Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 424

throughout the storytelling. When Gabrielle finished narrating her story, Mason and Malcolm bombarded her with so many
questions and yet, she was delighted to hear them all. She never had an audience before, so she felt quite over-whelmed! Ad she
was answering one of the questions asked by Malcolm, a hand touched her shoulder…“It’s time to go, Honey.” Said Gabrielle’s
mum in a soft voice. “Right!” said Gabrielle and she jumped on to her feet. “Well, come on then.” She told the twins, “I’ll answer
your questions on the way out!”
The next day, Gabrielle decided to go for a walk just outside the hotel. When she reached the lobby, she met the twins at the
souvenir shop. They decided to join Gabrielle. While walking, the trio talked about the story Gabrielle told them about yesterday.
Mason had thought about the plot of the story and changed it. Malcolm changed the main character into a wizard. Gabrielle
found all of this very amusing. As they were talking, they didn’t realize that they were actually going to a very peculiar street. It
had ancient-looking relics along the sides of the street. Gabrielle was the first to notice a temple that was beautifully built and
decorated. She entered the temple gazing at all of the amazing architectures while the twins followed closely behind as well as
being mesmerized by the designs everywhere…
When Gabrielle turned around, she noticed an elderly woman telling a young child something. “They must be having a
grandmother and grandchild relationship. How sweet!” Gabrielle was about to nudge Mason and Malcolm to see this touching
moment but she found out they were not beside her at that point. She then saw them drawing close to the grandmother as if
they were eavesdropping on her conversation. “They can’t be this rude...” thought Gabrielle and she then went up to them,
trying
not
to
catch
the
attention
of
either
the
grandchild
or
the
grandmother.
Mason
saw
Gabrielle coming and signaled her to come faster. She came and the twins literally pinned her to the wall and made her listen to
what the grandmother was saying before she herself could pull them away. As she was listening, she realized that the
grandmother and her grandchild are not having a conversation instead; the grandmother was narrating a story.
“It’s the same story you told us yesterday, Gabrielle. Isn’t that weird?” whispered Malcolm. “Yeah…yeah it is, isn’t it?!” Then,
without hesitating or thinking, she went up to the elderly woman and said, “Ma’am, sorry to interrupt, but…er…don’t mind me
asking but, who told you this story? No, it’s because my grandfather narrated to me this, exact, story when I was a very small
kid…” Gabrielle didn’t really plan what to say. The grandmother looked at her with a confused look on her face for a very long
time and then unexpectedly she got up and… she hugged Gabrielle with tears in her eyes! “Gabby…o Gabrielle, my dear
granddaughter…it’s been so long, I thought I’ll never see you again...” she said crying. “ Um… who are y –wait- are you my
grandma?” Gabrielle said, startled. Just before her grandmother could reply, Gabrielle’s mom came bursting in.
“GABRIELLE! GABRIELLE, why on earth did you not tell me you were going walking? How could you be so
irresponsible? We were both sleeping but still! How-”Her mom surprisingly stopped yelling. When Gabrielle looked, she saw
her mom staring with an open mouth at the elderly lady. “Mama?” her mom said. The old woman choked in tears a nd said,
“Lucy!” and hugged Gabrielle’s mum as well! Gabrielle was super confused. “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON
RIGHT NOW?” She screamed that even the little girl and the twins looked scared of her. That was when her mum said in a soft,
gentle voice, “Gabrielle, meet your grandmamma...”
Everyone sat down except the twins; they waited outside as they knew this was a ‘personal matter’. Then, Gabrielle’s
grandma and mom started revealing that actually Gabrielle’s mum, Lucy had argued badly with her family and then left her
home, went to America with Gabrielle’s dad, Mark and with Gabrielle and vowed to never to talk about or talk to anyone
from their family in Shanghai. Gabrielle finally knew the truth they were hiding for so long and also understood why she never