Mei
Clearwater Bay School , Li , Adele - 9
M ei woke up to the smell of her favorite dish cooking on the fire . The sound of Chen the rickshaw man wheeling his rickshaw on the bumpy road . Scrape scrape scrape . Bump bump bump . She could see BaBa painting on a piece of canvas to trade at the market .
She felt the same . But different .
She walked out of her room and into the kitchen to see MaMa standing there , in her new Qi Pao , feathers in her hair . She looked different too .
The same . But different .
Even when she sat down at their bamboo table she felt different .
The same . But different .
She scooped up the piquant delightment of meat and sighed . Mei , for the first time in a long time felt sad . She did not know why , but she did .
Then all what had happened last night washed up to her like a series of waves washing ashore . The vaporous streak of lightning , the object she hated so much she would sleep for a thousand years to get rid of it , to travel back in time so the lighting had hit someone else . The way her sister was gone . The way Shen Shen was gone . The way mama , baba and her cried . Immense unstoppable tears . The way Shen Shen had abandoned them . The way she would never be happy again .
She missed everything about Shen Shen . She missed the way Shen Shen ' s feathery scent comforted her . The way the would go out onto the streets watching boats come in and out with goods for trade . She even missed the way all of Shen Shen ' s Qi Paos would overlap the family room like petals on the grass . She missed the way Shen Shen always wore a sparkle in her eye even when something bad happened . Like when a thief robbed Mama ’ s jewelry store . She wondered if Shen Shen ’ s ghost still wore that spark . The spark she wished she had .
She looked up to see MaMa ’ s delicate face raining with tears . Big , languishing tears . Mei had never seen her mother in tears . Tears like rainstorms . Tears as touching and forlorn as dying fairies . Big grief stricken tears . Tears so emotional she might as well be laughing . Tears that caped mamas face with anguish . She looked left at her handsome broad baba . His virile face streaming with dampness , strucken with tears . Soaking in agony . Drenched with glum . She looked beside her . An empty seat stared back at her . She never knew how much somebody could hate a chair .
Never until then .
Even the chair looked sad without her beautiful , radiant sister . Her soul mate for life .’’ Mama ,’’ she cried in a mellifluous voice , hoarse with sadness . She opened her mouth to say more but a pang of regret hit her . Mama and papa scooped up Mei and hugged . A hug that shen shen would never have again . Mei had her parents . But she would never have her soulmate . Her wonderful Sister . Her other half . She would never be happy again . Never again .