Runaway ice cream

 1

"I'm washing the dishes, I'll call you when I'm done."

Lin Hanzura put her phone on the dining table, she had a habit: after the call was over, she never hung up the other party's call. Her finger never touches the red touch button on the phone screen that shows the word "hang up".

The sound of running water in the kitchen rang, Lin Hanzura put her hand to the water basin, the water under the faucet has filled the white porcelain bowl. She turned the faucet down, and the water flowed into a bright, thin line, and the water in the bowl overflowed, flowing outward along the side of the bowl into a hanging cylindrical waterfall, which fell into the white porcelain plate below the bowl. Lin Hanzura did not use a dish towel, nor did she wear gloves. The wall clock on the living room wall twitched the second hand, it was time to change the battery, the twitching second hand kept pointing to a quarter past twelve on the clock face. Lin Hanzura swept the clock face, the second hand hovered at a quarter past twelve, and the second hand would stay in place. She thought about it, the last time she changed the battery was last year's winter solstice, the second hand was also this stagnant.

She remembered what her son had said that day - "Gee, this is how time never gets old and youth never grows old!"

Later, she bought new batteries and moved the chair under the clock. Her son walked over, reached over and took the clock down, nimbly picked open the battery box cover on the back of the clock, took out the old batteries, pushed the new batteries into the battery box, snapped the cover shut, and the second hand on the clock began to do a circular motion.

"Okay. The son on the river said: the dead are like the husband, do not give up day and night."

Her son wanted to hang the clock on the wall.

She hurriedly pulled her son's arm.

"Don't rush to hang it on the wall, haven't wiped the glass covering the clock face yet, it's got a lot of dust on it, it's hard to take it down once, to make it look new."

The son handed her the clock in both hands, "Please, Mother, clean the face of the clock."

She smiled and wiped the glass on the clock face with the same cleaner she used to wipe the lenses of her glasses.

"These two batteries will last six months, so hang it up."

The son lifted the clock and hung it in its original position.

"Mom, where did all the time go? It's all on the wall."

The son laughed, and so did Lin Hanzura.

The next day, my son put on his backpack and said that the army wanted him to return immediately.

Lin Hanzura was a bit reluctant to leave, and she looked at the clock on the wall.

"In another six months, it will be time to change the batteries in this watch." The son pointed to the clock and left the house in a hurry.

Lin Hanzura thought about the day she hung the clock while washing the dishes, she didn't know how many times she had washed them, the dishes and plates were in the basin.

2

The sound of running water came from Lin Yuzheng's cell phone, she put the phone handset close to her ear, it was the sound of running water from the faucet, the water should be very thin, and she could hear the slight sound of footsteps. She hung up the phone.

Thinking that her sister was home alone, Lin Yuqing talked to her on the phone from time to time.

Estimating the time, Lin Hanzura had already finished washing the dishes. Lin Yuqing pressed the phone number she had just hung up, beeped a few times, and when she got through there was more than a gasp from her sister on the other end.

"Sister, is there a guest coming home for dinner and you made a table full of dishes? You've been washing the dishes for an hour."

Lin Yuqing looked at her freshly polished fingers, cocked them upward, bent them down again, and cocked them up again.

A disconnected voice came from the other end of the line: "There are no guests, I'm alone, my bowl is still soaking in the water basin. I'll call you after I wash the dishes."

Lin Yuqing fed a few times, and Lin Hanzura on the other end put the phone on the dining table and walked into the kitchen again.

Lin Yuqing turned the hands-free volume of the phone to the maximum, and the sound of running water came from the phone. Lin Yuqing's nose was sore, is my sister forgetful, she hung up the phone.

She decided to go see Lin Hanzura.

The next day.

Lin Yuqing just walked to the entrance of the district, the phone rang.

She looked at the phone screen and it was an unfamiliar number.

She hesitated and was just about to press the answer button when the other party had already hung up the phone.

Lin Yuqing went out of the neighborhood gate, and the security guard was standing straight in the guard post, which was air-conditioned. The sunlight of the summer solstice pressed the shadows of people flat, the smell of asphalt emanated from the newly paved road, Lin Yuqing walked in the green shade of the sidewalk, the leaves of the sycamore trees overhead were dense.

Lin Yuqing thought, it's better to take the subway, it's cool.

Two more paulownia trees are the entrance of the subway station, Lin Yuqing accelerated her pace.

It was half an hour later when I arrived at Lin Hanzura's neighborhood. Lin Yuqing met a sweaty Lin Hanzura at the entrance, carrying an empty bag in her hand and a wet sticky mark on the ground.

"Yuqing, I forgot to bring my cell phone downstairs, so I used the security guard's cell phone to call you, but you didn't answer. Look how anxious I am, it's still so hot."

"Sister, I'm here, I saw it was an unfamiliar number, thought it was a fraudulent call, so I didn't pick up, then I tried to pick up this number and hung up, did you come downstairs to pick me up?"

Lin Hanzura pointed to the empty bag she was carrying in her hand.

"I bought the ice cream, wanted to put it in the freezer to wait for my son to come back to eat, you see, it escaped."