OK carried his iPhone 11, where he would call his friend Agnes at 5PM on Wednesdays. It wasn’t romantic, he’d typically call Agnes via Whatsapp, and after connecting, they’d both open the soccer app Fifa, and talk in an excited tone about what’s happening during the game (this would occur in massage parlours, on buses and in restaurants). Agnes was one of his best friends, OK was almost sure. They were both students at Island School, and both spoke fluent English, and had parents who would speak Cantonese to them. The phone weighed 7 ounces. The password was a six digit code.
The things they carried were largely determined by modern trends. Among these trends were Lululemon pants, designer t-shirts, electronic watches, athletic backpacks, Cloud shoes, light rainjackets, Goyard handbags, Cartier bracelets, aviator sunglasses and retractable dark-colored umbrellas. Together, these items took up two thirds of their suitcase, depending on a person’s packing abilities. DK, who liked collecting, carried extra water-repellant tools; he was especially fond of rainjackets. DY, who enjoyed shopping, carried Dior jumpers, Gucci pouches and several shoes from Roger Vivier. BA, who was older, carried last year’s Canon Powershot until he realized that it was easier to send photos via his phone.
By choice, and because they were from Hong Kong, they all carried Rimowa suitcases that weighed at least 20 pounds, including the two velcro dividers inside. They carried the standard dark colors, some in matte, others in gloss. Very few carried handcarries. On their feet they carried Adidas, Nike or Cloud shoes - 1.1 pounds - and MT carried 3 pairs of blue flower-patterned socks that she’s had for nearly a decade.
It was called skibidy skibidi*.
*thank you to HA, for auto-correcting my spelling: it’s skibidi, not skibidy
To be cool was to be skibidi, as when KK told an overeager elderly Chinese saleswoman on the streets, “You’re not being skibidi,” in fluent English. In its intransitive form, to be skibidi meant to be aware, or to be calm, but it implied an intelligence far beyond the intransitive.
Almost everyone had skibidi photographs.
There were two of AC in the latest WeChat group conversation, one of him focusing on writing calligraphy, the other of him wetting the ink.
At night, sometimes, AC’s mom MT wondered how to best get him to finish schoolwork, because she knew he was capable, because she loved him so much, and because she could see that he could do well when he tried.
What they carried was partly a function of role, partly of specialty.
As an avid shopper and restaurant reviewer, DK carried Trip.com, Mei Tuan and Baidu, which took up 2.2 GB on his phone. He carried a sound Chinese Map and the responsibility of a good experience for his friends and family.
As a mom of three, PA carried a satchel filled with bandaids, panadols, eyedrops and all the things an experienced mom must carry, including crackers for especially bad falls, for a total weight of 1 pound.
They carried all that their Rimowa suitcase could bear, and then some, including a loud admiration for how cheap the new things they carried were.
What they carried varied by altitude. When a hotel took them to the isolated mountains, they carried oxygen tanks, chips, and shawls. With its long body and awkward shape, the oxygen tank was a hassle to carry, and was often useless because of its size but some carried it anyway, partly for calm, partly for the illusion of calm.
Other searches for restaurants were more complicated and required special attention. On their fifth day, it was their mission to search and find local cuisine, noodles in clay pot bowls. They checked reviews, pictures and locations - in some respects, though not many, the restaurant was worse than the reviews: imagination was a killer.
They carried wireless headphones, iPads, cigars, red wine bottles, cotton pads, and much more. CK carried her hand-crocheted bag. PC carried his Nike backpack that could carry two handheld umbrellas in the sides. HY carried a soft knitted yarn jacket. They carried phones. They carried plastic water bottles, bananas taken from breakfast buffets and plastic playing cards.
They carried the land itself - China, the rainwater, the mud - a sticky substance that covered the bottom of their shoes and sometimes the bottom of their pants. They carried the smell. The air, they carried it, the wind, the atmosphere, all of it, they carried gravity. They carried their own lives. The pressure was nonexistent.
They moved quickly. At night they were tired, but not exhausted, it was just the walking, attraction to attraction, with the purpose of taking good photographs.
They searched through landmarks without knowing what to look for, not quite caring, taking photographs, buying ice cream, watching reels, sometimes filming videos and sometimes not, then forming up and moving on to the next point, then other towns, where it would always be slightly different, but mostly the same.
For the most part they carried themselves with casualness, a kind of cool. Now and then, however, there were times of silliness, when they were joking or wanted to keep quiet but couldn’t, when they winked at each other and giggled and looked disapprovingly, or approvingly, at the towns and said Ugh this mud and avoided puddles on the floor and talked to their tour guides, hoping to get the best experience out of China.
Afterward, when they day ended, they would sink into sleep. They would mostly sleep well. It was the lightness of being alive. Fluidly, the ladies and gentlemen would reassemble themselves in the morning, becoming tourists again. They would look towards the day with hope again. They would go to the breakfast buffet, plan for the day, light cigarettes, say good morning to one another, and begin searching for reviews on their phones. After a time someone would say, I can’t believe it’s already the sixth day, which meant it was good, yes, the boy had obviously been there for the first five days, time was moving quite quickly, and in any case they would all go back to Hong Kong on the tenth.
They used a Gen-Z vocabulary to amuse the children. Sigma, they’d say. Fire, Rizz. It didn’t make sense, just stage presence. They were tourists. They joked around. They smoked on their cigars. They gossiped. They told stories about PA’s helpers, how the woman was strange, how incredibly rude she could be.
They made themselves laugh.
They were fun.
They carried all the emotional baggage of people their age. Love, enjoyment, worry, ease, relaxation - these were intangibles, and these intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had light weight. They carried their mutual friends. They carried the common values of caring for their parents and families, which required balance and posture. They carried their reputations. They kept checking their phones.
inspired by Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.