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Little Morning Star
“It’s a girl,” the old nurse proclaimed, “do you wish to keep her?” the old nurse asked, not bothering to disguise the question. Traditions within the wall held true that a boy could carry a name. The old nurse was expecting a usual answer from the land lord. The man looked to his wife who smiled and closed her eyes.
“Yes,” his answer shocked the old nurse, “I want to keep the baby girl.”
Years of work and punishment and schooling helped cover the look of surprise the old nurse felt. As calmly as she could the old nurse asked the next question, “What would you call her?”
The wife smiled on the bed and whispered so softly the old nurse strained to hear “Xiao-Xing is her name, my, our little morning star.” The wife opened her arms weakly for the baby. She cradled her in her arms humming a soft melody. Then the wife glanced up at her husband and said “I love you.” Tears were brimming in both the land lord’s blue eyes and the wife’s violet eyes just like her baby girl. Another soft whispered was heard from the wife, “I love you Xiao-Xing.“ After that the wife’s eyes closed for the last time.
Xiao-Xing started crying and so did the landlord. The old nurse moved by emotion but didn’t show it picked up baby Xiao-Xing silently and looked over the landlord who was now clutching his wife’s limp hand, calling out her name continuously. After a time the land lord stood up slowly. He looked up at the old nurse holding Xiao-Xing, his eyes red from the tears newly shed, and held out his arms for the baby just like his wife had done. The old nurse’s eyes soften and placed his baby girl in his arms now that the girl was silent. The landlord held his daughter close to his chest. Whispering something over and over again as he walked away. Only until he left did the old nurse allow herself to shed a tear on what the man had repeated “Don’t worry Xiao-Xing, we’ll see mama again someday. Don’t worry daddy, will take care of you. I love you my little morning star.”
The nurse‘s tears were not only for sadness, but of hope and happiness. Her tears were because the land lord and his daughter were different. Her tears were because they chose a different path, a path of mercy and life.
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This article has 11 comments.
thanks. and i'd love to read 'encounter' I've already read some of your articles and they are AWESOME!!:D
~Crazy Writer
I reeeeeally liked this. You created a very detailed world in almost no time at all. The whole 'wall' thing was very creative, I have only ever read one story where they used a wall as a both physical and cultural barrier.Your detail was very nice overall, but I Think it was the emotion in this piece that really takes the cake. The only thing that I could recommend would be a pronunciation guide for how to say the baby's name.
Great job, keep writing!
Can you comment and rate my story, "Encounter"?
1st things 1st. Thank you for comenting!!:D and Okay now that i read through this the (idk) 15millionth time I relize that its not very related to the one-child-law. when I was writing my rough(rough) draft down I was thinking about how many people not just in China,but through out the world,thought of boys more better than girls for a certain amount of time(not today of course). and I was think that back then (like maybe anicent times?) they would want a boy more than a girl and abandon the girl to try again for a boy. Again I repeat now that I think this through it doesn't have much in common with the one-child law . I think that maybe i should have posted this in a Fantasy part of teenink but i couldn't excatly think of anywhere to put it so I thought how China had a one-child law and sorta catagorized this article into Historical Ficton. China's one-child-law stated that if you were a citizen of China (a couple) you could only have one child if you wanted to have more than oneyou would have to pay a certain fee or something of the like. I'm not sure if this is correct but that's kinda what I thought of . Just to repeat: 1) this article does not have much in common with the one-child-law 2) I'm not exactly sure what happened if you had more then one kid. and 3) thank you for commenting
~CrazyWriter
Thanks!
Thanks!!
very pretty and deep.. keep it up!
comment on my work too!!
