Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 266

“Olly, we should talk to dad about the meeting.”
I don’t want Cora to think I’m mad at dad because I told her I wasn’t but I really don’t want to talk to him. “I’m
tired,” I pout. “I want to go to sleep, you can talk to him.”
Later I’m sitting at the table with a scowl on my face. I don’t know how Cora manages to do it but she always
seems to be able to make me do things that I don’t want to do.
“Mr Chan says that Olly won the sixth grade Avant-garde competition- he says that he thinks that Olly has real
potential and that he could get into art school.”
I whip my head so fast my neck cracks. Art school? That’s all I’ve wanted to do but mom used to say that we
would never be able to afford it. I turn to face my dad but see that his mind seemed to be wandering.
“Art school?” he said slowly. “What about you?” He looked at Cora, “Didn’t we just pay for you to get into law
school?”
Cora’s animated face stopped and her mouth was agape.
“I’ve been paying for Oliver to go to art classes as a hobby, but being an artist won’t get him anywhere. You
know that.” My dad continued, “He’s going to be a doctor or an engineer, something professional.”
Woah what? Where did this come from? I always thought my dad had no expectations for me, I thought he
thought that it was pretty clear I was going to be an artist when I grew up.
I was about to retaliate when Cora kicked me under the table.
Later I was lying in bed thinking about how the conversation had turned, I couldn’t sleep I was drawing another
drawing about the walled city, dad had gotten out and I was betrayed by the Small Sword Society, I was the one
in jail now and Cora was nowhere to be seen.
I began avoiding my dad from then on. This continued for a few weeks and I slowly began to realize how little I
saw of my dad. I began to resent him for his absence but it was the final straw when one day I saw Cora crying.
This was a shock, Cora never cried about anything ever.
“Cora?”
She had her head bent over the table, you could hear her sniffles every few seconds. I began shaking her arms to
make her look at me. I flinched when I saw her bloodshot eyes and running nose.
She looked at me and smiled sadly, there in her hand was a letter.
“I didn’t get it.” A tear ran down her face. I was scared, I didn’t know what it was that she didn’t get but I didn’t
want to ask her.
She answered it anyway, “I didn’t get into law school.”
I didn’t have anything to say to her, I never wanted her to go to law school, then she would have to leave me
but I knew this was a selfish thought. I let her speak.
“Dad’s going to be so disappointed.”
“Who cares what dad thinks.” I said.
She looked at me with her swollen eyes, “you shouldn’t say that, he’s done a lot of things for us. He only wants
what’s best for us.” She sniffed.