vegetable truck at night

last night as i carried pax toward home in a dark lane we heard music -- a jaunty popular tune, reedy and wavering out of speakers, the sort of tune older people here might associate with more optimistic times when taiwan was on the upswing. the music got closer. probably an advertising truck like the one broadcasting for an eyeglass store the night before ('you shi,' or 'superior sight,' punned with the english 'yours'). when the blue japanese truck's headlights flooded us, though, i could see i was wrong. the truck bed was stacked with open containers holding broccoli, bananas, apples, bok choy, you cai, even tofu, swaying gently along under flourescent lights. as the truck squeezed past us i even saw an electronic scales, lit and ready to weigh should an old person in flip flops emerge from a dark doorway, calling. a stack of plastic bags rustled in the breeze, a string of sausages swung side to side. the glowing truck disappeared around the next turn, cheery tune subsiding.