Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 541

“Pour the tea” said laishore.
“Not good at all, trembling hands are not accepted and your appearance doesn’t look good,” laishore said as Mei
Li poured the tea, “Now go!”
Mei Li walked out of the room and angrily reached home. To her surprise her mother was standing there with a
small trunk.
“What happened?” Mei Li worriedly asked.
“Your father is not well, I have to go to the village” her mother nervously said, “I will come back in about a
week”.
She said those words and left. Mei Li worriedly prayed “Ancestors, hear my prayer, please take care of my father
and my mother.”
With that she went in the theatre near her house for the first time and sat on one of the chairs. The theatre was
enormous. It had a big stage in the front and large number of seats. It had two grey pillars that made a balcony
facing inwards. She amazingly saw actors practicing. After a few minutes of watch, Mei Li thought that she could
try it after all it was her dream and she should learn to follow her heart. She went near the stage and asked those
actors, “May I try?”
“Sure” replied a kind girl.
Saying thanks, Mei Li walked up the stage and said a few lines with expression and grace. Everybody was stunned
by her acting. From that day onwards Mei Li’s life started anew, she joined those actors in the theatre and
performed magnificently but still there was one thing left that was to tell her parents about that. Her parents had
not yet returned….
The big day arrived Mei Li’s mother and father were coming! Mei Li nervously walked all around the house on
her tiptoes. Her parents arrived at late evening. Mei Li went outside and greeted her parents “Ba ba, ma ma, how
are you?”
“We are fine, dear” replied her mother.
She took them inside and served them with noodles. She sat beside them, took a deep breath and said “Ba ba, ma
ma I have joined the actors in the theatre.”
“Then we would like to see your acting someday” replied her father with a smile.
Mei Li felt that she was dreaming, so she pinched herself to find out that she was not. She asked feeling amused
“Don’t you think that acting is dishonour for a family?”
“Mei Li, we talked about it and finally figured out that we were wrong, there is nothing wrong with acting”
replied her mother.
And like a classic fairy tale ending this story ends, even if it is not a perfect ending for this story…… they lived
happily ever after!