Alone in the Gobi Desert
Harrow International School Hong Kong, Clemmie Trott, Fiction: Group 2
A
lone in the dangerous dark desert was scary but now inside our trusted yurt I know
I am safe but lonely. I know I am very lucky to have all of this but I think I have a
pretty unfair life compared to other children in our yurt. My brother Yan and I have
an aggressive and bad tempered mother who is sometimes overwhelmed by anger
which always bursts out just when we add a little frustration to the filling up bottle which could
explode any minute. This started when dad didn’t come back when he said he would, we thought
it was caused by Ma thinking that it was our fault but now we guess it’s probably mostly sadness
and morn for Pa not coming back after about 5 years now.
When I come back from feeding our stray hound, the mares and our two sheep, I have to help
Ma to prepare mutton for our huge family but we never talk, especially me because I’m afraid
of being shouted at. As I’m the oldest child in the family I have to learn how to cook and how to
debone sheep and mare along with cleaning and taking the wool off the yack, camel and sheep. I
also need to know how run a household.
One afternoon after my daily beating, being shrieked at and told off by Ma because of my
awesome ideas which always led to trouble, mother came in while I was experimenting on pouring
water into the “sacred” fire to see what would happen and it all disappeared! I was in so much
trouble, mother screeched “Mu Way, you clumsy, disobedient, conceited child why...why on earth...
I don’t know what to say about you, GO STRAIGHT TO BED …NOW.” We had had no warmth or
light that night but I didn’t understand what I had done. So I decided to change my unhappy life
completely: I would run away!!
The wind called and cried that night and kept everyone in the Yunn family awake (as usual).
The only one who slept at all was Grandpa Mi Rei.
Before my departure I cleverly thought about the previsions I would need, water-veal full
to the top, my knife, a pile of mutton, my warmest and some of my coolest clothes. A hug and a
(disguised) kiss from all of them but I would tell brother Yan. My 12th birthday bag that was used
for wool would do the trick so I packed that night ready to leave the next.
The next morning I woke up early full of both excitement and terror. Luckily it was ghastly
weather so I would be a lot harder to see and would most likely get away without being seen, heard
or sniffed by the guard hound. Brother Yan was dreadfully upset when I told him and he cried and
cried and wailed and cried which brought a little curiosity from the family which didn’t help so I
had to make him quiet, quickly. That night I managed to escape without anyone or thing seeing
me. It was freezing, more than usual and it was quiet and scary as well. As I was strolling along,
suddenly out of nowhere, a machine came whizzing past and knocked me off my feet, I don’t
know what happened next and when I woke up strange people where staring over me. One was a
pale woman and the other a male who was also pale (mother had told me to not talk to people like
them but I ignored that when I saw the expressions on their face. They were both wearing kind
smiles and I relaxed and looked around. Whatever I was in, it was small but cosy and it was truly
warm. I looked back at the smiling people and they took out this square thing and said in my own
language, “Hello, we are twins and we are not here to hurt you.” The woman said her name was
Sandy and her shy twin was called Mark they were from a far off country called England. They
