Boy Fifteen: Guardian Angel 守護天使

There are times when I look above and beyond. There are times when I feel your warmth around me. And I'll never forget my brother. I'll never forget you.

Because of my grandma's funeral, I came back to 太子宮, my hometown. I enquired some mate and was informed that one of our Team Two comrades serves his civilian service in one nearby elementary school. Out of curiosity, I dropped by school by school around there. One night, in my third visit, at 10:00 pm, in bleak darkness, cicada singing, stars shining, I finally found him. I knocked at the guardroom; he asked who it was inside; I kept silent without knowing how to explain my intentions. After several unresponsive inquiries, he opened the door.

"Hi, well, aah..... I'm looking for a guy who belonged to the Second Team in 成功嶺. "

"Yes, I am."

"Yeah, me, too.......... but sorry I can't recognize you."

"But I can. I know you. I heard from Muscle that you visited him." "Come in, please." As soon as I stepped into his room, which is also the school's guardroom, he handed me a bottle of drink from his closet. What a nice guy! Then, we started our first ever conversation sitting side by side.

It took me about half an hour to finally pick up his face from my memory. No wonder, he looks so very much more handsome now when he grows his hair than he did in 成功嶺 wearing a butch haircut.

Bck to that period, as I recalled, he was reserved, inhibited, a man of few words. We had no interactions at all, though our beds were not far. But this night, we talked til the midnight. So comfortable was the talk and so friendly was him that I came to him again two nights later, having one more midnight chat.

King, I call him, because he loves NBA team, Sacramento Kings. His girlfriend studies in 正修college of technology, right next to my previous and future working place, 高雄長庚. He loves billiard. In chat, I sense his soft propensity and tender temperament, which goes well with his current job in the elementary school. Every morning at 7:15 am, he goes to this temple to collect his pupils riding bikes, and leads them to school.

I remember the next day after I dropped by him, it rained cats and dogs. He soaked up wet still guiding the students. This moved me a lot. I would have damned Fuck had it been me. On King's bike group's way to school, they sometimes encountered friendly drivers who concede to them at crossroads; some don't and horn at them. In King's this remote school far away from civilization, many kids are from single-parent family. They are raised by their grandparents living in this backcountry. That's why they need a big brother like King to offer them protection on their way to school.

After finishing the military service, King would like to work near his hometown. He feels good near home, and dislikes long-distance romance, he said. He is naive, simple, and grassroots, like many boys I've ever met in our Tainan County. That's why they attract me. You can sense the original smell of being. King combines another special melancholic inclination, though. And during several visits of substitute civilian servicemen, I know lots of boys like King, whose job is simple but imperative, looks boring to me but cannot be without. Their resident place is crude and humble. Their living condition is poor. But it's their volunteer devotion to the occupation without pay that brings glory to themselves, and light up the dark corners of our society.

So, dear Guardian Angel, everywhere I go, every smile I see, I know you are there smiling back at me. Dancing under the starry sky, I'll think of you, 'cause I can feel your stars shining down on me, as if in that night we first met.