Having made tea, the host placed teacups on the table in front of the guests and covered them with the lids, which clinked pleasantly. Something occurring to him, the host placed the thermos on the floor and hurried into the inner room. Out came the sound of drawers being opened and searched.
The guests, father and daughter, were left alone in the living room. The ten-year-old daughter was appreciating the flowers by the window. The father reached for the teacup. His fingers had barely touched its thin handle—Crash! And there was the sound of something breaking into pieces.
The thermos on the floor had fallen over. Startled, the girl turned to see what happened. Nothing extraordinary, yet a near-miracle: Neither father nor daughter had touched the thermos. Heaven knows! When the host had placed the thermos on the floor, it did wobble somewhat, but didn’t threaten to fall.
The sound of the crash brought the host from the inner room, a box of sugar in hand. Seeing the steamy mess on the floor, he said, offhandedly, “No big deal. No big deal.”
The father had an urge to say something, but held it back.
“I’m terribly sorry,” he finally said, “I touched it accidentally.”
“No big deal,” the host said again.
When they had left the host, the daughter asked, “Dad, did you touch it?”
“I . . . was the closest to it,” the father said.
“But you didn’t touch it. You didn’t touch it at all.”
The father smiled. “What would you have done then?”
“The thermos fell by itself. The floor is uneven. When Uncle Li placed it on the floor, it wobbled back and forth and then fell. Dad, why did you say you. . . . ”
“Your Uncle Li couldn’t have seen all this, could he?”
“But you could have told him.”
“No,” the father said. “It’s better to say I touched it. It sounds better to the ear. Sometimes you don’t really know what’s going on, the more truthfully you describe it, the more false-like it sounds, and the less people believe you.”
The girl was silent for a while, then said: “So we have to leave it like that?”
“Yes, leave it like that.”
(1985)