Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 75

The War Among Us: A Tale of Two Girls in Shanghai
Carmel School Association Elsa High School, Davidson, Hannah – 11
M
y name is Lisa Weiss. I used to live in Austria. Now I am in Shanghai. I live in the ghetto. It is 1941. My
father is dead. My mother and I ran away from Austria. We were lucky to get out.
‘生日快乐!’ My mother sang. It’s my birthday today, my name is Zhang Xiu Ying. As I bite into my egg tart
the silky sweetness pours into my mouth. I ask where my father is but I am told the same answer every time ‘He is
at work. No questions.’ My father is always at work although sometimes suspicions arise in my head but are quickly
pushed to nothingness. I walk to my bed and fall into the deep innocence of sleep.
It is my first time out of the ghetto and I go onto the street. I see a girl with jet black hair and narrow eyes.
She is looking too. I look away.
I am strolling on the street. I see a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. I know she is different. I see she is
different. I glance away.
I know there is a war raging in Europe. That’s why my mother and I came to Shanghai. I know that the
Chinese are at war with the Japanese and it feels like I am back in Austria: starving, scared and poor.
I am walking home. I see Japanese soldiers marching on the streets and true hatred comes to my heart. Why
did they come to my peaceful land? Why have they made war with us? What did we do? I have so many questions
raging in my head. My father is working with the war. I have known that for a while. He is going to the Ghetto to
see the Jews. I am coming along. I see the girl again with the blonde hair and blue eyes. I say hello and it seems she
speaks almost fluent Shanghainese. Her name is Lisa and she comes from a country called Austria. She tells me of
the burning synagogues, people being forced to scrub streets on hands and knees, friends sent to distant labour
camps. A tear trickles down from my left eye, I quickly wipe the tear. I do not want to make her feel sorrow as well.
She tells me about the Japanese on the streets, the gunshots every morning, the peace rallies. My heart throbs
for the girl with the narrow eyes called Zhang Xiu Ying.
I suddenly realize that the war is going on everywhere. The Japanese may march in the streets here and the
Nazis may march in the streets in Europe but they all have the same goals in mind: to destroy and kill all who are
not the same as them. My father brings me home and inside my heart a strong inner feeling wants me to go and
help him fight the Japanese but, with all my willpower I restrain myself because I know my father would not be
pleased.