Fiction: Group 3
“Well, ever since that ship came my father has been smoking the opium and he was not in any
condition to go fishing anymore. I begged him to do his work, but he always said he needed a break. He
hardly does any work now, we need to stop the opium coming into China,” He declared, and I agreed.
Luckily for our family, Ba-Ba doesn’t like smoking opium. He believes that we shouldn’t rely on
opium and we should work hard. Over the years more and more British ships have been sailing into the
Pearl River Delta dumping waste into the area where we normally fish. Ba-Ba and I had to find another
estuary to go fishing. Ba-Ba always shook his head at the estuary and it reflected back at him like it had it’s
own feelings.
The next sunny day, Ba-Ba and I skipped along the pier where people were off sleeping on the
grounds, moaning like cows. Suddenly, my eyes laid on Kong-Xiu’s father.
“Ba-Ba, look there’s Kong-Xiu’s father!” I whispered to Ba-Ba who seemed quite afraid of all
these men. He nodded. He was on the ground holding an opium pipe in his hands.
Ba-Ba and I ran quickly as we could to him, and helped him get up onto his feet. Kong-Xiu and
his mother must be worried sick, so we dragged him all the way to his house like a wheelbarrow. Once we
got back to their house, he looked worse than ever before, his face was withdrawn, gaunt and his body was
emaciated. It was a horrible and terrifying sight.
“Ba-Ba!” Kong-Xiu ran to his father gleefully, jumping and leaping like he never been happy
before. However, in return his father just started making his way to the bed, snuggled in like he wasn’t
accustomed to.
“What happened to him?” His wife started asking us; to my surprise she was totally oblivious to the
effects of opium.
I let Ba-Ba do the talking, “We found him on the streets smoking opium. We couldn’t just let
him die out there, so we took him here”
“Well, I appreciate you for taking him back home. Xie Xie (thank you),” she bowed.
Will the whole of China be taking opium forever? Who will stop this? I wondered in my head.
This whole entire opium trade was ruining China’s prosperity and my family’s fishing business, what are we
going to do?
“Mei! Mei!” Kong-Xiu was calling my name, I didn’t even pay attention.
“W-What?” I stuttered.
I followed him to his room, it was just like my torn up old mattress with a dark musty smelly
room. We sat on his mattress, sitting there in complete silence. We had never been this quiet, we used to
play as soldiers going into war. Now we don’t do that anymore, because the situation was getting worse,
people were smoking opium, unhappiness was unfolding in households. As the British were prospering
selling opium to the Chinese, the Chinese wealth was declining.
“So,” I broke the silence, “Do you want to go dolphin watching?”
“Okay,” Kong-Xiu sniffed, ”Let’s go to the river”
For a moment we took a break from reality and jumped into freedom and ran off to the river
observing the magnificent beautiful white & pink dolphins. They are the beauty of the Pearl River Delta;
they’re like an imperial family. We think of them as our guardians, the ones who make our rivers special, as
we watched the dolphins jump up and down in the water doing back flips. I heard a sniff from Kong-Xiu,
all he had been through with his father, I feel for him...
“Thanks, Mei for bringing me here,” He started to say, “I wouldn’t calm down without this or
without you”. I hugged him as tight as I could, a friendly hug, or a best friend hugs.
“That is what best friends are for,” I smiled, “And you are my best friend”.
When the sun started slowly drifting down, we headed back home. It felt great to cheer somebody
up, by taking him or her to the river watching dolphins and sunsets. What can I say? It’s my favourite place
where I find solitude, peace and calmness; it’s an escape, a place where I can dream.
When Ba-Ba and I walked back home, a friendly voice came along with a British accent. It was
the man who Ba-Ba introduced me to Captain Henderson.
“Hello how was your day? Have you seen your mates?” Thomas chirped, like he was stalking us.
“Oh, fantastic!” I replied with sarcasm…
