Saying Goodbye

Back in Taitung, we had to say goodbye. One party for Joplin’s teachers was up on the mountain looking out over the whole city of Taitung as evening fell, at the Aboriginal restaurant. The second party was at the Don Tair hot springs; we bought 65 tickets and gave them to all the people who had helped us through the year.

It’s not helpful to clutch onto a moment, missing it, aching for it, but perhaps it is okay to freeze an instant in time and remember it like a favorite song. My moment is this: sitting in the very hot outside pool, the palm trees overhead, the sky bright blue, and across the river the tree-carpeted mountains rise past my vision. Though the place was more crowded than I’d ever seen, I felt absolutely serene and alone. I can’t allow myself to think about living in a place with no hot springs.

Our friends saw us off at the train station, and the photo – usually full of smiling faces – is so sad! The train drew away from Taitung – we looked for the school, we looked at our favorite places in the mountains, we paused in Jibben Station and contemplated getting off and living at the hot springs instead of going home. We slid past the ocean, with its two-toned water, turquoise over the sand and azure in the deep water. Then the train took to the mountains and we were off to Kaoshiung, where Fred Chai, McKinley’s cello teacher, had arranged to meet us and take us to the airport.

And then we flew away.