Fiction: Group 4
He sat down by her side and placed a torn, red purse into her hands.
Xuehua sat up in bed, her mouth wide open.
“So-are you saying?” She ventured, unable to conceal the excitement in her voice.
“-Yes, “ He answered solemnly.
“OH
BABA
!” Xuehua wrapped her arms around him and repeated thank you over and over again like a
broken record, her voice being all muffled in his cotton shirt.
* * *
“I guess this means farewell.” She whispered, stroking the bark of the banyan tree.
She gave the village one long last look, clambered down and ran to join her uncle at the bus stop.
The Pearl River Delta awaits.
* * *
She cautiously stepped off the bus, feelings of apprehension building up inside of her as she found herself
being instantaneously swept along by currents of people, given hardly any time to process what was
happening around her. Her mouth soon fell wide open, as her eyes befell the towering skyscrapers in all
their grandeur and majesty, their tops, piercing into the fluffy white peaks of the baby-blue sky, blue tinted
glass panels glittering magically under the midday sun. She soon started to grow self conscious as she
scrutinized the people around her. They were like aliens. Different. Dressed in black and white suits they
walked around muttering, some shouting, eyebrows knitted and gesturing frantically, all this time clutching a
metallic oblong to their ears. She wanted to be like them. She wanted one of those magical oblongs as well.
She continued to walk, immersed in her thoughts.
Suddenly, the honk of a loud blaring car horn to her right jolted her back to reality as a taxi driver stuck his
head out of the window and spat a perfect, runny, light yellow ball onto the road, adding a few cuss words
while at it. Startled, but conscious of what she needed to do she waved her arms exaggeratedly at the driver
and hopped on.
She showed him the address her uncle had written, on the small slip of paper she had been clenching tightly
in the palm of her hand and she reclined comfortably, arms folded in front of her chest.
Welcome to Guangzhou.
After thirty minutes, she finally arrived in front of a squat, grey, dilapidated building. Exhausted from her
day’s travels, she slowly trudged up three grey steps and knocked weakly on the door. A middle-aged man
answered and helped her with her luggage. The door slammed shut.
* * *
Back hunched, eyes lowered, wisps of hair dangling over her face. Xuehua sat there, unrecognisable. There
were dark circles underneath her eyes and her eyes had hollowed out, sinking into her face due to extreme
periods of sleep deprivation. Her skin had assumed an unhealthy pallor and the colour in her cheeks had
long been gone. Her body was still, unmoving. A mere shell of what she was before.
Only her fingers moved, rotating a screwdriver neatly three times as each metallic phone case flowed down
the moving black belt, her actions so rehearsed that it was perfectly synchronized with the rhythmic
