Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 276

From Shanghai to Hong Kong St. Margaret's Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School (Secondary Section), Chun, Jasper – 15 I t was dark, cold and windy when she finally arrived back home. Her clothes, ruffled and creased now lay upon her simple wooden table, the sweet scent still coming out of the wood after 12 years. She set about preparing dinner for herself and her father, when the door suddenly opened and shut quickly, and there stood a man in a soaked through shirt and pants, as if he came directly off a boat. She rushed towards him, shouting “Father! You’re home!” and grasped him tight, but the man, once a very happy man, just grunted and walked in, and sat on the lacquered wooden chair. The man was called Victor, and his daughter was the one thing he cared for, more so than his work, that he slaved off many hours arguing with his sponsors just to get a new position in the company, the East India Trading Company, the largest trading company between the seas separating the two continents. He had been forced to take up a position in Shanghai, for one, because he wanted a new life away from the cold, dreary weather commonly associated with Britain, and two, to let his daughter explore more places, just like how she wished, long ago, together with her mother. His daughter has since gotten over it, but she still had the lost look in her eyes as she saw her mother get washed off the deck, back when she was 4, a young toddler. It was a hard decision, but it was either to leave their friends and family behind, but keep working in the company in which he had helped build, or to leave the company and find a new opportunity. He was sorry that her daughter had to say goodbye to her long time childhood friend, who has stood by her for many an accident. The child had promised to marry her when she came back, and she would wait for him, but Victor knew that would never happen. Victor and Maria were now situated in a fairly wealthy position, due to his position as one of the few operators in Shanghai overlooking the transportation of goods sold by the company, He would have been content with the job, if not for the terrible conditions the ports were kept and built, and the working hours that came with the title. Every morning, he would wake up at 5 in the morning, and come back at 9 at night, so he was forced to lose a lot of time with her daughter, which, as she grew up, made much more friends of the Chinese variety than of her own kind. But of course, she also made many enemies, due to her blood not being Chinese. Because of this, she got beaten by many older kids, each throwing rocks at her. She often came back slightly bruised. “Father, dinner’s ready, are you eating tonight?” said Maria, breaking into his train of thought. “Hm... Oh yes, don’t mind my earlier temper, work was just terrible today,” he replied. “Are they asking you about the sales of the powder again? Because my friends say that their parents have bought a lot of pouches! Some of them even snuck some from behind their parents’ back and sniffed some themselves, they also offer-” “NO!” he immediately roared out, “You cannot take any of the powder, you hear?” he then said, calming down, seeing his daughter cringe in shock and pain. “Y…yes, Father…” she replied in a quiet voice, slowly sitting down to her dinner. Their dinner was quiet all throughout, and when she said nothing even after her washing up, he felt like he had crossed the line. He walked up to her room and sat next to her bed, where she laid down.