What is Flash Europa 28?

languages

English

The Greenhouse Effect

The story of my realisation starts on the third of May, when there are red-and-white flags fluttering outside the window, meticulously inserted into the slots in the flagpoles. My father is hypothesising about the veracity of the greenhouse effect as he gazes at the snowflakes that are timidly falling from the sky. My mother has already called upon all the saints in heaven, posing a load of rhetorical questions in the process. This pseudo-intellectual prattle draws me to the conclusion that my parents, though incidentally, yet fairly regularly, kill not just the subtle beauty of ordinary situations, but also the obvious kind resulting from the not so ordinary. I’m sick to the death of it, so I leave the house before they irradiate me.

The people in the street are invariably the heroes of the performance, which I love to watch. Some of them remind me of my parents; they’re philosophising, or stamping their feet in a naïve, childish way, as if that’s going to change reality. Others are just surprised, and more or less calm, but they’re resigned to the fact that probably for the first time in their lives their bare feet, in nothing but summer sandals, are going to get snowed on. There’s also a small group of people who are genuinely laughing, and asking in amusement: “Is this really Poland, or is it the Antarctic?” and “Can this be May?” There’s no moral dilemma here – it would be hard to analyse this atmospheric occurrence in terms of good and evil, so I wonder why it prompts so many extreme reactions? An incredibly inspiring aroma of pastries emerging from a café merges with my conclusions about their meaning: people differ (I know that’s hardly a breakthrough discovery), so from now on I’m going to divide the ones I observe into two categories: gingerbreads, and sponge fingers (I have a gut feeling more goodies are going to be joining them soon). Gingerbreads get upset, because according to what they know, in a moderate climate May is a spring month, and it simply shouldn’t be snowing. Whereas the sponge fingers are brilliant at soaking up the idea that nature is unpredictable, and that Mother Earth plays naughty tricks on us. As I look around, I also notice some plain biscuits – they’re indifferent, convinced they can endure anything.

The shops are shut today. I can find somewhere to sit down in the square and go on gazing at the crowd, or I can go home and sit with the gingerbreads. I think I’ll stay here for now. From a nearby church I can hear the sound of a trumpet, and it makes me feel more solemn somehow. That’s probably the point of it – the double holiday was crying out for some pathos. Maybe that’s the reason for the snow? Maybe somebody planned it, to make us stop a while and wonder what we can and cannot call obvious, what we’re prepared to tolerate, and what we should refuse to put up with? Even if that’s not the case, even if it’s just that all this sugar has messed up my mind, I can’t help wondering if the white water that’s falling from the sky might not be falling entirely without a reason.

The story of my realisation ends on the third of May, while the flags continue to flutter outside. My parents seem calmer, though their gingerbreadiness is still indisputable. I explain to them that sometimes they should be more like sponge fingers, but as they can’t understand what I’m on about, my remark changes into a multi-layer, multi-storey cake. This just makes matters worse. All I can do is to ask them, regardless of the circumstances, to remember that the world is full of sweets.

 

Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones 

Artwork

Artwork credit: 
夏小晴, Beijing Film Academy

Our Partners

Flash Europa 28 is organised and run in cooperation with the Delegation of the European Union to China, the embassies of each of the 28 EU member states, The Bookworm, Literature Across Frontiers, and social media platforms in China.