Short stories E-Book

Elias J. Connor

• Herausgeber: FINN Books Edition FireFly
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A reporter visits a Chinese village and uncovers a dark secret. A beggar loses his only friend, his dog, and embarks on a nerve-wracking search for him. A little girl wants nothing more from her father than a doll's house for Christmas - but he doesn't have enough money to afford it. A young woman receives a strange gift and ends up in a strange world. These and other stories are in this book. A collection of Short stories, fantastic, authentic or true - they all have one message: Believe in yourself. Believe in the good and it will happen to you.

Leseprobe

Elias J. Connor

Short stories

Inhaltsverzeichnis

SHORT STORIES BY ELIAS J. CONNOR

The village of the abandoned children

The dream catcher

The house on the outskirts of town

Lina

Ivy in the mirror world

Best friend

Pascal

Because I have to live here

Avalonie

Deep forest

The flapping of the butterfly's wings

Impressum

SHORT STORIES BY ELIAS J. CONNOR

This is a collection of the short stories (drama/fantasy) by Elias J. Connor. Emotional, full of fantasy or simply real. Thoughtful, fantastic, real. And all these stories have one message: Believe in yourself. Believe in the good, because it will come to you when you can see it and feel it.

I dedicate this book to my two muses Nadja and Jana, who always support me with their ideas and their way of encouraging me.

(Elias J Connor)

The village of the abandoned children

It was still quite early when the hotel alarm woke me up. I didn't have much time either after a busy day yesterday, so I quickly got ready and then went straight to the hotel lobby for breakfast.

"Who's that face staring at me so wearily in the bathroom mirror?" I asked myself as I shaved. I was 38 and somehow looked 56 today. Not easy, this job as a reporter for a well-known German television station, especially when you had to work in a country with so many controversies and contradictions like this.

We had a difficult shoot yesterday. In the huge corporation - and that was really the case - after endless back and forth we finally got permission to shoot. And when we were there, we didn't get to see anything. They denied us what we actually wanted to report on.

But for a country like China, I wasn't surprised. Not anymore, after everything we've already experienced here.

Outwardly the great pride, the great economic power. Opening to the West, with new possibilities of all financial transactions. But what about the country itself? What was behind the scenes in China? This was the subject of our report, which we had been shooting for several weeks.

However, we haven't really captured a lot of material yet.

"Lukas", my cameraman with his camera and the interpreter immediately greeted me. "Slept well?"

"Nah," I said. "Just let."

"What's on today?" The cameraman pulled out a pad and wrote something down.

"We have an appointment to meet some kids at a school," I explained. "We don't want to make a fuss about it, they're supposed to be very scared."

"Any idea why, or what it's about?"

I shook my head. "I just know that we shouldn't come with all the technology and everyone. Just us - cameraman and interpreter, and me. I don't know if they really let us shoot. Not after what we experienced yesterday.”

"Well, I like this country less and less," agreed the interpreter. "Internet blocking, control and espionage everywhere, corporations that deny insight..."

"Who are you telling that to?" I said.

"And what are we shooting today?" asked the cameraman. "I haven't received a script yet."

I looked at him in surprise. "We don't have a script here," I said. "It's about a family. Four children, to be precise. The oldest is supposed to be called Hay-Jing, and today she wants to show us how she lives with her siblings in a remote village.”

"Well, let's go then," said the interpreter when I had finished my breakfast.

The school looked run down from afar. After an hour's drive, we parked our car in front of the building and walked towards the front door. Several children were playing outside or just occupied with each other. Hardly any of them even noticed that we were coming.

Shortly thereafter, a teacher approached us.

"Hello," I said politely, which my interpreter then translated into Chinese for me. "I'm looking for Hay-Jing. We are from German television. I think we spoke on the phone.”

"Yes," said the teacher. "Yes I remember."

"Where is she?" I wanted to know.

"She'll be right out," said the teacher.

"Can you tell me about Hay-Jing? How long has she been going to school here?”

I sat down with the teacher on a bench in the schoolyard while some of the other children went home.

The teacher snorted and said something unintelligible.

"Where do the children who go to school live here?" I asked.

"All from the same village," replied the teacher. “It's not meant to be public, but there are probably thousands of villages like this. They can be lucky that there is a school here, otherwise they would be completely lost.”

At that moment, a girl of about 12 with long, dark hair that was braided into a ponytail arrived. On its hand it had three much younger children, maybe seven or eight. Two girls and a boy. The boy might not have been more than five.

"Hello," I greeted the girl. "Are you Hay-Jing?"

She nodded shyly.

"My name is Lukas," I then introduced myself. "We have an appointment."

The boy studied our camera closely while the film technician smiled at him.

"You don't have to be afraid," I finally said. "It's just the three of us here - the interpreter, the cameraman and me."

Hay-Jing looked me straight in the eye.

"Would you like to show us your home?" I asked.

Hay-Jing nodded.

The residential area was not far from the school. Hard to believe, I hardly saw an adult walking around on the street. How could that be? Where were those who were supposed to look after the children?

"We live on the third floor," Hay-Jing explained when we arrived at her house.

Mud buildings, and not even particularly stable. Some of the houses looked as if they had actually been built into the mountain that stretched out behind the village, with its loamy slope. It didn't look safe to live here.

We ran up the stairs.

"So it's true," I stated, looking into the camera. "You live alone. There are said to be a thousand villages like this where the children live alone. I feel like I'm in a movie right now, with a sad and bad script. But that is the reality.”

Hay-Jing then led me into the open apartment. Her three little siblings now seemed to be more alert than she was. The two youngest crawled around on my legs and didn't want to let go of me at all.

"Sorry," Hay-Jing said politely. "They just haven't seen any adults apart from our teacher for a long time. And they haven't played for so long. You know, we don't have time to play."

We sat down on the sofa and at the same time Hay-Jing, her younger sister's hair, began to comb it.

"Who's watching over you?" I then asked. Actually, I wanted to try to remain factual, but I was so deeply moved and stunned at the moment that I could hardly think straight.

"Nobody," the girl replied. "I. Our uncle stops by every now and then.”

"Hay-Jing, how old are you?" I finally wanted to know.

Hay-Jing shrugged. "I dont know."

"Hard to believe," I said into the camera. "She doesn't even know how old she is."

The cameraman and interpreter also seemed visibly moved.

"How does your day look like?" I then asked the question.

And then Hay-Jing looked at me and snorted. "I wake the little ones in the morning so we can get to school on time." She smiled. "School is a welcome change."

"A variety?"

"We're allowed to learn there," reported Hay-Jing. “Together with other children. I always have to pay attention to everything here.”

"Watch out for what?" I blurted out. My voice trembled.

"To my siblings," Hay-Jing replied. "In the afternoon when we get home, I'll make them dinner. Then I have to clean the house, do the laundry and tidy up. And in the evening I have to make sure that they go to bed on time, because the next day is waiting for us."

"You doing all this all by yourself?" I asked.

"Yes," she said softly.

"How long?" I wanted to know. "Since when do you have to do all this alone?"

"So four years," she said then.

We were silent for a while while Hay-Jing's smaller siblings started jumping up and down on my shoes.

"Where are your parents?" I shook my head.

"They've been migrant workers for four years," Hay-Jing explained to me. "Dad sends some money every now and then, but we have to fight it out on our own."

"Incredible," I said to the camera. "I think I'm in a really horrible movie right now. It doesn't seem real to me at all - but it is real. They haven't seen their parents for four years."

Hay-Jing smiled at me. "Come on, I'll show you the rest of the apartment," she then said.

And somehow I felt her loosen up. She suddenly seemed warmer, not so shy anymore.

Finally, she proudly showed me the kitchen, where she also put some noodles in a pot filled with water. Then she turned on the charcoal stove and put the pot on it.

"Make food," she explained.

Then she took my hand and led me into the shabby bathroom. A bucket hanging from the ceiling served as a shower, and an old, large washtub served as a tub.

Finally, Hay-Jing showed me the corner where four mattresses were set up.

"This is our sleeping alcove," she said proudly. "We never sleep apart."

"Hay-Jing," I then asked after minutes. "Do you miss your parents?"

She nodded.

The three other siblings then arrived. The boy held a ball in his hand. He tossed it to me and I then tossed it back to him.

"Play ball," Hay-Jing shouted.

And at that moment I saw a sparkle in her eyes, which told me more than a thousand words. Now that someone was around, Hay-Jing just wanted to be a kid again. Something she always wanted and never could.

We played ball for about an hour. Eventually, Hay-Jing spotted our interpreter's pad, and then I gave her pens and she drew a beautiful picture, which she then handed to me.

"As a reminder," she finally said.

And again, the younger siblings danced around on my knees, laughing, when we sat down on the old sofa again.

Finally we made a gossip game which I taught them, a game that normal kids play.

normal kids.

No, it wasn't Hay-Jing and her siblings. So left to their own devices, having to be mature like adults, never allowed to be children – I felt so sorry for the four of them.

"It's time to go," I had to announce after four hours with a heavy heart.

Hay-Jing's three younger siblings grabbed my knees as I stood up and wouldn't let go.

Somehow I had to fight my way to the door.

"I can't believe it," I said to the camera. “How they live, what they have to do and no one to help them. They have to do everything themselves and bear all the responsibility that one would hardly expect a child to have. Hay-Jing has to take care of her little siblings like a mother. She can never be a child. What a moment it must have been for her to be able to do it today.”

I swallowed.

"It hurts my soul so much, and I would love to take them all with me. It makes me sick to think that I have to leave her here.”

"Lukas, what are you saying to the camera?" Hay-Jing wanted to know.

And the interpreter translated the approximate sense of my words.

Hay-Jing smiled at me again, then hugged me, and we finally had to go back down to our car.

From below we saw the four children standing and waving at us. With a smile on their face, which they probably only had on very few days – if at all. Filled with gratitude.

You could be so thankful.

But for what? I had to leave them here, and tomorrow they would have to go back to their sad everyday lives.

China. world industrial country. Leading nation in terms of business and technology. Big cities with millions of inhabitants, all proudly shining in their splendor.

This village - and apparently there are thousands of them - was not an isolated case. The Villages of Abandoned Children. Villages where the children grow up without parents, have to grow up all by themselves and are left to their own devices. Villages where the children didn't grow up in the sheltered way it should be. Where they are not allowed to be children, play or just have fun like children should.

Why were there such abandoned villages in a country like China? Why didn't anyone do anything about it?

On the way back to the hotel, I couldn't get the sad scene of the four children left alone out of my head. I was still stunned and couldn't believe that something like this really existed. So hard to believe this was real and not a bad movie with a bad script.

The downside. And if possible, none of this should leak out. China wanted to present itself to the world, but not with it.

The next morning we had the next shoot. I think it was about the beauty craze of China's rich women, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what we shot yesterday.

But I wasn't really into it. I tried my best and got interested, but it didn't go very well.

I just couldn't forget the poor kids from yesterday. This sad fate they have to endure growing up without parents, all on their own.

For Hay-Jing, everyday life might start again today. She would get her siblings out of bed in the morning, get them ready for school, then she would go to school with them, and in the afternoon after she had cooked them food, she would tidy and clean the apartment for her younger siblings help with their homework and put them to bed at night. Perhaps she would tell them a bedtime story, as she often did.

Hay-Jing, who didn't even know how old she was, could never be a child and never learned to be.

But yesterday she and her siblings were allowed to forget for a few hours that they lived in the village of abandoned children.

The dream catcher

she was shaking. Hardly anyone noticed, but inside she was very anxious, even though it was the same game every morning, the same way to work. All these people on the tram – she could hardly stand it, and she was glad that her station was only a few minutes away.

When the doors opened again after a minute and a half, she quickly dived out and stumbled.

"Don't panic," she whispered to herself.

The approximately 18-year-old girl ran quickly to the canopy, under which there was also a bench. There she sat down and took a deep breath of the wintry air. Thank God it hadn't snowed in November, because that scared her even more.

But she tried not to let it show. Only she knew that she was so afraid in public.

When a young man with dark hair and a leather jacket sat down next to her, she didn't seem to notice at first. Only when he nudged her lightly did she realize that she wasn't sitting alone on the bench.

"Sorry," the man said politely. "I think you lost something from your pocket."

He gave her something she didn't immediately recognize. Astonished and deep in thought, she took this something he gave her and looked at it.

"This isn't mine, you must be wrong," she stammered. However, when she turned around and wanted to hand the strange object back to him, the young man was no longer there. She looked around in amazement. He wasn't at the next shelter either. He must have left the train station without saying anything.

The girl snorted.

"Hello?" she asked quietly.

But apparently nobody was here anymore. The people who had just got off with her had apparently already moved on, and the station seemed deserted.

The girl took a closer look at the object. It was made of raffia and perfectly round. Wool threads were spun between them, and two feathers hung from the lower end. Now she realized what it was.

It was a dream catcher. She had already seen such in pictures. She had also seen it in various shops, but she had never bought one.

And now a strange man came and gave her a dream catcher? Why?

She didn't think twice. She carefully put the dream catcher in her bag and then put it back around her shoulders. Then she started walking in the direction of her company, which was very close by.

A middle-aged colleague was already waiting at the front door of the large company where the girl apparently worked.

"Hey, Julie," he said, smiling. "I thought you weren't coming anymore."

Julie stumbled again, but her colleague managed to catch her arm so she didn't fall.

"A bit confused today?" he wanted to know.

"I'm super stressed again," Julie explained. "Josh, I've been home so annoyed for weeks. My family just won't leave me alone.”

"What did they do?" Josh asked.

"They keep coming into my room," Julie replied. "I'm eighteen, when will they get it."

Josh considered. "Maybe they're just scared."

"Really man," Julie cursed. "Just because I'm scared and can't move around in crowds they make such a fuss." She brushed a strand of hair out of her hair. "It's a miracle that they let me go to work alone."

"You've been with us for two years now," Josh stated. "Your training is 1 a."

"Yes," Julie said. "But if my deficit eventually comes out... then what?"

"Your boss knows," Josh tried to reassure her. "You do better than the others, even if you suffer from anxiety."

Julie snorted.

Suddenly she saw something in the sky and winced.

"Tethered balloon," she just stammered.

Josh knew what she had. She had told him before that she was afraid of those big balloons and couldn't stand the noise they made.

"He can't hurt you," Josh reassured her. "He's far away."

"Let's go in," she finally said.

All sorts of assembly items were commissioned in the company, mainly for roof mounts for radio antennas, satellite dishes and the like. Julie started an apprenticeship here two years ago and Josh came to the company as a career changer a few months ago. Of all the co-workers, Josh was the only one she trusted a little bit more. As a good friend, he knew her problems and often encouraged her not to let her fears affect her. She should dare more, he always said.

Josh worked in a different department than she did, but they usually met in the canteen during breaks. And it was in those moments that Julie could sometimes forget her fears as they sat there drinking coffee or chatting about all sorts of things.

Also during this lunch break, Julie came back to Josh's table. He had already eaten his bread and was drinking a hot coffee. Since most of the colleagues took a break later, the canteen wasn't very full at that time.

"Well, have you calmed down a bit?" Josh said to her. He didn't look up, and his dark hair covered his eyes.

Julie nodded. Noticing that he wasn't looking at her, she waved her hand in front of his face and he looked up at that, smiling.

"Sorry," he said. "I was just checking something on my phone."

"You with your phone always," Julie smiled. "What are you doing there all the time?"

"I'm playing a fantasy game," Josh said. "It's such a new app, but I haven't quite figured out how it works."

He put his phone back in his pocket and sipped from his mug.

"Did you actually have your English book with you?" Josh wanted to know. "We wanted to practice a bit."

"Yes, I have." Julie opened her bag at the same time... and then this strange object appeared again, which she had almost forgotten. She carefully took it out.

"What's that?" Josh wanted to know. When he realized it, he laughed. "A dream catcher. Where did you get that from?"

Julie considered. "I don't know exactly," she replied. "I haven't told you that yet. Something very strange happened to me this morning. Suddenly there was a strange young man. He gave me this dream catcher and claimed I lost it. But I don't remember ever owning one."

"Well, now you have one," Josh said, smiling. "It not only catches your dreams, but also your fears."

"Really?" Julie said thoughtfully. "I do not think so."

"Maybe," Josh said.

"I have to go," Julie finally said. "Break over."

Josh nodded. Then he got up and went ahead because he wanted to put his tray on the shelf. As he walked out the door that led to the large hallway in front of the workshop, Julie dived after him.

"Wait," she said. "You're always gone so quickly."

Julie opened the door and stepped into the large hallway...but Josh wasn't there.

---ENDE DER LESEPROBE---