The Meadow 183 They all stood before dage’s pottery vessel. With both hands holding incense, they bowed three times. Mother spoke to dage, “We are all here to see you. Your sisters and brother are grownups so you may not recognize them. Take a good look at them. As the eldest son, you must bless and protect your siblings. Hear me? If you don’t do your work, I will reprimand you.” Mother said so as if dage stood before her, still alive. And then Mother turned to her remaining children. “Greet your dage. He must miss you very much,” she said in a choked voice. “Dage, we are all fine. You can rest in peace.” Min put the incense in the censer after saying so. “Dage, we miss you.” Hua did the same after saying it. How could you remember dage as you were only three years old when he passed away? Ye wanted to blurt out, but a skeleton hand covered her mouth. She stood there, staring at the pottery vessel with her big brother’s name on it. She murmured, “I will take care of them. Don’t worry.” When she put the incense in the censer, for a brief second, she saw a woman with long black hair, red lips and red heels smile at her, holding a baby in her arms. In the shadow of the house, she suddenly felt chilly. The tears that rolled down her face felt chilled. She lifted the back of her hand and wiped them. “Now with a new tomb, your dage can finally have a house of his own. He does not need to take up his residence with our ancestors, crowding the occupants of the little house.” Mother put her incense in the censer. “Just five years after we buried him, we unearthed his remains, collected them in a pottery vessel and buried him in the family mausoleum. I remember it as though it happened yesterday.” Mother paused and wrinkled her brows in contemplation. Scenes of the first months after dage’s death rose before Ye’s eyes- Father worked away from home and returned late at night, Mother stayed at bed and cried all day and night.
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