Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 107

New Tales of The Old Shanghai
Island School, Kawano, Mary-Joy - 15
I
n which a girl can hear people’s thoughts and the crowds of old shanghai elite show her that not everyone has
good intentions.
She walked across the halls of her family’s mansion, her black shoes clicking against the white tile floor. All the rich
elite of the city filled her home for a lavish ceremony she was forced to attend, despite her many disagreements
about the guests. As she walked towards the main room, she heard voices. She stopped directly in front of a door,
dark and often overlooked. A small study that she hardly ever enters.
She tried to listen in, but there were no voices. Just silence. Then footsteps pacing around inside. The voice perked
up again. A man’s voice who she recognized as a man her father wanted her to wed. The son of a rich businessman
who she didn’t trust. He would do anything for money, and she didn’t know what he would do to her.
“ I lead him to the pagoda, where the knife is ready, ” He spoke almost manically. She could almost see his wide
eyes, his hands clenched.
It was then that she realised that he wasn’t speaking. He was thinking. There was no one else in the study with him.
She inhaled deeply and sighed quietly; This always happened. Others’ thoughts invaded her own in a mess of
opinions and emotions and she had slowly learnt to handle it over the years.
The voice rambled non-stop, his thoughts getting louder, the footsteps pacing in the room got faster.
“I need to do it, I need to do it, I need to do it.” He rambled, repeating the phrase obsessively.
She wasn’t sure how to react, she was frozen in place. She decided then that she wanted to know what he was
planning to do. She stood up straight and focused on listening. Not to his voice, or the pacing footsteps, or the loud
chatter coming from other guests, but to his thoughts. She wants to remember it. Wants to be able to focus on it
and hear it whenever she wants.
She heard the pacing footsteps get closer to the door and she started walking away, not wanting to get caught. The
door opened quietly when she was already a few steps away, the man stepping out casually with a cigar hanging
from his hands.
He smiled at her and a she felt a chill run down her spine, making her shiver. She always thought something was
not right with him, he was always too solicitous, always standing too close for comfort and staring too often. From
what she has just heard, she thought right. He brushed against her as he walked away and she stood there, just
staring at him.
“Now where is he? ” She heard him think. She had an alarming thought; he was gonna do what he was thinking
of doing. She had to do something.
She followed him silently through the halls and before he reached the main door to the dining room where
everyone else was, he turned a swift left. She realised her shoes were loud and huffed, rolling her eyes. She didn’t
even know why she had to wear these stupid shoes. She took them off and threw them to the side. She ran to catch
up to him and went into a room that was very familiar to her. Her father’s study. A sense of dread dropped to her
stomach and she listened from outside the room.