Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 450

The Love from Prosperity, the Prosperity from Love
Sacred Heart Canossian College, Chow, Hang Hei - 13
She peeked through the curtains, staring into a world of luminous light, lost, in her mind.
Aredhel was a village girl, and she was mute. Since her birth she had been taught to be obedient, and to farm.
She was never provided real education, though, for again, she was a girl.
But she did have a dream, a beautiful and sweet dream that she yearned for in the deepest darkness--she yearned
to be free of the shackles from her world, that she was worthless as a girl, who could not even talk. How fervent
her wish was, that she wished, to learn.
And so Aredhel prayed every day, to the dim moon and the shining stars, secretly and silently.
✳✳✳✳✳
It was one day when her brother came to her, and brought her away from her childhood home, and led her to a
strange dwelling--he called it the Greater Bay Area, with more land than Switzerland, more people than
Canada, and more business activities than the whole of Australia.
So it was that Aredhel came to a place so unlike her village, of light, of people, of prosperity.
✳✳✳✳✳
Aredhel woke up with a start, and went to the window. She looked down through the curtains and stared into a
world of light, that never had she witnessed before. Other skyscrapers came into sight as she innocently waved at
the residents through the glass. She was silent, but her silence could not conceal her curiosity nor her joy.
Aredhel raced to her brother for breakfast, after she dressed up for the day. She was quite ready for a little
adventure today, and while gobbling up her food she looked at her brother, begging him to take her out for a
walk. She could not talk, no she could not, but her soul could speak with her eyes.
The advertising lights shone and dazzled, while the displays of the streets blinded Aredhel with their numerous
colours. Aredhel looked up at the sky, and laughed and cried, though no sound came from her mouth. The
skyscrapers scrambled into view and cast a long shadow on her face, while they faced each other, window to
window, door to door. The voices of different people rang beside her, melodic, and the rustling sounds of cars
conjured her attention, Cars, cars. She had only seen cows and horses in the village, but never had she seen a
car. Aredhel’s eyes widened with marvel and she counted every single car that passed by. She nudged her
brother--maybe he could get a car for her. Red, she had always fancied red. If she had a car, she would get a
red one. The shadows of the people fell continuously onto her, but she did not mind. She stood silently and
watched, until her brother called her.
Hong Kong, recalled Aredhel from her brother. This was Hong Kong. She liked this city, it was lively and
diversified, that all colours merged together. There were traditional Chinese buildings of all sorts that were
similar to those in her village, but she gave her liking rather to the tall European-styled architecture. It was the
veranda which she liked most. The ferry pier and terminal came in next, for she loved the weathering breeze
which swept over her face. Macau, she mouthed after her brother, there was a ferry to Macau in the terminal.
Unleashing her imagination, Aredhel started to dream. Her brother said it was a city of casinos and, well, swag.
It was as well a city of peace and green scenery, and of a sense of European classics, as it was once a Portuguese
colony. But more did she look forward to the express rail links forth and back the Greater Bay Area. The most
comfortable and the quickest trains, probably. What’s more, it was the skyscrapers which had filled her heart
with passion, of all the technology Aredhel had never known, of all the new sights she had never seen, of all the
new words she had ever heard.