Prayers never answered

Extra! The life of Gui Lai

The sun had come up into the sky, and lit through the window of the broken down shed and over the small body of Gui Lai. She feels the heat tap at her face, as she finally realizes that the morning hours have come. She inhales deeply and stretches her small body. She rolls over from her poorly made bed, as she feels around for her pole. Her hand manages to grab onto the pole as she pulls herself up. The moment her head lifts up she smells a wonderful scent. She taps the floor with her pole until it hits the small table in the shack. She reaches for the chair and sits as her nostrils are filled with the scent of rice and some eggs and a few pieces of meat.

"Brother good morning! Did you make this?" She asks out loud.

No response..

"Brother? Brother are you there?" She asks. Her mind wanders to the previous night as she had remembered their last conversation.

'Did...he really leave...? Did he...leave me...?'

"Are you awake little one?" An elderly voice asks.

"W...Who is it...?!" She shouts lifting her pole up to defend herself.

"N....No need f..for that! Gui Fa had asked me to check on you. I'm the farmer down the hill...remember?"

"Oh...Sir...what did you mean about my brother asking you to look after me?"

"Little girl did he not say anything to you?"

"I..Is h..he...really...gone?"

For a moment he hesitates, but decides to hold his words back. There was no way he could bring himself to lie to the little girl.

"Little one, Gui Fa has already left to cultivate...."

Gui Lai tightens her grip on her pole and lowers it to the ground. Her head slowly looks down as tears threatened to fall.

"D..Don't worry about food...I'll be providing that for you. Yes? So please just do not allow yourself to be too sad. He wouldn't want to see that once he comes back.."

"I...I can be sad! I am allowed..! Brother left me...!" She cries softly.

Unable to bear with such a burden of parenting this blind child, the farmer decides to leave her to her own devices unsure of what to do. Gui Lai sniffles and hears his footsteps fade away as her hand reaches for the chopsticks beside her plate. She lifts them and takes a single bite. The moment she began to chew, the moment a single thought crept up in her mind.

'Pray...I can pray fo him to come home safely..! If he can cultivate...then...then I'll pray for him!'

She completely swallows down her food, and sets the plate down with her cheeks full of food. She chews as as she can and breathes. Once she swallows down the last bit, she quickly grabs her pole and decides to head out to the fields. She begins to venture to an area she knew well. A field farther down where flowers grew everyday. Some small, some large. She could not see their colors, but it didn't matter. If she could find many small flowers, then she can present them to the gods as an offering. They weren't much, but surely they would be enough.

"The gods will love these..." she says with a smile as her hands roam through the grass to pick the flowers.

"Hey!" A voice shouts.

She flinches and slowly stands with her pole and a handful of small flowers.

"W..Who is it?!" She shouts.

"You really have some nerve to keep coming back here."

She steps back hearing some familiar heavy footsteps come forward to her. With the previous beating she had gotten in her mind, fear began to fill her body from the tips of her toes to the crown of her head.