Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 211

The Dream Escape
Shanghai Singapore Internatinoal School, Rampton, Jade Ruth - 12
I was an ordinary girl living in a town on the outskirts of Suzhou. Nothing ever happened in my small
town. I did the same thing every day. Wake up, get ready, walk through town, eat breakfast, go to school,
comeback from school, do homework, eat, sleep and repeat. It was really boring. The only eventful part was
the chattering through the town and the hot steaming buns fogging up my glasses as I walked to school. It
has driven me mad for 11 straight years why could we not just move on and not live in this little town. I
wanted to get away. I want to explore. I guess I can run away and do my own thing when I get to 18. But
that’s like 7 more years. I would trade anything, even, my arms or maybe my legs to get away from this
dreadful town.
If I got away, would I really want to come back to this horrible town? It would be the same super boring
and dull town I have always lived in. I wonder if there would be even one new shop around the area or
even a new path to walk to the vegetable store.
I don’t know but maybe. I wonder what would happen if I ran away. No one would see me so my mother
would never know where I was or was going. That would be cool. How would I escape; what would I do;
when would I do it? I feel asleep while thinking these thoughts. I was dreaming about visiting a tropical
island. But just as I was waking up this letter flew in the hole in my wall.
I picked it up cautiously wondering what it was. I must have fallen back asleep because I dreamed about the
letter being a ticket to an unknown world. I quickly woke up and read it aloud word by word. It read
“Zheng He’s boat is coming to take a stop off at the dock you are welcome to come down and give your
wishes and admire his boat. Everybody come on down.” I didn’t read any more. Was I dreaming? This can’t
be right
I threw on my coat and raced out to the ocean hoping to see an enormous boat. Nothing was there not
even a little dingy. Just the brown murky water and me. The wind moved like hurricane but I didn’t flinch
a single bit. I thought I would see the big huge boat. But no. I stood there thinking about it.
I ran around town trying to find someone I could ask. No one was interested in the topic. As I was about to
walk back to my house all depressed but I asked one last person.
He was tall and muscular and he looked at me in a with a mortifying stare.
I worked up the nerve to ask him about Zheng He’s boat and about Zheng He. The man chuckled and
smiled at me.
He was Zheng He! I was speechless. How could the one person that would take me away far from my
house be standing right in front of me?
After seconds that felt like days of being speechless, I finally caught words to talk to him. I asked him if I
could get on his boat and go off on adventures. He told me I could but I needed to bring my mother to
come down to the boat and sign a paper to allow me to. I knew I couldn’t convince my mother to let me
go with a stranger out to sea.
Days and days went by, of me thinking of what to do. My old fragile mother would never let me sail the
world. She isn’t that type of person.
I left my plan to the last day. I packed up all of my belonging secretly without anyone suspecting anything.
Having to leave lots of my precious things left me sad. I made my way as quickly as I could to the boat
before I could get in trouble with my mother. I had to sneak into the boat but I hadn’t thought of how to
do that yet.
Maybe I could sneak through the tiny door on the hull. Yes, that was what I was going to do. I climbed
through the hole are gracefully as possible. I made sure I made no noise. I continued screaming inside