Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020 | Page 60

Fiction – Group 4
Today is Monday, I came to work at the same time as every other day. No one says hello,
no one asks how I am but this is my life and I am here to make money for the Greater Bay
Area. I sit down at my computer and begin staring at the pulsating numbers. My thoughts
feel like they are burning a hole in my brain, I can’t stop thinking about that woman I saw. I
see her in my dreams, it feels like more than just a coincidence. It’s as if my brain is trying to
tell me something. Before I knew it, I was wrapped up by all these thoughts and suddenly the
office began to feel cramped and claustrophobic, I needed to go on a walk, I needed the fresh
air. As I headed downstairs I stared at my phone trying to escape all the pain, when suddenly
I bumped into a woman. This woman was identical to the one I saw the other day. She
muttered six words, “I am sorry I hurt you,” and just like that she was gone.
My world began to spin, suddenly everything I knew felt wrong. All of this felt like more
than just a coincidence, I needed to find this woman. She just looked too much like her. All
the pain I tried to push down all the memories I pushed away came back. It felt as if I was
being stabbed by thousands of needles all over my body and before I knew it, I was crying.
I hadn’t cried since she disappeared, it felt like everything I had suppressed for the last four
years poured out of me, I cried and cried until I was dry. I cried for what my life could have
been, but mostly I cried for her. This time I left work early. I went home and promised myself
if I ever saw this woman again I would follow her because right now, she felt like my only
hope. I took the metro for exactly 46 minutes on the green line, by 1:00 pm I arrived at my
station. By 1:08 pm I was walking the 12 minute journey home. As I walked this 12 minute
journey home I saw the woman sitting on a bench as if waiting for someone. I walk up to her,
my heart beating a million beats per minute This might be my chance to truly find out what
happened to her. All my questions might finally be answered. I walked up to this woman and
before I could reach the bench I realised that I was all alone.
Today is Tuesday, I get to work at 8:00 am. I sit down and stare at my screen for the next
three hours pouring all of my pain towards making money. This is the Greater Bay Area,
one of the strongest economic areas after all. It’s 1:30 pm I just finished eating a stale tuna
sandwich when the same lady reappears and walks into my office. Once I saw her it was like
nothing else mattered I needed to know the truth, I ran up to her and all she said was that I
needed a fresh start. I wanted to ask her more questions and just before I could speak to her
my co-worker came up to me and asked me a question, and suddenly when I turned around
the lady was gone as if she was never there in the first place. I walk back to my desk and just
stare at my computer for the next few hours. I felt numb, nothing made sense to me.
Its 9:00 pm, I take the metro for exactly 46 minutes on the green line, by 10:00 pm I
arrive at my station. By 10:14 pm I am walking the 12 minute journey home. I walk home as
quickly as possible, nothing is making sense. I feel crazy, all I want is answers, I knew I had to
leave, all the work and the money was never going to be the answer to my pain.
Anger works in mysterious ways, it comes from deep within us and attacks when we least expect it.
On this Tuesday I came home and before I knew it, I became a different person. I was mad. I was mad at
my past, at my wife and at what my life had become. Screams crawled out of my chest and echoed through
my house. I smashed everything; all my wife’s old vases, all the pictures hanging on the wall. She isn’t
alive anymore I have to let go and stop hanging on to the past. I turn around and standing there is the
same lady that has been appearing all week, all she says is “congratulations, you can finally move on.”
That night I left. I left my home, I left my job and I left the Greater Bay Area, I left the
place that was home. Deep down I knew the moment that she walked out on our argument
and never came back, that was when the Greater Bay Area stopped feeling like home. After
that night I never came back I left every morsel of my past there.
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