too old to get down the stairs, or press the stiff buttons to open the rickety lift.  Will she remain a waving presence at a window until one day, she simply fades away?  For that matter, Feng Mian questions what will happen to her when she’s too old to be ‘in service’; then she actively diverts her thoughts to concentrating on walking as she has no answer to this.

As the road opens out on to the sea front, she sees a man riding a horse.  They’ve obviously been on the beach as the horse’s legs are covered in foamy water and thin strands of seaweed.  Feng Mian walks on past the crepe seller’s stall and they exchange their habitual banter. 
“Hey, Feng, you want a crepe?”
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before you catch me eating one of those things for breakfast.”
“Ah but you see, I’ve seen tomorrow’s forecast and they say a cold snap’s coming.”

Everywhere, there are children.  Despite the unprepossessing day, despite the earliness of the hour.  Children crying in buggies and running on the sand.  Children inexpertly flying kites that dip too close to their heads.  The sea is far enough out to see the black poles marking out the mussel beds.

Feng Mian walks down the long ramp to the water, taking her shoes off about half way down it.  Her feet look old to her, slightly misshapen.  The sand is sharp underfoot and as well, there is the needle puncture of razor shells; but they don’t hurt her feet like they have in the past.  It’s funny, she thinks, what you can get used to.

By the time she’s at the sea’s edge, she’s the only one around – Feng Mian and the music and rhythm of the waves. Mei is so close to her here. 

Then, they’re back in their apartment in Marseille, not twenty nine years ago, but yesterday.  Feng Mian is eating a banana in their kitchen, savouring its exotic mush.  Mei says she’s going out to meet her friend, Heloise, as she’s bought them both a lollipop.  Feng Mian warns her not to be long as lunch will be at half past one.

Mei turns round as she opens the door and with a ten year old’s serious certainty tells her mother that of course she won’t be long and that she loves her.  Feng Mian never sees her again.

After the futile searches and due processes - the months of thin, slender hope - Feng Mian leaves Marseille.  She has nothing whatsoever to stay for and she arrives eventually in La Baie, immersing herself in the drudge and relative certainty of someone else’s domestic routine.  From that last time she saw Mei, Feng Mian has never eaten another banana.

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