Wish You Well

• Yik Tsun (joanna) Chen, Grade 11, Balwyn High School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

It’s Christmas Eve in Canada. The ground is covered with a vast expanse of whiteness. Fancy decorations and lights surround the tremendous Christmas tree. Different colors of neon light are reflected on the ground. People bustle around with joy to greet the annual festival.
I hold a cup of hot chocolate, sitting on the bench to enjoy this beautiful scenery. But my real purpose, is to find out a person that can stimulate my writing inspiration. A young couple walking pass, I close my eyes and try to read their stories. Umm, just a simple love story.
I have gained a unique ability since I was five, to read through people’s past. Since then, I love to stand on the street, waiting the pedestrians to share their stories with me. Someone has got a fantastic story to share with, but most of them, are living in a boring life. My job, is to retell the amazing stories that I get, and make them into best-selling books.
There I go, waiting my prey to appear at Christmas Eve, capturing it to help me earn money. In the crowd, I see a little girl at the corner, without being seen. She is wearing dilapidated clothes, and covered by cardboard. Oh, let’s see what she has got. I close my eyes, start to enter her past…
8 years ago, a baby’s outcry came out from the wooden house. That’s her. Her mum was thin as a lath. She was too weak to carry the baby, still she used all her strength to hold the baby in her arms. Suddenly, an old man opened the door. Her mum stood up and asked “Have you got anything for tonight’s dinner?” “Sorry, just a hare.” The lady was burst into tears “Then what can we do for our baby? She is starving.” The old man sighed “Maybe we should help her to find a better family…” “What do you mean? She is our only child!” She roared at her husband.
The scene changed. I see the old couple was giving the baby to a voluminous woman. They thought their baby could live a better life but they were wrong. She was treated as a slave, eating kitchen waste and forced to work 12 hours a day. She even got beaten up by the master if she disobeyed the order. One night, she escaped from the evil family, and traveled to this town becoming a homeless girl.
The image in my brain turns dim. That’s her past. I thought everyone would be joyful in Christmas, except her. I walk across the crowd, standing beside her. She is sleeping, but also trembling, it must be cold. I take off my black woolen coat and put it on her, also leaving some money in the pocket. This is the first time for me, to use this power helping someone. I squat and murmur “I can’t see your future, but I wish you well. Merry Christmas Dear.”