Making fables

• Hong Yu, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2004

The Melbourne cityscape is pretty, like Ju. He circled around the main city square several times before finally sitting down on the grey stone steps near a Starbucks café.

Ju, I miss ya! You are my little flower: Love Michael. PS. Melbourne is working well for me, so don't worry.

He sighed as he thought of his sister back at home, and the last letter he had written for her three days ago. He felt around in his back pocket and fished that letter out. It was still adequate, a bit creased perhaps, but he was not satisfied. Can't let her think her brother doesn’t care about her enough.

He spent the next forty minutes meticulously copying his letter onto a crisp new piece of paper, complete with a new blue envelope. It was the same, except the ending.

Ju, I miss ya! Your new haircut looks pretty horrible in that photo. Love Michael. P.S Don't throw a fit over it; there's a chance that it's non-photogenic…

Michael smiled and was about to put the piece of paper into the envelope when he noticed the smudge of pigeon refuse on the back. He grimaced. Ju would wonder what kind of place I live in… He threw that copy into the nearest rubbish bin and ducked into the café to begin a new copy.

He ordered a latte in his bad English and took the corner table. Luckily, he had another piece of paper in his bag, and he copied the letter again. He changed the ending yet again; somehow it seemed a little insulting.

Ju, I miss ya! That haircut looks really sweet on you. Love Michael. P.S perhaps you should go to the hairdressers again; the left is a little longer than the right. Or is it the latest fashion in Shanghai?

The dot on the question mark was a little inky. Michael grabbed a tissue and dabbed at it. It was still a little smudged, but it served. He leaned back to admire his handiwork, and knocked over his latte.

He picked up his precious letter with two fingers. It was soaked through with brown liquid. A waitress hurried over with a slight grimace plastered on one side of her face and a sympathetic expression on the other.

Michael tried apologizing, but the "so-li, so-li…" didn't seem to have any effect on the waitress.

Frustrated, he grabbed a napkin and started writing on it in large clear words, oblivious to the fact that he had already wiped his mouth with it.

Ju, I miss ya! I've being lying. Melbourne is defiantly not working well for me, I'm coming home! Love Michael. PS. That haircut is fabulous, absolutely fabulous; we don't have that kind of thing in Melbourne.