Taiwan Probashi: Puja, 2019
The toy seller’s wife took me and made me the pendant
of her necklace. Now, I could see the outside world! I
saw a boy, screaming for ice cream as his mother took
him away. I saw a family of beggars starving, especially,
a young girl who was asking for food, but her mom had
nothing except water to offer her! I felt sorry for the
family. Then, I saw a young boy giving fifty dollars to that
poor mother, as she thanked the boy. I guess some
people do think about others. The woman also wore this
necklace and went out at midnight with her son. She
went on top of a hill and lay down. I could see the
beautiful stars. The woman explained to her son about
how stars are formed from stellar nebulas and how they
die from running out of fuel and become white dwarfs,
neutron stars, or black holes. I got to know the outer
world that day. A few months later, I was given to
another wealthy person, who actually traded the
necklace from my previous mistress and presented it to
his wife. That night, a thief tried to pull the necklace off
his wife’s neck, and in the struggle, I fell down from the
necklace and the thief ran away with it. Later, the
woman picked me up and put me into a piggy bank. I
was very surprised and happy to see my old friend, the
nickel in there too! He told me how he reached there.
His previous owner was riding a super-fast roller coaster
in an amusement park when he fell down from his
pocket and bounced on our current master’s head to
the floor. He picked him up. That sure was a funny way
to change owners!
Many years passed. We were happy until a day, when
my new penny friends were sent to a factory. I never
saw them ever again! I presumed that they probably
died, and I was very sad.
Years later, my owner threw a bunch of coins along with
me and the nickel into a white bag and took us to a
trash truck. The truck carried us to a factory, and there, I
was put in an extremely hot place. I was sweating a lot.
This was probably what killed my penny friends, and I
knew this was going to be my end. I tried to think of the
little girl that played with me when I was seven.
Everything came back like a flashback, and then it was
all dark.
The next thing I knew, my eyes were opened, lying
down, looking at the sky. Only the ground felt really
fluffy. I looked down and saw clouds. When I moved the
clouds, I saw melted metal in the place where I was. I
was dead, and in Money Heaven. Then, somebody
patted me on the back. I turned to see the nickel, with
my penny friends and the dime.
Now, I’m living a happy afterlife in heaven with my
closest coins.
18
---- Prithika Chatterjee ( 9 years), Taipei City