Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 626

A Melody for Change
St Margaret's Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School, Fernandes, Andrik - 15
The midnight streets of New Hong Kong lay still, shrouded in the dull glow of its smart street lamps. He
trudged through the seemingly ever-winding lanes, cloaked in the dim hues of the slowly pulsating,
flickering neon signs.
His frail body, bent with age, lay beneath a tattered tweed jacket - his only defence against the winter cold.
Upon his head lay tufts of greyed hair that had slipped out from under his muffler. They were tossed
furiously by the strong gusts, at times threatening to slip off entirely with a particularly potent tug of the
wind. His eyes, though cloudy with the inevitable weathering of old age, still held an unmistakable spark of
personality, as was evident to any passer-by on the street.
Despite his fragile state, a battered case of what appeared to be some kind of instrument was slung across his
back. At twice his height, it tilted and jerked with every step he took. Regardless, he made the constant
effort of fastidiously attempting to shift it and keep it from slipping off. After all, it was his most prized
possession, and had been a constant companion with him through the years.
He drew a raspy breath and sighed. Many a year had it been since he last felt the warmth of a bed at night.
Above him swam a multitude of colours that lay dotted across the jagged towers that seemed to breach the
heavens. He shifted his gaze to a particularly lofty one that had been erected fairly recently. The words
“Happy 2074” snaked down the Skyspire, alternating in blazingly bright shades of red and gold text.
“Whoever was in charge of marketing had probably gone all out in the effort of drawing the most ‘oohs and
ahhs’ from onlookers”, he thought to himself. “2074! Imagine that. Who would have thought the human
species would have made it this far, especially given their history of messing rather important things up," he
chuckled and continued on his way.
He had spent all his years - decade upon decade - in this city and had welcomed the Greater Bay Area
Project with open arms. Why wouldn’t he? After all, he was responsible for some of the great architecture
that had cemented their places as irreplaceable parts of the new skyline. The thought filled him with a
renewed sense of pride as he carried on with a new spring in his step.
His thoughts were interrupted by the metallic glide of the overhead monorail. It’s sleek exterior seemed to
have been freshly repainted and polished in the hope of attracting more tourists to the Greater Bay Area city.
The city’s X-Train ran past and disappeared into the dusty darkness of the night sky, emitting a multitude of
pollutants no doubt. “Funny how they could manage to clean their trains but not their skies”, he thought.
He inhaled raggedly and sighed. He couldn’t remember the last time he had had a bed of his own, or
experienced the even simpler pleasures of clean air to breathe in, or saw compassion from a living thing in a
city so mechanical and gaudy. He had met many other humans, he had seen plenty of those, yet he liked
few. Everyone was so intent on advancement. “Bigger. Better. Stronger.” Read a nearby e-board, touting
the specs of a new cybernetic implant modelled on everyone’s favourite actor - Bygbuks Munn Yi.
Two streets across lay a sprawling entertainment complex in place of his family home which was razed
decades ago to make way for it. “The train of progress never stops,” he sighed, craning his neck toward the
sky and squinting with great effort to count the number of cranes that adorned it. The unmistakable heralds
of development blocked out the few stars that were visible through the haze, and then his gaze caught the
“Tree of Hope”, a sight that filled him with great confidence for the future.
The tree shone brightly, glistening in its iridescent metallic hues. From time to time, its animatronic systems
whirred to simulate the natural movements of a real, living tree. Below it lay a plaque inscribed with the
words, “The New Hong Kong Tree. The second bionic tree of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau
Greater Bay Area. Erected in the hope of a big blue beautiful tomorrow.” The text was repeated in
Traditional and Simplified Chinese. It was an almost surreal experience for him each time he passed that