Fiction: Group 2
New Tales of the Pearl River Delta
SKH Chu Oi Primary School, Tung, Christy - 10, Fiction: Group 2
am Christy, and I am ten years old. I was born in Hong Kong in a very poor fishing family. My family
members are my father, my mother, my two sisters, a brother and we lived on a small boat on the Pearl
River. Every day, I must cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner for my family while my dad goes out to
catch fish. My mother stays at home to take care of us. My little sister Lucy is just three years old and she is
blind, so we all take care of her. My little brother Kevin is a six months old baby. I play with my older sister
Judy the most.
We go to a house on land four times a week for tutoring. They are from a rich family. When we have
nothing to eat, they will give us some food. The daughters in the Cheung family always teach us what they
have learned because they can go to school but they say that school is boring. Their father warns them that if
they do not pay attention at school, he will send Judy and me to school instead of his daughters.
Usually, the big fish we catch are sold at a nearby market. However, we keep smaller fish for self-use;
most are for our food, and the rest are preserved as dried fish, and the preservations were often given to the
Cheung family. Sometimes, I join my father to fish, because I wish to be a great fisherman when I grow up.
I will catch as much fish as I can and never allow my family members to starve.
Unfortunately, my dream is gone because a factory moved in. Months ago, a cloth making factory started
polluting the beautiful river by disposing of toxic chemicals into it. We used to have clear navy blue water.
Sometimes we could see the bottom of the river from the surface. Now the water turned to reddish green
and many fish died because of it. The Pearl River smells dreadful and the stinky smell makes most of our
neighbors in the village move away. Because we are poor, we have to stay in the village and eat those dead
fish. One day my father became sick, he had suggested eating those poisoned fish as it was no use to try and
catch healthy fish that had swum to the lower part of the river. Then my mother got sick as well and finally
so did my sisters. Their tongues were blue and they were on the bed most of the time so they had to lie in
their beds all day long. I was the only one that was healthy at the moment, and I sought help from the
Cheung family. To my surprise, they planned to leave their river side home since their complaint was
ignored by the government. Before they left, they gave us medicine to cure our sickness. However, the
doses were not enough for all of us in our family. My parents had to make a choice whether Kelvin or Lucy
would take the medicine to live. One of them would have to die, but they couldn’t make this decision.
Therefore, Kelvin refused to take the medicine and gave the medicine to Lucy. Unfortunately, my blind
sister spat out the life-saving dose. She coughed with blood and sadly, my brother and sister both passed
away.
As the death of my sister spread at the speed of light around our village and countryside, the government
began to be aware of the pollution problem. This formed a strong argument against pollution and the
government started to clean the river. Despite the improved situation, my father did not get better and the
river was still unclear. Soon, no more fish lived there. We lost our food supply, and life became even
tougher. We had to eat leaves and this made my father’s health worse. His arms and legs became very thin
and he lost all his hair. He was no longer able to stand up himself, let alone to fish. Death was near and he
took away my father three months after the loss of Lucy. This made my mother insane. She went to the
polluting cloth factory and begged the factory manager to relocate the factory site. But, as predicted, she was
turned down. My mother knew nothing but fishing and taking care of us, so she could only go everyday to
kneel in front of the factory. There was no hope so I wrote to the Cheung family and they wrote back soon
after. They were going to take care of our family. Judy, mother and I would be moving to Canada with
them. We were asked to help them in housekeeping, and we could earn a living and study with them.
This is the last gaze I have of Peal River; it looks like old times. There is transparent water with flesh
algae on it. Fishermen work all day long. When I turn my head, it starts to rain. Tiny holes are formed as
those blue arrows of rain pass through the surface of the water. Some bass jumped out of the water, dancing
happily as they never felt the taste of rain. Warm breeze blows leaves toward me; I catch one and feel it is
the farewell gift from the river. It was trying to say, ‘Let the dead rest peacefully, stretch your fingers and
grab the leaf as a bandage and heal all your pains. Forget this place and start a brand new life.’
I took my first step, heading toward my mother, who had been waiting for me and sitting under the
maple tree, looking at the only picture that captured all of our family members together. A tear slipped along
I
