H ope . Leaning down my mother whispered in my ear , she ’ d say it every morning once I ’ d leap out of bed and every night while I ’ d climb back under the covers . Even after 4 years she forgot not once to say it to me . But what is hope ? Is hope waiting for the chance to flee your own country or for finding a single penny ? At least this was hope in my eyes . My family , we are refugees waiting upon the moment we can leave our country , Vietnam . The war finished about 5 years ago and already thousands of our people have fled . We were next . How do I know ? Hope .

There was a loud continuous knocking from outside the door ; I had no clue the time and when I looked outside it was pitch black . Mother woke up and almost instantly opened the door and stepped outside closing the door behind her , blocking the conversation . Five minutes passed and the door swung open and Mother ran in our room beaming the brightest I ’ ve seen since Thom was born , my younger brother . “ Children , grab your valuables and be ready to leave in two minutes .” Once my mother finished her sentence her smile then traveled on to me , we were finally leaving . I didn ’ t care where we would go as long as it wasn ’ t here that ’ s all that mattered . A minute had already passed and I was just standing and smiling , I then snapped out of it and rushed to grab my jacket , elephant and picture frame . Two minutes gone , we were all gathered lacing up our boots and out the door . Mother brought us down to the river where I saw a man in a medium sized boat , one by one each of us hopped in . Mother was the last to get in and once she jumped on we left . I wondered where we were headed so I asked mother , “ We ’ re going West .” she replied . I laid on her lap staring up at the sky , I looked at the stars remembering the constellations I had learnt when I was little . I whispered , “ Look its the North Star , the brightest star in the sky .” I looked down at mother and noticed a small smirk , “ Hope my darling , hope .”

As the sun hit my face , I opened my eyes . Mother was awake looking out and stroking my hair . I sat up wondering where we were and looked out of the boat . “ India ,” Mother said softly , “ We ’ re headed to India for a little while , lets see how that goes hey .” I smiled and laid back down shutting my eyes trying to imagine India . What would it be like ? I ’ ve heard about all the spices they put in their food , was it tasty ? I didn ’ t realize how excited I was until I remembered that this is my first time leaving Vietnam ever . 13 years and I haven ’ t left once . Rhea tapped me on the shoulder and my eyes flung open , she handed me an apple , I was starving . I chomped down that apple , every bit except the seeds , which I slipped into my jacket pocket . I always believed that if you plant seeds from a fruit in soil that it will grow into a tree . Every fruit I ate , I would keep the seeds so that when one day we find home I will plant all my seeds and have hundreds of fresh fruit falling from trees . Our home will have a sweet scent throughout the house and every time you smell it , you smile .

We arrived to a dock with a woman watching us while walking towards the boat . The driver threw her a rope and she tied it to the dock . We got off one by one and then the man drove away . “ What happened ?” I asked mother , “ Nothing darling this is the farthest he could take us , now we go on our own .” She squeezed my hand and started walking along . I carried Rhea half way through and we giggled the rest of the walk . We stopped at a sign , which said , India population 1.3 billion . We were here , finally home . Mother said it would be a short walk now to a bus station , which would take us home .

Mother made us close our eyes once we stepped off the bus and we all held hands walking blindly towards home . I wanted to peek already so I could see but I didn ’ t want to spoil it . We all counted down and on one we opened . It was no mansion or house but when I opened I saw a building looked old and maybe dirty but it looked like home and no matter how gross and old it could ’ ve been I knew it was home when I saw it . We took the stairs up to the sixth floor , which was the top . I looked around slowly ; taking everything in and realized there was even a roof for us which had soil so I could plant the trees .

All of this was unbelievable and I was curious to how we even got this place and I asked mother , “ That man driving the boat , this is his house and he ’ s been driving families from Vietnam to India for over 2 years . He ’ s given homes to these families and now it was our turn .” I was confused , why would this man give all these homes to families without a price ? So I asked mother , “ While you were all sleeping , he told me a story . He had a daughter about nine , she went outside to play when a car came by and didn ’ t see her there . She got hit and her dad ran out side and rushed her straight to the hospital , five minutes passed and

Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 22