The Year of the Snake
Harrow International School Hong Kong , Sharma , Callum – 12
T o my lovely Grandson Yao Jin ,
I miss you very much and I have been thinking of you a lot lately . I see photos of you which bring a smile to my face and I hope that you are 很好 . You have grown into a handsome young man and I ’ m pleased to hear about your accomplishments . I am writing to you now as I feel death is watching me and I may not see you again . When you were younger I was afraid of telling you my adventures , but now my time is nearly over and I must tell you a secret ….
It started a long time ago in the year of 1932 in Old Shanghai when it was known as “ the Paris of the East and the New York of the West . ” It was a time of new theater , popular music , glamour and pretty girls wearing beautiful bright orange and scarlet qipaos . The night sky was filled with bright lights and fireworks ; there were the sounds of singing and shouting from the Europeans and the smell of money .
I , however , was living in a tiny modest apartment with my dearest mother , father and sister who you unfortunately never met . I was working in a clothes factory for years that paid quite well as the young and rich loved new fashion . Despite the glamour , it was quite an ordinary life for us and I would often secretly watch the glamorous people with their elaborate and colourful clothes hoping one day that I could be like them .
The day it happened was a busy day at work in the clothes factory ; people working and not stopping until they have finished with sweat rolling down their faces . We got out quite late because Chinese New Year was coming closer so we have to make double amount of clothes for the locals and foreigners . Everybody had expensive new clothes for Chinese New Year !
I was walking my usual route home along The Bund but it seemed quieter than usual . I remember wondering if perhaps this was the calm before the storm of Chinese New Year . As I walked along the quieter part of the Bund , it felt eerie with strange menacing shadows looking at me . Suddenly , I heard noises . Whispering , hissing and strange noises . I scanned around , trying to look at where the noise was coming from but I couldn ’ t see anything . I quickened my step but then heard the hissing started again like it was following me and then I saw it . Two huge gleaming blood red eyes staring right at me . I froze like a statue . I could feel a chill running down my spine and I was paralyzed to the spot . Then I ran . I ran as fast as I could all the way to my little wooden house in Chang Nin . I tried to convince myself it was a dream and that I was imagining things , as I was tired . But all night I could just think of nothing but those humongous gleaming red eyes .
I woke the next day with a start ! Did that really happen last night ? Surely not , I must have been imagining things and perhaps the red lights were the lights of a ship , I ’ d seen them so many times . I put it out of my mind and continued to work and walked home as usual along The Bund . I was slightly apprehensive but l saw nothing and laughed to my crazy imagination and myself . Then , I heard it . HISSSSSSS , the same noise again . Then , I saw those same gleaming blood red eyes and I knew it was not my imagination . The same feeling came over me , the feeling of a chill slowly running down my back . Then the creature moved . The blood red eyes were followed by emerald green scaly skin curling as slithering towards me . I froze like a statue . I couldn ’ t move . I should of run . But I couldn ’ t .