I don’t have a sister. Her name is Xiao-Xiu. She was born two years after me. Ever since she was able to walk, at around 5 years old, she had become a nightmare that I would never wake up from.
There she is again, shouting out her name. Her panicked stricken face, as pale as the day she first found out that her youngest daughter is not like any other normal kids. Why! Why do I have to come along with her! I would prefer to stay at home and watch Wild Thornberrys instead. Why must she blame me for her going missing again? It wasn’t my fault, I didn’t asked to be left in-charged of that silly girl while she’s out helping grandma selling fish at the market!
That stupid girl! Where did she went. I only left for a while to go play with Mei-Mei next door. It’s getting dark, and if we don’t find her soon, mummy’s going to spent the whole night crying and running around looking for her again.
“Xiao-Xiu! Where are you! Don’t be scared, Mommy’s here baby!” We’ve been to everywhere, every park in the neighbourhood, every shops and restaurants nearby. But still she’s nowhere to be found. Everywhere we go, everywhere we ask around about her, people would stare at us. That stare, the same stare they would give us whenever we go out with her. Either when we go to the stores for groceries, to the restaurants for dinner, or even to the playground. People would stare, and then whisper to each other. Their eyes, some of it filled with fear, some of it sneer, and some of it glisten with tears. However they are, I hate them. So I always walk on the other side of mummy, and not stand too close to her.
I still remember this one time in a playground nearby our house, mummy took us there for the afternoon. As usual, I stood far from her to avoid all the unwanted attention. I ran, as fast as I could to the sand box at the far end of the corner. There were already a few other kids there, building a sand castle. Like usual, I just smiled at them and joined in the fun. Then suddenly, I heard one of the kids shout out while pointing out“ Look! It’s one of those big-eyed alien girl!”
My eyes followed her finger towards the direction she was pointing at. There she is, some how she managed to follow me here.
“Hahaha! Look at her! She looks so dumb with her mouth open! Hahaha…. Hahaha….” And all the other kids burst out in laughter.
“Alien girl! Alien girl! Alien girl!” They all shouted like they were at the zoo, looking at one of those Panda bears. But she just stood there, staring at them, smiling, her mouth was opened as usual. She smiled, one of those big-grinned smiles of hers. She must think that they were cheering for her. Her freakishly big eyes rolled as she looked among them, I tried to hide away from them, but it was too late, she already had them fixed on me.
“Jie-jie! Jie-jie!” she screamed in excitement. Hopping on her two feet as she raised up her hands. No, no!
“Look! It’s the alien girl’s jie-jie! Hahaha….” Now all their eyes were pointing at me, so were their fingers. My palms were sweating, my face red from humiliation and anger.
“No! She’s not my sister! I…. I don’t have a stupid alien sister! I Don’t! I…. Don’t!” As I walked forward and push her onto the ground. I really did, with all my strength, I pushed her down onto the cement floor. Silence took over.
Her eyes were wide, even wider than freakishly wide. Her mouth closed. She was staring at me, but I didn’t dare to look her in the eyes. She then sat up straight, trying to stand up. Her palms were bruised, blood were gushing out of them, with the skin wrinkled up at the edge of the wounds. But she just rubbed the blood off on her shirt. Tears were coming out of her big teary eyes; she tried to rub them away too, smearing blood all over her cheeks and nose.
We just stood there, looking at each other. When she suddenly cried out in pain. She ran forward, I felt a thump, and felt her arms around me. The frontal part of my shirt wet from her tears, and I felt her alarmingly wet and warm palms on my back.
Then I saw her, mommy standing not far away. With her hands covering her mouth, whimpering.
6 comments:
i wrote this lastnite, after readin a newpaper report about the publishin of a new children's picture book with almost da same title i think(not sure =P) anyway, it reminded me of one of my classmate in primary 1-4. she was special, n sumhow i jus felt like its my responsibility to help look after her in school. to protect her frm all the mean kids that prey upon her naiveness.i can stil remember the look on the mothers face evrytime we met(as we lived quite nearby), she wud hold my hand as say tat she's grateful n hope tat i will keep helpin to take care of her in school. every year, she wud buy us a huge cake for our class party. as a child, i nvr understood wat tat cake means.
somehow, at standard 5, she stopped comin to school, i never knew why, cos i'm sure all of us missed her. well, wherever she is now, i hope she's leading a happy life with her parents.
ps: adrian, i dunno whether i shud mark this as one of our crack upon heart piece or not. cos its of a completely different genre, heheh :)
I enjoy this piece. Very authentic and moving. You can start a new series on this :)
heheh, i'm a pretty lazy writer. i hav loads of ideas in my head, but m jus to lazy to commit them to paper(or in dis case, my pc screen =P).
but since its da holiday dy(who cares about etika n profi), i think u will get to see part two of dis very soon :)
Hey....Im so jealous with you all writing stories and poems n stuff....I was a story writer once, a century ago, but because I finally realize Im extremely poor in grammar n stuff...I gave up...now u guys r making my blood boil...bubbles coming up from a tiny hole in Gunung Ledand!
"bubbles coming up from a tiny hole"
sumhow tat jus sounds a bit perverted, loads of sexual innuendos in it, gud use of metaphor, heheh =)
eh??
U n ur filthy dirty mind!!
That was John Keats copycat!...Dun remember what he wrote, so added in my limited pathetic vocab....now it's perverted? Ur partially condemning Keats! Not that I care anyway...*chuckles*
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