The Great Wall
Kendall Dees,
unched over and exhausted, Chin Ming who was riddled with depression and despair, slowly made
the arduous journey to the grave yard. Over twenty long years ago, she had buried her own son. Had
it really been twenty years? Chin Ming quickly took a glance at her diminutive house, perched
delicately on the side of the frost-bitten hill. It was as if the rest of the world simply didn’t care,
burying all the pain and sorrow under blankets of lies and false hope; if only Chin Ming could do the
same.
Group 3: Fiction, Kellett School
H
Reformed and messed with, Chin Ming’s heart had turned to stone; so different from the cheerful,
beautiful girl she once was, this bitter woman is now mean and alone. Tendrils of hair as grey as the somber sky
above her surrounded the sunken features of her aging face. Frustrated, frail Chin Ming wanted to scream, to
finally let everyone know how painful those endless years of crying, those days of grieving over a lost child
were. If only they could understand, even for just a minute. Yet she no longer had the strength to even whisper:
decades of pain had finally taken their unforgiving toll, leaving behind a small, angry old woman with
mountains of hidden misery.
It was December 28th when her world came crumbling down.
1022
Wednesday December 28th 11:07 in the morning.
Hastily, excited and ecstatic Yao Ming, calling to his mother, sprinted home from the farm house.
“
Mother! Mother!” he shrieked, “mother, it’s the twentieth celebration of my birth!”
Despite the pain in Chin Ming’s head from lack of sleep, she sauntered over to her eager son.
Immediately, an overwhelming sense of pride filled her swelling heart; she could not have been prouder of what
she saw in front of her. The determined sparkle in young Yao Ming’s handsome eyes made Chin Ming fill with
happiness.
Without slowing down, Yao Ming gave his frail mother a hug.
Suddenly, Chin Ming, startled and afraid, heard a deafening noise. Stampedes of a hundred men riding
the most elegantly terrifying horses crashed through the unexpecting town. Bloodcurdling screams of mothers
who had sons ripped away from them, husbands and brothers stolen from their reaching arms, filled the
thickening air. Slowly, fear crept up Chin Ming’s back, enveloping her like fire to wood, paralyzing her with its
terror. Utterly horrified, she couldn’t move. Seconds became hours, her heart began to beat faster with every
passing second. She could form only one thought: she had to save Yao Ming. Fast.
“
Run,” she pleaded hopefully. “Run as fast as you can, don’t look back. Hide under the loose
floorboard. Don’t make a sound and don’t you dare move. I love you Yao Ming, I will do everything I can to
stop them.”
“
Mother, stop,” Yao Ming immediately replied. “This is my duty: I must serve my country and my
emperor. I know why these men are here. They are here to take us to defend our borders against the barbarians
along the Great Wall. I must go mother. I must.”
Men clad in armour as red as the sun with golden spears by their side approached the humble threshold
of Chin and Yao Ming. Afraid and hopelessly speechless, Chin Ming couldn’t believe what was happening.
A quick exchange of muffled words and a last stolen glance was all they were allowed until the armed
men ripped Yao Ming away from his hysterical crying mother. Yao Ming was all she had. The emperor had
taken everything from her without even the slightest sense of guilt. As Chin Ming took one last peek at her son
through her misty eyes she noticed a slight change in him: those few minutes had changed his life forever, but
the sparkle in his eye was stronger than it had ever been. However, deep down Chin Ming knew that that hope
may not be enough for the years that lie ahead of him. She had heard the stories, men falling off cliffs, being
savagely beaten to death over something as little as taking a break from the spine wrenching work, tonnes of
rock tumbling, never stopping until it is blocked by an unfortunate bystander.
Visions of death and torture raced through Chin Ming’s mind, clouding her thoughts. Will she ever see
her beloved son again? That was one thing she was almost positive about; but she hated the answer.
She went numb.
Yao Ming faced ten days of travel, exhaustion and tears ahead of him, but it was a mere joyride
compared to his life ahead working on the Great Wall. Nervous and completely overwhelmed, frightened Yao
Ming, going against all his first instincts, pushed himself forward, trying to gain respect and forge some sort of