Promise (Short Story)

Promise
“I can’t let go.”
“I know.”
“Will we…still meet?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll come back?”
“I promise.”
 
In those night, those disturbing night. The sky was full of the sense of death.
Screaming. Dying.
The Death covered the night sky, whispering, calling those who struggled to live.
The Death came to the Earth, softly, gently, washed away their pain.
 
On the other side of the city, a figure that fought, fought for survival.
Most important…fought for a promise.

Once again, the night returns to peace.
“You’re back.”
Yet this time,
Only memory and a bouquet.

  
  This short story is inspired by a great Chinese novel: A Dream of Red Mansions. This is a book that every high school students must read during our summer vacation. And in our lessons, our Chinese teacher played a song call “The Department of blind love.” (Well…something sort of…) The song is from the musical of this novel . In the musical, our protagonist was provided with another chance to live again. To let him explore those things he had forgotten. And for those who don’t know the original novel…I’ll give you a brief summery…cause god know how thick this book is.
  A Dream of Red Mansions tells a story of four biggest families in the capital of China. There are 12 major girls in the story line, and our protagonist is the son of a greatest families. In that period, taking exam and gain a job in the palace, however, he loved to do “girl stuff” and hate to study for exam. Then…blablabla. He fell in love with his cousin, yet it was a forbidden love to his family, since she was an orphan and she wasn’t the type of “lady” to hold a house. He was tricked into marring the one his family chose for him. Unable to be together, his cousin died in grief…and a part of the reasons is that she was extremely sick. Till the end, without any love in his marriage, our protagonist became a monk. Well…don’t panic, it’s not just a heart-broken love story, it also tells the ups and downs of the families. The book contains two story lines: their love and the future of the families. It’s said that this tragedy resembled to the life of the author…no matter what it is, it’s definitely one of the most influential books among all China history. I think some of the western people also study this specific book? Called…Red Study? (I’m not sure.)
  Back to my short story. After I heard the song, I was so moved by the lyrics and the rhythms, it was absolutely beautiful. So, I wrote down this story. Besides A Dream of Red Mansions, The Book Thief also impacted on this story too…just I forgot which part. Perhaps the Death part? So…I hope you’ll like this very first short story that I post one my blog. (By the way, this isn’t the first story I wrote…but the first I translated into English…)

If you’re interested in the music, link down to watch the video! It has two languages.

Chinese

Cantonese