When stars were giggling in the dark sky, the moon rose up. Round and bright, it cast a charming light to the? lake, making it glittering and mysterious.

Every night I would walk alongside this lake. Since it was far away from the city center, I could enjoy the silence and peace here when I was walking. Each night I would catch sight of an obscure figure. From the ground I could see him wandering in a small boat, lowering his head and sinking into anodd meditation. Each time his figure would make me perplexed, involuntarily I just tried to sweep him out of my mind. But I failed at last. When curiosity made my blood stagnate, I stopped. ”Who is he?” My breath came in shallow gasps. Nobody replied.

Then one morning when I couldn’t conceal my excitement anymore, I knocked on my neighbor’s door. A familiar smiling face appeared, infecting my stagnated heart in no time. “Do you mind coming with me to see something in the lake tonight?” I stammered, and waited for her response.Then she agreed.

So we came out for walking that night. I palpitated with excitement when we reached that place where I encountered that obscure figure in the darkness last time. But we saw nothing. My heart sank. “Maybe you get so tired these days. There’s nothing like obscure figure in the lake.” The cold draft and her giggling scourged me. After that, everytime i visited with someone as company, the obscure figure would be nowhere to be found. However, whenever I visited alone, he would always show up and sometimes I could even hear him sigh.

I was worried that there was something wrong with me, so I went to a hospital. But the doctor said I was alright and couldn’t be better. What an odd thing? I didn’t want to go to that weird place anymore. “Just let him continue his stupid wandering and sigh.” After all that bad, I chose to give up this interminable and meaningless finding.

But strange things continued to happen. One midnight I heard ascream from my neighbor’s house. ”Fire! Fire! “ She yelled out. I dashed out ofmy house with a bucket of water. But to my surprise, neither did I see thickblack smoke nor any blazing fire in her house. “Where’s the fire?” “Just….here…andthere…”She was shaking and cramping painfully, as if her body was on fire. Suddenly she clasped her hands and rushed towards the lake at an incredibly fast speed . ”Wa..water..” She murmured and fell into the lake like a lump of lead. My heart stopped. A sudden heart-pang seized me.

In the following months, the same weird and horrible things happened again and again. The inhabitants here became quite terrified and most of them planned to move away. So did I. But before I moved away, I found that horrible things were still happening to them even after they had already moved away.There must be an evil magic or curse that was completely attached to us.

When i knew that, Panic seized me. "Why?" Thoughts messed up in my mind and I felt stressed . I feared death, just like most of the ordinary people would do. What confused me the most is that only I could see that obscure figure wandering in the boat. “Who is he? Why he sigh? Why just me? ”Though I had no evidence, I believed that the mysterious man in the boat must had something to do with the recent horrible stuffs. If he did have a relation with it, what’s the reason? I considered most of the inhabitants here to be innocent. Why do we have to suffered from those horrible stuffs?

Time passed and it was early morning. I could see through the window that night was fading away and the sky was turning bright. Suddenly, a crazy idea came in my mind. I stood up and stepped out of my house.

When I came to the side of the lake, I rent a boat and started to row it. Frankly speaking I was frightened when I got farther from the land, but I never stopped. I must find out the truth if only I could see that man. As time went by, the trees and houses on the land became ambiguous in my visual field.My heart was beating quickly now and I couldn’t help shaking. Though in fact Idid not know where was he and what direction I should move towards, I had afaith that he would definitely come to me.

?Fog started to rise up and now I couldn’t see anything. I lost my direction completely and stopped rowing.The feelings of uncertainty made me anxious and scared, but I kept waiting. After two hour’s waiting, when I finally heard that familiar sigh, I couldn’t help shaking as if I got a electric shock. Anticipated and frightened, I stumbled in the boat, trying to have a clear look on him. And when I saw him, I let out a panic scream.

Actually, there was not a man, just a pile of garbage was arrangedin a human shape! I saw banana skins, abandoned plastic bottles, steel waste and a lot of waste of which I failed to tell the names. And the boat was also consisted of different rubbish, exuding a uncomfortable smell.

“Why?” He uttered a single word to me with and sighed. Before I could say anything, an intense light came to me and a lot of scenes suddenly rushed into my mind. From the scenes I knew what had happened to the lake after people moved here. And my face turned red because of the shame.

Words failed me at that time and I came to know the facts that we were not innocent. In the past decades, we had thrown mountains of rubbish into the lake, just because we were too lazy to throw it in the right place. It’s we ourselves who created this monster. “

He was gazing at me in dismay. “ I am sorry. If I can be back home, I would tell our people notto do that any more.” I was dwelling in the shame. Now I knew why so many odd things had happened recently. It’s a punishment for what we did.

???“Curses will continue if you people continue to do that.” He said.

Suddenly, He darted for me convulsively. Panic seized me but I tried to keep calm. He was getting closer to me and I could find that all my feelings and senses were running out. “Remember to tell your people not to do that anymore.” Before my last sense betrayed me, I felt a cold hand clasped mine.

……

When I opened my eyes again, I was on my bed. The warmth from the Sun kissed me and birds were singing gaily on the branches. After opening my window, I surprisingly found my neighbor was standing there happily and waving hands at me. Everything I got through these months seemed to be a dream.

However, from then on, my hands couldn’t feel warmth anymore.