The Days My Younger Sister Was Truant

Translated…

When my younger sister was in the third grade in her elementary years, there were a period of six months when she’d become truant, back then, my parents, for the sake of putting the food on the tables worked hard all day long; early in the morning as the kids and adults headed out, while everybody else was behaving, sitting in their assigned seats, reviewing the lessons, she’d started, wandering, in her own little world.

not my photograph…

From the elementary school in the mountains, we’d transferred into the elementary school in the city, and, the number of children went from just a dozen to over forty, and, the homework assignments increased from two pages to seven to eight, plus, she’d started school early, so she was, two years younger than her classmates, having a dark complexion, very short and stout, she’d had, immense difficulties, adapting, and would often cry as she worked on her homework.  Being timid and introverted as she, she’d done something I would’ve never dared do my entire life—became truant.

The school’s buildings were numbered, and, the higher grades were using the rooms in the afternoons, the lower grade levels were using the rooms in the mornings, we couldn’t go to school together, and this gave her a ton of free time.  She’d ran away, using different routes every single day, sometimes, she’d gone into the woods, to play with mud, and the rocks, and from time to time, she’d gone to the creeks, to catch the shrimps and the crabs, or to play house with the scarecrows by the fields, and she’d managed to keep herself hidden, until school’s out.

not my photo still…

In order to force her to go to school, my mother told me, that after school, I’d needed to drop my younger sister into her class, and, she’d complied for a short while too, and, as I’d gotten more lenient, and just saw her into the schools and then left, the moment I’d turned my back, she’d, skipped out, using that small passage next to the school again, and continued her plans, to escape school.  With her previous adventures, she’d enlarged the radius of her play area now.

In order to keep herself from being found by the adults, my cunning little sister has many three places for her to hide, the small temple of the land guardian by the park was the first, the second, the lychee plantation next to the irrigation ditches, from the flowers to the fruits, the owners of the plantations never realized, that my sister took more of the crops than the critters.  And, the most dangerous place IS the safest.  The factory where my father worked, was her third hiding place, she’d rode the bus to the factory, and, caught up on sleep, and the bus ticket attendant never took her ticket, because she’d cried and told her she was going to see dad.

A few days ago, my younger sister’s eldest son who was in his second year in kindergarten wanted to flip over the walls to get some candy, and, the moment he’d climbed up the fences, right at the moment when he was about to flip over, the teachers caught it, it seems, that my nephew did not get the skills that my younger sister had.

Her days of “derailing” had ended, when she’d found herself a best friend in her class, and that child who skipped out of school is now, a manager of a boutique shop, she’s now, walking, with a whole lot of flair, as her older sister, I bow to her.

And so, this, is the memories of when you were young, and, the things you’d done when you were younger, because you were, too wild to be kept, locked up inside those four walls, and, you’d passed through that childhood rebellion state, and become someone, it’s all, a part of the growth process, going through the rebellious stages.