Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 32

“A crib in the front door, so that I could watch my sunshine through the other room. There would be a bed
there too so that when I want to play with him he wouldn’t fall and hurt his head on the hard floor. And there would
be a big cabinet, for all of the clothing we will buy for him.”
She was smiling through all of her words. She was so happy to talk about her baby. She was still glaring at the ocean
though.
“How did you know it was a boy?”
“I felt it.”
Now she looked into my eyes with hopefulness. She held her belly with both arms and was smiling that same
creepy smile that she wore before. I started to be concerned. I never saw a mother this passion for her child. It was like
an obsession.
Ying
“One night, while we were eating dinner at the restaurant, he seemed nervous.”
I smiled and looked at the ocean again.
“He kept on babbling about something, but I wasn’t focused, the recurring memory came to me. The same as
the others.”
My expression suddenly became terrified.
“It was in that dark strange room. I was standing up, and the small room was spinning, then I looked around
and saw two figures. They were big and bulky, it looked like two men. I squinted my eyes to take a better look, but it
was too blurry, then I passed out.” I closed my eyes, trying to remember.
“Then I noticed that Na’Lan was sitting in front of me again. He was still babbling and fiddling with
something under the table. I asked him what was wrong,” I let out a small giggle. “Then he pulled out the most
beautiful ring I have ever seen and asked me to marry him.”
I looked down at my hand, where the ring was. It had one small red stone on it and it seemed a little bit too big for my
thin fingers.
Stranger
“That was the best night of my life. But after a few weeks …”
She closed her eyes lightly, “… the worst night happened.”
Her face fell and she squinted her eyes aggressively, pushing back tears forcefully.
“He just came back home,” her voice cracked. “It happened too quickly. The ship authorities knocked our
door down, grabbed my fiancé and dragged him out. There wasn’t enough time to fight back, or to even realize what
had happened.” She finally opened her eyes, which were red “I had to run after them, and once I reached them, I had
to beg. I was crying and begging them to explain, but they kept their mouth shut, and so did Na’Lan. He seemed to
understand what was happening and kept his face serious the whole time. It hurt me to see him so calm when I was
going crazy. I followed them until they reached the third floor, where they put all of their prisoners. Then I finally
understood what was going on.” She finally broke into a sob, putting her face on her hands again, hiding her tears.
“They found out about the murder of Bo Ling,” she managed to spit out while sobbing. “Then I got another
flash of memory: I was hitting something very hard, then I tried to stand up, but slipped because of something slippery.
I looked at what I slipped at, and I gasped. Afterward, it was just black again,” she stuttered, struggling to get the words
out as she was crying.
“Then he finally spoke, Na’Lan. He asked if I could keep a promise for him. I said I would do anything. He
asked to always watch out for myself and the baby because...”
She took her face out of her hands and looked at me, with pain painted on her face, “but then they took me
away from him.” She glared at the ocean again. “But I didn’t need any promise for that. I love my baby, so I will always
watch out for him.” Then she whispered silently, “Maybe even more than my fiancé.”
Her tone was dark.
Ying
When l stopped sobbing I started to speak again, confidently.