Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 74

After they close the door of the barn, we stand up and sneak to the little window and climb out.
"We have to run to the French Concession, which is near the port. It's a 30 minute run, and it's crowded, so
they won't find us," I inform my sister as we rush to the main street. It is early morning, and the market is crowded,
so we would blend in.
"Lai La! Lai La! Where are you!" We got lost in the crowd, and I am so worried. I look around and I see my
worst nightmare: they had her. Since she's thirteen and looks older due to her height, the japanese caught her. And
hanged her. In the city square, along with five other men and three women, one younger than Lai La. And there was
my mother. In her apron, her eyes half closed. Tears run down my horrified face as I stare at my dead sister and mom.
My mother betrayed me, but it was still terrible to see a rope around her neck ... both of their necks.
~
I come back to consciousness and I remember the nightmare I just felt. "It's not a nightmare," I tell myself, "it was
my past, the I had to live, everyday." Although, I know reminding myself of the past is so painful, those years I was
in hiding from that organization, all alone, learning after the war that all my siblings were killed along with my
father, who was hanged in a city square in Guangxi. I managed to smuggle myself into an American ship, working as
a cleaner. I arrived to America with no money and no family. I was alone.
The next day after my strange dream, they sit me down with a doctor. "You show early signs of Alzheimer's
Disease. This is the reason to your flashbacks sir. I-"
And I relive it, over and over again.