Ng comes through

• Amy Cui, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2006

Ng Comes Through

He saw before him the dark, forbidding road, twisted and menacing in the half-light of dusk. It was an asphalt line, winding snake-like through the dense woodland. So this was it, he thought – the notorious road that few would ride by after sunset. It was a challenge now, for the Gordon High students. An object to swear by – “I’ll bet a walk down Seaview road that you won’t pass that test.”

With a start, he remembered why it was called Seaview road. Passing through the black woods, the road ran atop a sheer cliff with the roaring sea a hundred metres below. The thought of the sea and the open cliff emboldened him. A whiff of clear night breeze from the unsullied ocean awaited him.

Slowly, he dragged his rusted bicycle from the grass. The trees loomed huge above him and the wind hissed through their leaves. Swinging his legs over the seat, he began to pedal. Faster and faster he went, along the smooth, hard road. Silently, the trees swallowed boy and bicycle.

He was in. A burst of fear came like a spasm across his chest and he gripped the handles of his bike tensely. Horrifying stories of ghostly encounters reeled through his mind – nightmarish thoughts of eerie lights and strange visions. He kept his eyes fixed resolutely on the road.

The voices of his friends came back to him now, daring him on with teasing and mockery. Sam’s strong voice sounded gratingly in his thoughts: “No one uses that road at night, but here’s ten bucks for anyone who dares it.” Ten dollars was a paltry sum to pay for the terror he endured now. It had been different in the bright schoolyard, with the grinning boys. He had felt braver then and Seaview road had seemed remote – only a pale rumour of dread hung about it. They had all laughed when he volunteered, and inwardly he bristled at their amusement.

But now the feeling of terror was growing upon him. He glanced over his thin shoulder nervously and saw the bleak, empty road stretching out behind. He was deep into the woods now and the immense trunks of the trees formed a hostile wall on either side. Tell-tale flashes of white glimpsed in the corner of his eye fired his overexcited imagination into a frenzy of fear.

“Wonder how Ng’s going?” Sam and the others were waiting patiently for him at the end of the road. “You don’t think he took me seriously when I joked about going by Seaview?”
“I dunno.” Tim was worried. With Ng’s meagre command of English, it was likely that he may have taken Sam’s words as a challenge. Ng’s culture, too, was unfamiliar to them and Tim had the sinking suspicion that humour was not as firmly integrated into it as their own.

Meanwhile, Ng pedalled with rhythmic ferocity and tried to keep his mind off his terror. The cold, lonely road behind him seemed very much like his own life, he reflected miserably. Trying to fit into this foreign country and understanding its carefree, laughing people had been a constant struggle. At first, shocked by a culture so different from his own, Ng had isolated himself in an island of misunderstanding. He had led an empty, cheerless life, trusting nobody and fearing their loud, raucous laughter. In his own country – one ravaged by civil war and violence – laughter was the evil sound of gloating triumph.

Ng shook himself out of his reverie and concentrated on the road again. The white, broken lines marking the road blurred into a line of light as he rushed by. They reminded him of the early dawn horizon – a glowing line of fire that blazed forth gloriously at the rising of the sun. Here, the sun too was different – rosy and radiant in the mornings and soft with blushing warmth in the afternoons. The dreadful road passed rapidly beneath him as he occupied his mind with the beauty of these images. Soon, he sensed the trees thinning on either side and felt the repressing atmosphere of the dark wood lifting from his body.

Giving a short burst of speed, the last of the trees fell behind him completely and he tingled with a thrill of joy as the bicycle carried him swiftly across the top of the mighty cliff. Below him, the open sea swirled with an endless crash and roar of water, while above, the night sky spread in infinite blackness, filled with lustrous, shimmering stars.

Then he knew. He had finally come through.