Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 9

New Journey to the West
Carmel Pak U Secondary School, Chan, Yu Him - 14
I
opened my eyes as my seat shook suddenly. I looked out the window, seeing the endless sea for the
fourth time. “Are we there yet?” I asked, as I turned and looked at my mum. She didn’t answer my
question, maybe annoyed as I had already asked it for ten times since we went on the bus. I rubbed my
tired eyes, and yawned. Mum was still reading the Bible with the same posture that she had since she sat
down on the bus. I sighed, I wasn’t supposed to be here, on the bus to Laos. I should be at home, enjoying
my Christmas holiday…
“Mum, why do you need me to go with you?” I had argued as I packed my belongings reluctantly.
“I have to enjoy my Christmas at home, but…”“No buts my son. Those people need our help. They need
to learn, and it is our job to teach them. Let’s go,” she replied. “You have just told me to go with you three
days ago, and why are we supposed to teach them? They are a thousand kilometers west from us, why do
they expect any of our help?” I asked, as I locked my luggage and lay down on the bed. She took a deep
breath, trying her best to lower her temper, and answered with a calm voice. “Okay son, let me tell you
something. When I was a child…” And then she started to tell the story about her fight with poverty and
led her to decide to help other poor people whenever she could. It was her third time recounting the story
to me and it was totally unpersuasive. Knowing that I didn’t have any other choice, I gave up arguing and
got off with Mum.
The bus shook again, bringing me back to reality. I looked out of the window. The disappearance of
the sea was the only change in scenery, leaving the fields alone. I took out my mobile phone, hoping that
the 4K signal will come back. But that wouldn’t be happening in a few days. It was six o’clock in the
evening, and the sun had started to disappear under the horizon. Darkness filled the sky in a short time,
though the glimmering moon was hung above us, still there was not enough light to brighten the road. I just
hope that we wouldn’t arrive there on time, so that we could shorten the time we stayed there. The driver
flicked a switch, turning on the front light of the bus. I put my phone in my bag and took out a book to
read.
The bus suddenly stopped. I bumped onto the seat in front of me. The driver walked towards us, and
said, “Sorry, I think there is no fuel left in the bus, I am afraid that you’ll need to walk to your destination.
It is ten miles from here. Sorry.” I opened my eyes, wide. “Fine, we’ll walk, thank you.” Mum said, calmly.
Now we need to walk, what a great journey. Thanks for ruining my holiday, Mum. I just wanted to leave
this place. I stopped myself from thinking about the bad things that had happened. In fact, if we could arrive
there later, that means that we could stay shorter. I got off the bus, feeling the chilly wind. And I started
walking.
As houses started to appear in front of us, hope drained away from me. I thought it would be a long
walk to finally get to the village. It seemed that the driver and Mum had fooled me to have hope of being
delayed to get to the village. It just took us a total of ten to fifteen minutes to get here. There were a couple
of houses scattered around the whole place, it was clearly seen that there were flies flying around. Locals
stopped their work and stare at us, making me feel a little bit scared and embarrassed. A middle aged man
came towards us and speak with us. Mum spoke with him with their language and shook hands with each
other. He turned to me and shook hands with me. But when I grabbed his hand, I can feel that it was thin
and weak, without any energy.
He turned around and shouted to the villagers about our arrival of us. The villagers suddenly became
joyful, their frowns had vanished completely. A kid ran towards me with a smile, he hugged my leg. I could
feel his warmth, but I could also feel his ribs, sticking out from his chest beneath the layer of skin. He was so
thin, I’ve never seen someone that was this thin before, because this wouldn’t ever happen in Hong Kong. I
grabbed the child and hug him. Tears dropped onto the ground, I suddenly feel bad about myself from
being too stubborn to hear Mums words. I felt sorry for those kids here, I should have not said those words
to infringe these kids. I put him down on the floor, patting his head gently and let him go back to his house.
I walked over to my mum, who was talking with the man about the teachings of tomorrow. And I
whispered to her. “Thanks for bringing me to here, this is an amazing journey to the west.”