When I was young, I lived in a small town. The spirit of neighborliness was very strong then. All of us were quite poor by today's standards, but we got by.
However, one family which could be considered as living a marginal（微不足道）existence was the Acob family living in the repair shop opposite our house. Mr. Acob, the auto mechanic, had a large brood of children-twelve to be exact. The joke among the neighbors was that he was aiming to form a football team among his children. However, seriously speaking, it was no joke for him trying to feed his growing children daily.
My mother was a kind-hearted soul. Often, she would remark that his children were dressed in ragged clothes and looked malnourished（营养不良的）. My family was relatively better off in the village. My mother would bring over whatever food we could spare to our neighbors. I remember one particular year when times were very hard. The economy was doing very badly. There and then, Mom still decided to sacrifice a portion of our meals to the family. Despite the protests from my brothers and sisters that we too were hungry, she kept on doing the kind act.
I shared a room with my brothers overlooking the repair shop. I was interested in the repair of cars and would often stare out of the window to see Mr. Acob hard at work. As the street in front of my house was rebuilt into a main road, I noticed Mr. Acob looked more cheerful. The number of customers at his shop had increased steadily. His business took off like a rocket.
It was at this time that my father's business took a turn for the worse. And his health was also becoming worse. We were at our wits' end, confused by the mysterious illness he was suffering from. My father then decided to sell our family car to pay off the mounting bills, or my brothers and I had to stop schooling.
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My father and I were parking our car outside of Acob' shop. …… One day, Acob said to me, "You will be an excellent mechanic, boy." |
