My mom goes to bed early and wakes up early--as early as 4 AM. By 6:30, she sits in the living-room (picture above) waiting for us to join her in her tour of the marketing place. She goes to the marketing place every morning except when it is raining, so that she can buy fresh food for the family, and walks her beat of 3000 paces: 1500 to, and 1500 back.

I joined her morning ritual as soon as I came back to China. One morning, when my brother offered to go with her so that he could buy some food to send to her family in Hong Kong, I offered to stay behind. Mama said all right, but came back to me a few minutes later, asking if I could go as well. Since that day, sensing that mom wishes to have us both brothers accompanying her when we can, we did just that. We could see that mom was extremely happy in our company. She smiled and beamed when passers-by commented on her good fortune of having both sons walking alongside with her.

That is a wish that she must have pondered for a long time and that we should have known sooner. Yesterday, she asked me if I could make a kitchen knife rack for her, and I instantly complied, using whatever material and tools I had at hand. I also spent the past four weeks replacing and repairing all the electrical apparatus in the four stories of the house. The problems with those old sockets, outlets and fixtures were: they were rusty and decayed, in particular when aluminum was widely used at the time, even for some wiring. What was worse, most of the screws were flat-headed and shallow, making it very difficult to remove. It was not uncommon for me to spend half an hour to extract just one such screw from a ceiling lamp, up on a shaky ladder (also made of aluminum).

But I am certainly glad that all the switches and lights are now working. I have been gone for so long that I owed my mom and my brother much more than the four weeks of home repair. Of us two brothers, I am the handy man, capable of doing most homely things by myself. My brother, on the other hand, can build a business or a house, and can get help any time with just a phone call.

Tomorrow, October 10th, my Zhao Mama and her three daughters that I have not seen for sixty years will come for a visit from northern China.

This evening (10-9-2013), my brother and I went out for an after-dinner walk, and landed in a village 30 minutes away from Shima town. We found the dragon-tree at the river-side bank that mom talked about a lot. Under that dragon-eye tree, mom and dad met and fell in love, 74 years ago.

妈妈是个早睡早起的人。每天清早四时许她已经起床。到六点半，她已经一切准备就绪，坐在客厅的沙发（见上图），等我们陪同她去菜市场了。菜市场她本来就天天去，除了下雨天。一为了买食品，二为了每天来回走三千步。我回国的第一天起我就天天陪妈妈去上早市。有一天，有人要去香港，燕北想买些新鲜食品寄去给在香港的家人。他要去市场，我就跟妈妈说那我就不去了。妈妈说好。但过一会又过来问我是否也愿意一道去。

从那一天起，我们兄弟俩就一起陪妈妈上市场了。有两个儿子陪着，妈妈显得十分心满意足。相识的路人问起，她都很高兴。昨天，她问我能不能给她做一个架子放菜刀。我就地取材给她做了一个。我已经花了一个月的时间，把家里四层楼上上下下的坏灯泡灯座全部换了。所以花了一个月，是因为这里气候潮湿，东西容易生锈。又加上那些旧灯头灯座当时（30年前）硬件不过关。许多材料（甚至电线）是铝制的，绝大部分已经锈死。大部分螺丝是一字形的（vs 十字形），而且一字溝很浅，起不来。有的时候，站在高高的有些晃动的铝梯上，花半个小时还起不来一颗头顶灯灯座的螺丝。

能陪妈妈，能为家里做些事，是我回国的大乐事，是一种补偿。我们兄弟两个，我是做小事的 handy man，各种修理活都会一些。弟弟是干大事的。他盖大房子，广交朋友，有事打个电话就办好了。

明天我们将迎来我60年未见的赵妈妈和她的三个女儿。

今天（2013年10月9日）晚饭后，我弟弟和我决定走到30分钟外的“港仔尾”村。74年前，妈妈和爸爸曾经在村头的龙眼树下相识并相爱。后来，才有了我和弟弟。我们找到了那颗树。

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(will switch to part 9 of China Trip in 20 minutes; 二十分钟后自动转到 燕南故国行第九集)