Fiction: Group 2
Little Sparrow and the Dolphin
German Swiss International Primary School, Tin, Jocelyn - 10, Fiction: Group 2
awoke to the sound of seagulls crying and the lapping of the waves at my feet. I looked about in
puzzlement and I realized that I was on a shore. As I gazed at the shimmering waters of the sea, I saw a
dolphin leaping out from the water. There, it was Xiao Bai Quan, and my memory, like bubbles,
began to surface slowly.
I was travelling on a small fishing junk with Uncle Lin and his family, who promised Papa to take
me to Hong Kong to find my aunt. Our journey had started smoothly but overnight the sea turned into a
dangerous temptress; our boat had sailed into a monsoon storm. The waves were attacking our boat just as a
shark does at a helpless fish. A wall of water, towering and black, crept up behind me and threw me into the
water. I was sinking in a dark, bottomless sea. I kept telling myself, I must not die. I must live to see my
family again. The last thing I remembered was there was something slicing slowly through the water towards
me.
***
I am called Jiang Xiao Yan, my friends call me Xiao Yan Zi, Little Sparrow. I lived with my family
in a small fishing village on one of the estuaries of the Pearl River, so small that you can’t even see it on
your maps. My Papa was a humble fisherman and Mama looked after me and my little sister at home.
For children like us who lived close to the river, it was like paradise. We had many adventures on
it and off it. We fished in it, swum in it, played in it and sailed along it. On some days when I didn’t have
school, Papa would take me with him to fish.
I remember it was last fall that I first met Xiao Bai Quan while I went fishing with Papa in the sea,
just beyond the Pearl River. She was a Chinese White Dolphin who was about two months old. Though
November had just passed, it was a chilly day and we were the only fishermen braving the harsh wind that
morning. As Papa steered the boat in the dim light, I noticed that one of the fish traps that had been left
behind by some other fisherman, was moving against the direction of the wind. I asked Papa to steer the
boat slowly toward the frantic movements and we found a baby female dolphin gasping for breath. A rope
from the trap was wrapped tightly around both her mouth and tail.
I felt so bad for the poor thing that I asked Papa if we could help. Papa said we needed to free her
head first so that she could raise her blowhole and breathe properly. I talked to her gently, assuring her that
she would be helped, while Papa used his fishing knife to cut the dolphin free. The little dolphin was
released, however she did not leave. She kept circling us as if she wanted to say thank you.
From a distance, I noticed that she had been tied so tightly and for such a long time that the rope
had bruised her snout and left a deep white ring mark around it, which is how her name came to me. Yet I
had never imagined that I would ever see her again.
The following summer, the fighting between China and Japan worsened and escalated to become a
full-scale war. At first Papa remained optimistic that our little known fishing village would not be affected.
I
