Calling all readers : 2
This product is copyrighted by Creative Networks Inc to James_Padfoot@hotmail.com
Also, do suggest some better titles if you people have any. Any suggestions or comments, really.
It's Joseph Wu.
I should have known. I should have been ready. It was early, barely six in the morning, on what would have been a glorious sleep-in Sunday. A crash that was then followed by the scandalized screams of a woman was enough to tell me that it wasn’t to be glorious at all. "KERRY ANNE WU!" I heard my mother scream, her shrill voice ringing throughout the entire house, and most likely, the entire neighborhood.
Groaning, I buried my head under the pillows, in futile attempts to drown out the sound. I had no desire to move. With barely enough time to wonder what my sister had done to warrant a yell at this ungodly hour, my door slammed open, the hinges threatening to grow legs and run off. I peeked out from under my pillow, a furious glare on my face as I stared at the intruder.
Standing there, completely unfazed was my best friend, a coy grin plastered on his lips as he shut the door with a soft click. His dark brown eyes were twinkling with mischief, contrary to me, who looked bleary eyed and grumpy. He seemed wide awake, perfectly chipper. "Let a man sleep will you, you sadistic physco." I ground out irritated, and once again retreated to the darkness of my pillows.
He chuckled, and sat down on the side of my bed. "Really, Josephina, I expected you to be up and jumping around wildly with your hyper sister downstairs. Your mum is in a right fit, Kerry broke her vase and got glass ground into the carpets. I thought the war was going on in your house when I walked in. You sleep like a bloody log"
"My name is Joseph, you blundering imbecile" I retorted, finally succumbing to the fact that I would not be able to sleep any longer. I sat up, my hair dishevelled and my breath putrid.
"Whatever." he said, standing up and peering into my mirror. Nixen was quiet as he fixed his hair. His long fingers brushed through his hair, and I couldn't help but admire the way it fell so into place. My dark blond mop of hair always seemed to give the impression that I didn't own a comb. Sighing, I made my way to the bathroom, pulling out clothes as I passed by my wardrobe.
Just as I was about to close the door to the bathroom, he said airily, "Do be quick, your father expects you down in 10 minutes. He is to visit the Nikida's while I am to stay here to help with the preparations." I gaped at him in shock and quickly glanced at the clock. "I didn't know turning eleven was a major event for girls" the raven haired added as an after thought.
That was one year ago. To me, to all of us, it seemed like an eon ago, when broken vases and early Sunday mornings were the most of our worries.
The year was now 1942, and the British had been overruled by the Japanese. One year ago we had led a comfortable life, for my mother was Jeanine Arrington, and my grandfather was an influential man. He wasn’t powerful to have stopped World War II, but he had kept our family safe. And right now, our family was far from safe. Kerry and dad were staying with the Zhou’s. Nixen’s family had readily taken them in. Mother was staying with her sister, Katrina Arrington, back in Britain, while Nixen and I had been enforced into the make shift army, headed by a psychotic Japanese commander.
We were forced to do their dirty work, and I was treated rather harshly, for I had inherited my mother’s blonde locks, and that itself stood for everything they were fighting against. Phrases like ‘Asia untuk Asia’ didn’t help when you were half British.
Kaitryin Nikida’s father, General Nikida, who was a retired Japanese army personnel helped me through a lot of hard times, and if not for him, I would have been dead on more than several occasions when I’d somehow anger the Japanese.
As the months passed by, I had severed more heads than I could ever repent for, and seen more war horrors than any man there my age. Nixen was disliked as well, for his Chinese blood, and I lost contact with him for several months. Word had spread that he was the most rebellious of the lot, refusing commands and being rude to the Japanese. I thought about him a lot, as well as my family and Kaitryin. She was only a 14 year old girl then, but she was a Japanese girl, and was given leeway more than anyone there in the area. Kaitryin had won the hearts of many people who didn’t mind helping her or granting her sometimes odd requests. That’s how she helped me, when I was wounded and weak.
It was also through her that I had learnt Nixen was indeed alive. His life was spared, but they had done worse things to him than death. Whippings, beatings, his hair, shaved off, heavily scarred and traumatized, they left him a broken man in a farming village near our refuge.
Yet, everything that was thrown at us, we took it in, held our heads high with pride, and pushed against the odds. Many friends and family died, the most noted death, the death of my father, who died protecting Kerry from the perverted hands of men.
When the Americans attacked Japan, they fled, and we scrambled to pick up our lives, changed individuals. Mother soon returned safely, and we cried as a family, with the hope of a new light that would shed its much brighter fortunes upon us. And indeed it did. As the years passed and Malaya became Malaysia, Kaitryin and I had three beautiful children. My children had four cousins, courtesy of the marriage between Nixen Zhou and Kerry.
The war changed people, it was a terrible thing. But it also showcased the brilliance and strength of the human will, for we fought to live our lives the way it is today.
Approx. 1,020 words.
I know that it tends to become a little rushed in the later part, it was because I realized I was running out of words. Pity. Please tell me what you all think, it is likely I will re-write, but I still want to know what you liked, and disliked, it will help me mucho. Gracias.
Also, do suggest some better titles if you people have any. Any suggestions or comments, really.
It's Joseph Wu.
I should have known. I should have been ready. It was early, barely six in the morning, on what would have been a glorious sleep-in Sunday. A crash that was then followed by the scandalized screams of a woman was enough to tell me that it wasn’t to be glorious at all. "KERRY ANNE WU!" I heard my mother scream, her shrill voice ringing throughout the entire house, and most likely, the entire neighborhood.
Groaning, I buried my head under the pillows, in futile attempts to drown out the sound. I had no desire to move. With barely enough time to wonder what my sister had done to warrant a yell at this ungodly hour, my door slammed open, the hinges threatening to grow legs and run off. I peeked out from under my pillow, a furious glare on my face as I stared at the intruder.
Standing there, completely unfazed was my best friend, a coy grin plastered on his lips as he shut the door with a soft click. His dark brown eyes were twinkling with mischief, contrary to me, who looked bleary eyed and grumpy. He seemed wide awake, perfectly chipper. "Let a man sleep will you, you sadistic physco." I ground out irritated, and once again retreated to the darkness of my pillows.
He chuckled, and sat down on the side of my bed. "Really, Josephina, I expected you to be up and jumping around wildly with your hyper sister downstairs. Your mum is in a right fit, Kerry broke her vase and got glass ground into the carpets. I thought the war was going on in your house when I walked in. You sleep like a bloody log"
"My name is Joseph, you blundering imbecile" I retorted, finally succumbing to the fact that I would not be able to sleep any longer. I sat up, my hair dishevelled and my breath putrid.
"Whatever." he said, standing up and peering into my mirror. Nixen was quiet as he fixed his hair. His long fingers brushed through his hair, and I couldn't help but admire the way it fell so into place. My dark blond mop of hair always seemed to give the impression that I didn't own a comb. Sighing, I made my way to the bathroom, pulling out clothes as I passed by my wardrobe.
Just as I was about to close the door to the bathroom, he said airily, "Do be quick, your father expects you down in 10 minutes. He is to visit the Nikida's while I am to stay here to help with the preparations." I gaped at him in shock and quickly glanced at the clock. "I didn't know turning eleven was a major event for girls" the raven haired added as an after thought.
That was one year ago. To me, to all of us, it seemed like an eon ago, when broken vases and early Sunday mornings were the most of our worries.
The year was now 1942, and the British had been overruled by the Japanese. One year ago we had led a comfortable life, for my mother was Jeanine Arrington, and my grandfather was an influential man. He wasn’t powerful to have stopped World War II, but he had kept our family safe. And right now, our family was far from safe. Kerry and dad were staying with the Zhou’s. Nixen’s family had readily taken them in. Mother was staying with her sister, Katrina Arrington, back in Britain, while Nixen and I had been enforced into the make shift army, headed by a psychotic Japanese commander.
We were forced to do their dirty work, and I was treated rather harshly, for I had inherited my mother’s blonde locks, and that itself stood for everything they were fighting against. Phrases like ‘Asia untuk Asia’ didn’t help when you were half British.
Kaitryin Nikida’s father, General Nikida, who was a retired Japanese army personnel helped me through a lot of hard times, and if not for him, I would have been dead on more than several occasions when I’d somehow anger the Japanese.
As the months passed by, I had severed more heads than I could ever repent for, and seen more war horrors than any man there my age. Nixen was disliked as well, for his Chinese blood, and I lost contact with him for several months. Word had spread that he was the most rebellious of the lot, refusing commands and being rude to the Japanese. I thought about him a lot, as well as my family and Kaitryin. She was only a 14 year old girl then, but she was a Japanese girl, and was given leeway more than anyone there in the area. Kaitryin had won the hearts of many people who didn’t mind helping her or granting her sometimes odd requests. That’s how she helped me, when I was wounded and weak.
It was also through her that I had learnt Nixen was indeed alive. His life was spared, but they had done worse things to him than death. Whippings, beatings, his hair, shaved off, heavily scarred and traumatized, they left him a broken man in a farming village near our refuge.
Yet, everything that was thrown at us, we took it in, held our heads high with pride, and pushed against the odds. Many friends and family died, the most noted death, the death of my father, who died protecting Kerry from the perverted hands of men.
When the Americans attacked Japan, they fled, and we scrambled to pick up our lives, changed individuals. Mother soon returned safely, and we cried as a family, with the hope of a new light that would shed its much brighter fortunes upon us. And indeed it did. As the years passed and Malaya became Malaysia, Kaitryin and I had three beautiful children. My children had four cousins, courtesy of the marriage between Nixen Zhou and Kerry.
The war changed people, it was a terrible thing. But it also showcased the brilliance and strength of the human will, for we fought to live our lives the way it is today.
Approx. 1,020 words.
I know that it tends to become a little rushed in the later part, it was because I realized I was running out of words. Pity. Please tell me what you all think, it is likely I will re-write, but I still want to know what you liked, and disliked, it will help me mucho. Gracias.