Fiction: Group 2
Doomed
Harrow International School Hong Kong, Curtis, Angelina - 10, Fiction: Group 2
y name is Zhou, and I am a thief. I live in a hut on Peaceful Road, (which is not peaceful at all)
near the bank of the Pearl River in Guangzhou, the pollution machine of the whole country.
The pollution suffocates you, and then squeezes tighter and tighter like a python until you can’t
breathe.
I live in a shantytown in the old part of the city, down river from the dye factory, which pumps out its
waste chemicals into the water, changing the river from murky green, to violent red, to sickly yellow.
Swimming is not recommended in the Pearl River.
I haven’t always lived in the city. I lived in the countryside with my parents, until I was about 10, when my
Mum died.
My Dad went to the city with me to earn his fortune, and then he said, “I’m just going to a meeting. I’m
going to come back in about 10 minutes.”
Those were the last words I ever heard from him.
I never did find out what happened to him
Did he get arrested?
Did he get run over?
Did he get lost?
These are questions, which will never get answered.
But sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder if he is a rich man in Hong Kong, like the Grand Fellow in The
Goldfish.
It might be that, because he always talked about Hong Kong, and how he wanted to go there.
The Goldfish is a grand house about 30 minutes down the road. It’s called The Goldfish because, on top of
the gate, there is a giant goldfish statue.
The Goldfish is huge, and people tell me that inside the house they shave with champagne!
Hong Kong, the land of opportunity.
Hong Kong, the land where the streets are paved with gold.
Hong Kong, the land that I would love to go.
Oh! I forgot to mention my best (and only) friend, Xi, keeps me company.
I told him about my plan about going to Hong Kong by fishing boat.
My plan was to ask a snakehead to smuggle us over to Hong Kong. The snakehead was going to illegally get
us over to Hong Kong, but it would cost RMB 2,000 and we had about RMB 100.
So we still needed money.
And to get money, we needed to steal.
M
