On the way back from working overtime on Saturday—just now—a torrential rain came down over Beijing. Cold, icy rain slapped my face haphazardly. Summer's dust and smell rose into the air. Walking down Dongdaqiao Road, I felt like I was filming The Matrix. Through the enormous, luminous curtain of rain, I saw a middle-aged man as burly as Morpheus. You know Morpheus—sunglasses, indestructible, and the best part was that his big belly somehow gave him an air of efficiency. Truly inexplicable. "Hello, Morpheus." I rushed up to him, face drenched with cold rain. "Hello, Neo." He tugged at the police cat crouching by his feet. "Hahahahahaha!" I laughed without stopping, mouth agape like something out of a Japanese anime. "Brother, you sure are funny." "Cut the crap!" he replied in pure Northeast dialect. "You need a designated driver or not?!" What was he going to drive for me—I didn't even own a bicycle. "Yes." I thought, let's see what you do next. Morpheus banged the car door open and got in. To be precise, Morpheus banged into nothingness in front of me, miming the motion of opening a car door, then sat down—on thin air, of course—and summoned his police cat to take the driver's seat. The cat writhed and twisted on the ground, refusing to get in, until Morpheus hauled it up by force. I watched this hulking man holding a comically small folding bicycle, sitting on air, pressing a gas pedal that didn't exist in the air, and felt utterly baffled. "What are you standing there for?!" Morpheus rolled down the window and shouted at me. "Get in!" I meekly opened the door and sat in the back seat. Morpheus started the engine with a vroom-vroom-vroom. "Want me to close the sunroof?" "Sure." I crouched uncomfortably in the void, instinctively leaning backward to find a backrest. And so the three of us rocked back and forth through the enormous curtain of rain, heading forward—though whether it was actually forward was impossible to tell, since the Beijing I inhabited was filled entirely by this cinematic deluge. Morpheus and I began to chat. His Northeast accent didn't match his resolute face at all. But we warmed up to each other all the same. He told me about his ex-wife. I told him about my ex-girlfriend. "Neo, you really shouldn't have treated her that way." He said gravely, like a big brother. "Yeah." I tilted my head back, recalling my vanished 2008—as though it had never existed. Then I realized something was supporting my body, faintly, imperceptibly holding me up. "2008—a year ruled by earthquakes. Back then, the streets of Xi'an were as clean as a school after vacation. Stranded on the streets, I had more time than I could spend, holding a girl's hand..." Morpheus pressed a button, and music erupted from all directions, sound waves striking the car's inner walls and bouncing off in bursts of brilliant smoke. A foreign voice, the whole world resonating:
You came up behind me, I saw you go by,
You were always so close and still within reach.
Sara, Sara,
Whatever made you want to change your mind?
Sara, Sara,
So easy to look at, so hard to define.
I can still see them playin' with their pails in the sand,
They run to the water their buckets to fill.
I can still see the shells fallin' out of their hands
As they follow each other back up the hill.
Sara, Sara,
Sweet virgin angel, sweet love of my life,
Sara, Sara,
Radiant jewel, mystical wife.
Sleepin' in the woods by a fire in the night,
Drinkin' white rum in a Portugal bar,
Them playin' leapfrog and hearin' about Snow White,
You in the marketplace in Savanna-la-Mar.
Sara, Sara,
Sara, Sara,
It's all so clear, I could never forget,
Lovin' you is the one thing I'll never regret.
I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells,
I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through,
Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel,
Writin' "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for you.
Sara, Sara,
Wherever we travel we're never apart.
Sara, oh Sara,
Beautiful lady, so dear to my heart.
How did I meet you? I don't know.
A messenger sent me in a tropical storm.
You were there in the winter, moonlight on the snow
And on Lily Pond Lane when the weather was warm.
Sara, oh Sara,
Scorpio sphinx in a calico dress,
Sara, Sara,
You must forgive me my unworthiness.
Now the beach is deserted except for some kelp
And a piece of an old ship that lies on the shore.
You always responded when I needed your help,
You gimme a map and a key to your door.
Sara, oh Sara,
Glamorous nymph with an arrow and bow,
Sara, oh Sara,
Don't ever leave me, don't ever go.
Sara, Sara—over and over again. Morpheus and Neo fell silent. The sacrifices of the past were finished. This vehicle, straddling the line between illusion and reality, drove toward a new future. "This is your stop." Morpheus took off his sunglasses. The curtain of rain vanished. Heaven and earth were clear. "Neo, from here on, you walk alone." Morpheus mounted his little folding bicycle and disappeared into the Beijing night.