Young Writers Society

A Happy Ending?

By: Charli E.

(This story takes place towards the end of the Ming Dynasty)

Do you believe in good luck and bad luck? If you do I’m here to prove you wrong. This is me Zaida Li, and my little brother, Tanvir Li’s story with good luck and bad luck.

A family of four, a mother, at the age of 30. With sparkling honey colored eyes and beautiful almost black, dark brown hair that went down to her mid back. A father, at the age of 32. With stern, but kind brown eyes, and short, shiny black hair. A daughter, at the age of 12. That had wide, excited golden eyes, and braided black hair that went just above her waist. And lastly, a son at the age of 8. With his mother's dark brown hair(but of course his hair is a lot more messy), and his father’s shining brown eyes.

This family of four had no home, for they traveled and lived where they pleased. An advantage of being traders. It was a good life nothing bad ever happened, most people would say we had good luck because of the fortune we got, but ‘luck’ was never there.

The sun was just setting in the west, and there was so many pretty colors! A nice, light violet purple mixing with the beautiful light pink, and mystifying dark orange red. The sun was just under the mountain range in the west, and towards the east you could see a beautiful, bright full moon. As well as some stars shining brighter and brighter as the sun went down to the west farther and farther. The cold green grass laid right next to the famous Silk Road we were traveling on. Dark green bushes were surrounding the tall trees in the distance, and if you looked closely enough you could see a family of deer along the boundary of trees.

It was calm and peaceful, the village Hebei was just in the distance. But then, a group of thieves came out of the bushes and threatened us. If we didn’t give all of our money and our items for trade we would die. They could see what we had to trade as it was in the wheelbarrow we were carrying our stuff in. Mother and Father weren't so willing to give our stuff for it was all we had. Then, the thieves killed our parents right in front of us. During this time I was frozen in fear, I was shaking, I could feel a cold chill climb up my back. I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything. I felt so worthless. I couldn't help my parents. I looked back at Tanvir and saw the panic and fear in his eyes. He looked back towards me and I knew, I had to act brave for him. I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran. I grabbed Tanvir’s hand and tried to go as fast as I could to the village, but the thieves were faster. They ended up catching up to us with the back of their weapons raised ready to strike. Before they got to us I looked back at Tanvir and told him one thing,

“Everything will be ok…” The last thing I saw before it went black was Tanvir saying that our good luck finally ran out.

All around me was black as I start to wake up, I heard voices around me talking,

“Is Zaida going to be alright?” I heard the concerned voice of my little brother say.

“Yes, she should wake soon.” an unfamiliar male voice said calmly. I start to open my eyes as a bright light blinded me.

“Looks like she’s awake.” the mysterious male voice said cheerfully.

“Zaida! You’re awake!” exclaimed Tanvir. Once I got use to the light I looked around, I was in a small brick house from what I could tell. You could still see some of the wood they used for the frame of the house. The walls had light brown bricks and there was a window next to the bed I was lying in. Towards the other end of the room there seemed to be a small kitchen with a round dark wooden table that had three chairs surrounding it. There was two doors, one looks like it was leading outside as light beams came from underneath the door, and the other door looked to be a storage room. There was another window by the door that lead outside, as well as a few decorations on the walls. There was a rug on the floor by the first door, and a bigger rug next to the bed. Tanvir sat by my feet at the end of the bed. There was a man that looked to be about 40 with short, blackish grayish hair, and small brown eyes, that sat in a chair next to the bed. My head was hurting as I try to recall what happened, then just like that the memories came back to me.

“How long was I asleep for?” I asked with a scratchy voice. The middle aged man gave me a cup of water, as I drank the water he began explaining what happened from his point of view.

“I was walking back to my home when I saw two small children on the ground asleep. I didn’t think it would have been a smart idea to leave them on the ground so weak and helpless so I brought you both here. You’ve been asleep for about a day and just to let you know my name is Kyo. Your lucky I found you when I did or you two could have gotten sick or worse.” Kyo said with a bright smile.

“Thank you so much for helping us. But now that I’m up and ready to go I think Tanvir and I should leave.” I say politely, my voice feeling much better due to the water.

“So soon?” Kyo questioned, “I mean you just woke up a few minutes ago, and where do you plan on going? Do you have a home nearby? Where are your parents?” As soon as he questioned about our parents I tense up. I look over to the end of the bed and see a teary eyed Tanvir. I knew he was trying to be brave, but I noticed he was shaking so much as his fist clenched the blankets around his hands. He was trying his best not to cry. I sat up a little taller in bed and pulled Tanvir closer to me. I wrapped my arms around him as he let go of the blanket and threw his arms around me. His hands griped the back of my shirt as he cried into my chest. Kyo looked at us with a sympathetic look as I explained to him what happened to our parents. I also explained to him that our home is where we choose it to be, that we go where we choose. After that, he went to the storage room and grabbed a small colorful oval shaped bag, with strings coming out of the sides. As he got the bag, he started filling the it full of clothes that looked to be his size.

“What are you doing?” Tanvir asked sniffing as he started to calm down from crying.

“Someone's gotta watch over you two, and you're both too young to be out on your own. Plus, I've always wanted to become a trader, I could sell some old silk fabric I have. I could also travel around China.” Kyo said happily. Tanvir and I decided we could trust Kyo, and would travel with him. Before we left to travel to Urumqi, we stopped to get some better clothes for me and Tanvir. We also got food for the road, and we bought some things to trade so we could start trading again. Right now, we seem to have good luck on our side.

~*Time Skip: four years later*~

Things were normal as usual, moving on one village to the next. Then trading one thing for another, sell some items to get more money. Stock up on whatever we need to make it to the next village, and repeat. I’m was then 16 and Tanvir was 12 years old. Later that day, we were going through the Tanggula Mountains and walk next to the Yangtze River towards Xiang. Thankfully we weren't to far away from Xiang. Kyo said that if we hurry and don't take too many breaks we could get to Xiang by nightfall. We started packing up and we set off to reach our next destination.

As we were walking along the Yangtze River you could see the trees long and tall. There was even some birds in their nest on top of the branches. The sun was starting to set as we walked along the dirt pathway. You could see the reflection of the sun, and trees. You could even see the mountains and the rest of the sky on river. The wind was blowing at a quick pace, moving the tree branches and creating waves in the river. Funny enough the wind was blowing in the direction we were walking in.

As I was admiring the scene around me I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was walking. That was one of the worst mistakes I have ever made. My foot slipped and I went tumbling into the river. As panic filled me I grabbed onto a rock near the edge of the river.

“Zaida!” Tanvir screamed in fear for me. Kyo looked back quickly to see what was wrong. As soon as he saw me he dropped his stuff he was carrying and rushed over along with Tanvir to the side of the river. They tried to reach for me but, I was to far. The next thing I knew Kyo grabbed a rope from his bag and gave it to Tanvir. As Kyo did so he told Tanvir to hold onto one end tightly and grabbed the other end. I could feel my strength giving up and my grip on the rock loosened. Kyo then jumped into the river and tried to swim over to me, but the wind was to strong. It made it difficult to swim directly towards me. A strong wind blew hard and knocked Tanvir into the water. My arms gave up and I fell into the water. I could feel the coldness surround me as I touched the water, my clothes getting even more wet than it already was. My lungs were burning, they felt as if they were on fire. I needed air, and soon. I tried to swim to the surface but the waves kept pushing me under the water, I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. The pain got worse as water filled my lungs, familiar black spots started appearing in my vision. Before I blacked out I prayed for safety for all of us. Then all I could see, was darkness.

Pain, that’s all I could feel then. A burning pain in my chest and lungs, I start coughing trying to get the all of the water out of my lungs. I was amazed I was still alive. Opening my eyes I look around, I was on the side of a river. I remembered what happened and I start looking around for Kyo and Tanvir but, there wasn’t even a trace that they were here. No footprints in the damp ground, not even the bags we brought were around. ‘Wherever they are I hope they’re ok…’ I thought to myself.

I decided not to just wait around so, I headed towards a dirt path that lead away from the river. After a few minutes of walking I came to a cross road. There were signs that pointed towards each road. They sign that pointed to where I just came from said ‘Yangtze River’ and there was another sign that pointed at a village, the sign said ‘Xiang’. ‘That’s the place we were going to!’ I thought excitedly. “If they were here, they would probably head to Xiang.’ I made my way to Xiang and asked the people there if they see Kyo or Tanvir. No one had seen them. I didn’t know what else to do so I decided to get a new job as a regular merchant and start living here. As I waited for my little brother and my best friend to come.

~*Time Skip: four months later*~

I waited, and waited, and waited some more, but they still haven’t come. I started believing they would never come, I started believing they were dead . I worked as a merchant, selling fruits and other foods. On my free time I would go to the cross road, and wait for them to come even though I knew they were already dead. I was setting out to go to the cross road, like usual, I sat down by the cross road, like usual, there was a person there, like usu-wait... there’s usually never a person there! I walk over to the person and the second I saw his face, I gave him the biggest hug I could. Tanvir was alive! He told me about the extreme bad luck he had. One thing was when he saw Kyo dead, and he thought I was dead too.

“But then,” he said with a smile growing on his face “I started having good luck, like finding you.”

“No,” I told him,”There is no good luck, and bad luck, there’s only a balance of both.”

The End