Wednesday, December 28, 2005
STORY WRITTEN BY AN A/O VICTIM
The story below is written by Giap Thi Giang, a 23 years old girl, living in the Van Canh Friendship Village. Except for her withered legs, Giang is a lovely girl with a good looking face. She is wellread, and like many million children in the world, she is reading Harry Potter...
Giang wrote this story in both Vietnamese and English. I have made some minor grammar and spelling checks for her.
If you read this story carefully, you will find behind the story is a delicate and sensitive soul that needs much caring...
THE SEA'S ECHOES FROM A SHELL
“A boy dreams of becoming a painter,
but he is blind.
A girl dreams of becoming a student,
but she is mentally insufficient.
A young girl dreams of becoming a model,
but her face is deformed.
…………………………………….”.
Along time ago, in a beautiful Kingdom with green countryside and busy towns and endless glittering sand beaches. The people lived in happiness and harmony there.
However, in a village, there was an unfortunate girl who fell sick. Even though her parents invited all the best doctors in that Kingdom to their home to cure her sickness, all of they came and left with a same words: “Sorry, I can’t help your daughter”.
The girl’s sickness got worse day by day, and her world was only a room with four walls, and a piece of sky through the window.
To comfort the girl, her parents bought many toys for her, and they read stories for her every day.
One of the stories was about the sea. Even though she never saw the sea, but in her mind the sea was a beautiful and wonderful place with the glittering sand beach, the soft blue water and the melodious sound of the waves rushing to shore, the rustle of the casuarina trees in wind.
Since then, she dreamed of a day when she would go to the sea to see waves lapping the beach, run on the glittering sand, and hear the the mellodious sound of the waves, the rustle of the casuarina trees in wind.
Her parent really wanted to help her realise her dream but they couldnot. However, they thought of a way so that the girl still in her room can feel like standing in front of the sea.
On the walls they hang the pictures of the sea with heaving waves like real, they lit glitering lanterns in the room, they even tried to mimick the sound of the waves, and the sound of the casuarina trees rustling in wind.
However, the girl still said:
“No. That is not the sea.
The sea is beautiful and wonderful.
The sea is not like this”.
An the girl still longed for her dream, but her parents couldn’t do anything further.
One day, there was a traveler passing by that village. He called at her house to ask for some water, he by chance learned about the girl and her dream. The traveler gave the girl a glittering shell of a sea snail and said: “Before you sleep, put this shell the next to your ear, and then close your eyes, it will help you realize your dream”.
That night, the girl followed the traveler’s advice, then fell sleep and dream…
In the dream, the girl saw herself running on the glittering sand beach between the casuarina trees rustling in the wind and the waves singing to comfort the golden beach....
Andexen once said: “The best fairy tale is the tale written by real
life”.
Like the little girl in the story, we (AO victims) have many dreams. We believe that the fairies will make our dream come true. And like the little girl in the story we make them come true by the “fairy of imagination”
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And I just want to tell Giang: Come on, my little sister. Let your imagination be the wings to flutter you to the sky of dreams and wishes. If only I can do anything for you....
