- 5.
“Let go of me! Are you crazy? Where are you
taking me?”
My sister stumbled down the muddy road in
her fancy shoes.
We were heading to the most rundown corner
of the village.
It was like a pigpen.
That’s where she lived, a woman who’d lost
her mind.
The smell of pee and poop hit you like a wall. My sister covered her mouth and nose.
She started gagging.
[Why isn’t the experiment continuing? The sister is being mean! Is anyone gonna stop her?]
[She’s gonna steal the other sister’s jewelry!]
Then, a woman suddenly stood up and ran
into the camera. She smeared herself with
yellow and red filth.
L
My sister freaked out and ripped off her
jacket.
“You stupid pig! Do you know how much this
cost?”
The woman went back to messing with her.
I pulled out an old shirt and covered the
woman’s bare skin.
“Ms. Johnson, this is your chance to escape.”
Ms. Johnson blinked. Her eyes cleared.
“Really?” she asked.
I nodded.
L
When I was three, a beautiful woman came to
the village.
She was a college graduate.
I was so rare.
I was chained to a post like a dog.
My foster parents were talking in the house.
“She said, she has to survive. Feed her and
give her water. She does not have to live in
luxury. We don’t have enough room to sleep.”
I thought I was a dog, and I only needed to
eat.
Then, Ms. Johnson held me.
<
“You’re a girl,” she said. “You have a life
ahead of you. You can’t stay in this small village.”
She taught me how to read and told me about
life.
She told me to study hard, and leave the
village.
She became a teacher in the village, teaching
small children in a class she created.
On the day I graduated, Ms. Johnson ran
away.
She hid in a truck that was going to the next
town.
The villagers caught her, and she was beaten.
She was crazy.
Her husband, hurt, pointed at their baby.
“You want to run away? Your baby is so
small!”
I was held outside with people yelling at her.
She cried.
“I studied hard and got into Chinese People’s University. I want to take care of my parents. I
don’t want to live here and give birth.”
After that, Ms. Johnson became crazy.
She stayed in the pigpen, and didn’t want to
<
come back to her house.
She taught me how to read in the first years
of middle school, so I could attend high
school in another town.
She gave me her bracelet and told me to sell
it for school.
Later, the money ran out.
I sold my blood for one thousand.
I died before my high school graduation.
