One Bright Moon by Andrew Kwong

Author:Andrew Kwong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

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When I got home, Mama immediately took me to the black market and bought a live young carp with her last yuan. We headed to the banks of the Wonder River and released it into the water. The carp lingered in the shallows, confused, disorientated and not knowing what to do. It flapped its fins and swam in circles on its side. Mama bent over, caressed it and calmed it, just as she did to us when we suffered from hunger pains. ‘Now go; far away you must go,’ she said. Before long, the young carp recovered and swam into the deep of the river, to safety. We stayed on to make sure no one would recapture it for food.

That evening my family celebrated behind closed doors, without making too much noise. Ying was excited that I would soon be eating many baguettes with butter. It was hard to keep our elation to whispers. We laughed. We cried. We huddled together and made lots of promises. Even Baba shed tears for the great news.

‘You now have a bright future ahead of you,’ he said to me.

I’ll never forget the sparkle in my parents’ eyes as they held me long and hard, and told me what to do and what not to do after leaving home. They made me promise to keep quiet to protect our good fortune until I had finally crossed the border – the District Head could change his mind at the last minute.

Mama kept flapping a dried palm leaf in the shape of a fan at us to drive away the mosquitoes and keep us cool. There were no cakes, not even a biscuit – no food at all. There were no soft drinks, only lychee tea. Yet, we were glowing with radiant joy under the fifteen-watt globe that repeatedly blinked and dimmed.

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