I was born in a
secluded village on a mountain.
Day by day, my
parents plowed the yellow dry soil with their
backs towards the
sky.
I have a brother
who is 3 years younger than me.
I wanted to buy a
handkerchief, which all girls around me
seemed to have.
So, one day I stole 50 cents from my father’s
drawer. Father had
discovered about the stolen money right
away.
He made me and my
younger brother kneel against the wall as he
held a bamboo
stick in his hand.
"Who stole
the money?" he asked.
I was stunned, too
afraid to talk. Neither of us admitted to
the fault,so he
said, "Fine, if nobody wants to admit, you two
should be
beaten!" He lifted up the bamboo stick.
Suddenly, my
younger brother gripped father’s hand and said,"
Dad, I was the one
who did it!"
The long stick
smacked my brother’s back repeatedly. Father was
so angry that he
kept on whipping my brother until he lost his
breath.
After that, he sat
down on our stone bed and scolded my
brother, "You
have learned to steal from your own house now.
What other
embarrassing things will you be possibly doing in
the future? You
should be beaten to death, you shameless
thief!"
That night, my
mother and I hugged my brother. His body was
full of wounds
from the beating but he never shed a single
tear.
In the middle of
the night, all of sudden, I cried out loudly.
My brother covered
my mouth with his little hand and said, "
Sis, now don’t cry
anymore. Everything has happened."
I still hate
myself for not having enough courage to admit what
I did.
Years gone by, but
the incident still seemed like it just
happened
yesterday. I will never forget my brother’s expression
when he protected
me.
That year, my
brother was 8 years old and I was 11 years old.
———————————————————-
When my brother
was in his last year of secondary school, he
was accepted in an
upper secondary school in the central. At
the same time, I
was accepted into a university in the
province. That
night, father squatted in the yard, smoking,
packet by packet.
I could hear him
ask my mother, "Both of our children, they
have good results?
very good results?"
Mother wiped off
her tears and sighed," What is the use? How
can we possibly
finance both of them?"
At that time, my
brother walked out, he stood in front of
father and said,
"Dad, I don’t want to continue my studies
anymore, I have
read enough books."
Father swung his
hand and slapped my brother on his face. "Why
do you have a
spirit so damn weak? Even if it means I have to
beg for money on
the streets, I will send you two to school
until you have
both finished your studies."
And then, he
started to knock on every house in the village to
borrow money.
I stuck out my
hand as gently as I can to my brother’s swollen
face, and told
him, "A boy has to continue his studies; If not,
he will not be
able to overcome this poverty we are
experiencing."
I, on the other
hand, had decided to further my studies at the
university. Nobody
knew that on the next day, before dawn, my
brother left the
house with a few pieces of worn-out clothes
and a few dry
beans. He sneaked to my side of the bed and left
a note on my
pillow; "Sis, getting into a university is not
easy. I will go
find a job and I will send money to you."
I held the note
while sitting on my bed, and cried until I lost
my voice.
That year, my
brother was 17 years old; I was 20 years old.
———————————————————–
With the money
father borrowed from the whole village, and the
money my brother
earned from carrying cement on his back at a
construction site,
finally, I managed to get to the third year
of my studies in
the university.
One day, while I
was studying in my room, my roommate came in
and told me,
"There’s a villager waiting for you outside!"
Why would there be
a villager looking for me? I walked out, and
I saw my brother
from afar. His whole body was covered with
dirt, dust, cement
and sand. I asked him, "Why did you not tell
my roommate that
you are my brother?"
He replied with a
smile," Look at my appearance. What will they
think if they
would know that I am your brother? Won’t they
laugh at
you?" I felt so touched, and tears filled my eyes. I
swept away dirt
and dust from my brother’s body. And told him
with a lump in my
throat, " I don’t care what people would say!
You are my brother
no matter what your appearance is?"
From his pocket,
he took out a butterfly hair clip. He put it
on my hair and
said, "I saw all the girls in town are wearing
it. So, I think
you should also have one."
I could not hold
back myself anymore. I pulled my brother into
my arms and cried.
That year, my
brother was 20 years old; I was 23 years old.
———————————————————–
I noticed that the
broken window was repaired the first time I
brought my
boyfriend home. The house was scrubbed cleaned.
After my boyfriend
left, I danced like a little girl in front
of my mother,
"Mom, you didn’t have to spend so much time
cleaning the
house!"
But she told me
with a smile," It was your brother who went
home early to clean
the house. Didn’t you see the wound on his
hand? He hurt his
hand while he was replacing the window."
I went into my
brother’s bedroom. Looking at his thin face, I
felt like there
are hundreds of needle pricked in my heart.
I applied some
ointment on his wound and put a bandag on it,
"Does it
hurt? " I asked him.
"No, it
doesn’t hurt. You know, when at the construction site,
stones keep
falling on my feet. Even that could not stop me
from
working."
In the middle of
the sentence, he stopped. I turned my back on
him and tears
rolled down my face.
That year, my
brother was 23 years old; I was 26 years old.
———————————————————–
After I got
married, I lived in the city. Many times my husband
invited my parents
to come and live with us, but they didn’t
want.
They said, once
they left the village, they wouldn’t know what
to do. My brother
agreed with them. He said, "Sis, you just
take care of your
parents-in-law. I will take care of mom and
dad here."
My husband became
the director of his factory. We asked my
brother to accept
the offer of being the manager in the
maintenance
department. But my brother rejected the offer. He
insisted on
working as a repairman instead for a start. One
day, my brother
was on the top of a ladder repairing a cable,
when he got
electrocuted, and was sent to the hospital.
My husband and I
visited him at the hospital. Looking at the
white gypsum on
his leg, I grumbled, "Why did you reject the
offer of being a
manager? Managers won’t do something dangerous
like that. Now
look at you, You are suffering a serious injury.
Why didn’t you
just listen to us?"
With a serious
expression on his face, he defended his
decision,
"Think of brother-in-law. He just became the
director, and I
being uneducated, and would become a manager,
what kind of
rumors would fly around?"
My husband’s eyes
filled up with tears, and then I said, "But
you lack in
education only because of me!"
"Why do you
talk about the past?" he said and then he held my
hand.
That year, he was
26 years old and I was 29 years old.
——————————————————–
My brother was 30
years old when he married a farmer girl from
the village.
During the wedding
reception, the master of ceremonies asked
him, "Who is
the one person you respect and love the most?"
Without even
taking a time to think, he answered," My sister."
He continued by
telling a story I could not even remember.
"When I was
in primary school, the school was in a different
village. Everyday,
my sister and I would walk for 2 hours to
school and back
home. One day, I lost the other pair of my
gloves. My sister
gave me one of hers. She wore only one glove
and she had to walk
far. When we got home, her hands were
trembling because
of the cold weather that she could not even
hold her
chopsticks…"
"From that
day on, I swore that as long as I live, I would take
care of my sister and
will always be good to her."
Applause filled up
the room. All guests turned their attention
to me. I found it
hard to speak, "In my whole life, the one I
would like to
thank most is my brother," And in this happy
occasion, in front
of the crowd, tears were rolling down my
face again.
Love and care for
the one you love every single day of your
life. You may
think what you did is just a small deed, but to
that someone, it
may mean a lot.
Have a nice day.
May this story inspire you in any way
