Turn Left, Turn Right

A while ago, my friend Catherine showed me a little lovely book by a Taiwanese author, named Jimmy Liao.

Inside unfolded a tragic but beautiful love story. Here's my translation of it:

*Note: read the story first so you have a general idea of the story

The grey sky always befell during the autumn, in a city of dread, a girl and a boy lived together in an apartment with a wall in between as a divider. Whenever they went out, he always turned left, and she always turn right habitually. Therefore, they had never met or been acknowledged the presence of each other on this Earth. Winter slowly descended upon the city as days passed. On those days, the boy would sit in the snow covered park to play his violin and feed the wondering pigeons. The girl would roam around on the streets, and occasionally talk to strayed cats for comfort. After a long day, she always turned right to go home, and he always turned left. So, they never met.

One day, they met at a park, like old friends, they talked and talked and talked. Until it started to pour. She gave him her phone number and left. Him, turning left and her, turning right.

That stormy night, they were too excited to fall asleep, the image of them together in the park replied again and again their heads.

The next day, the girl stayed home on her couch, huddling around the phone waiting for the phone call. The boy, sat against his couch against the wall that divided them two and dialed again and again, trying to make out the numbers that was smudged by the rain.

Another year passed,  while playing violin in the subway, the music brought out his thoughts, Is she still here, here in this city? Or is she long gone by now? But they met the same strayed cat, the same lost puppy and wake up everyday to the weak shining sun and heard the same quacking crow.

After enduring the miserable time here, he decided to leave this gloomy city to find another place filled with sunshine. She did too, but at the apartment door, he always turned left and she was turned right, leaving behind a city of darkness and memories of each other.

This story reminded me that we should cherish everyone/thing that we possess because you'll never know if when we're going to lose it, like the girl and boy in the story. Chance fooled them, created sparks in their hearts and then put it out with ice cold water that destroyed all signs of hope. This is what I feel about living, catch it by the tail to prevent it from slipping away, it could be an opportunity, a person's feelings or even an apology that you know you have to make. The decisions that we make also largely impacts our lives. If only one of them decided to change their directions,they would've been living happily in that gloomy city. I hope I will be much luckier than the boy and girl, or at least I will try my best not to be.