I’m joining The Gypsy Mama again this week for Five Minute Friday. From her site:

Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays. We finger paint with words. We try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Sounds great to me. This week the theme is “Loud.”

GO

There is a crack and a bang. Cats run away, children scream–my children–no one else seems to notice.

Fireworks just went off a block away. I look out the window, see the tail of a cat streaking in the opposite direction and hear my children laugh. I see against the clear sky the faint lights of fireworks exploding.

It’s the middle of the day. It’s not a national holiday or a special occasion the rest of the world knows about.

Maybe it’s someone’s wedding. Or could be a new business just opened up. There doesn’t have to be a particularly spcial reason. It’s not like Canada, with permits and special days. there are demons to be scared off for just about any old reason. Or the sheer joy of it.

Later, my daughter recalls how she played with a bunch of children once who had firecrackers and were letting them off. “It’s fun,” she says, and I give her the standard lecture about firecrackers and safety and peers and their influence, but I know it’s part of life here.

It’s part of living in China.

And when the fireworks go off the next time, I barely flinch.

STOP