Born of Water and Flames

1- Vietnam

My mother is yelling at me. I made a huge mistake. I was tending to the garden and I was so bored that I made the water form into animal shapes and go sit on the plants. My mother saw. I can only hear one word in her yelling. "Disowned." She disowns, me, Lien, her third daughter. She won't care. In this world it is boys who are important. If any of my brothers had had this power she wouldn't disown them. But because in this hell of a world, girls are inferior to boys. I know what she thinks. That I have been praying to Shijie. If my brothers had actually prayed to Shijie, she wouldn't disown them. I've had enough. I head to the room that I share with my three sisters. Anh and Ly folded my ao dais neatly on my mattress. I cross over to a corner of the room. Sitting in the corner is a bag. I pick the bag up and put the ao dais in it. There is only one place I can go. At the border of Vietnam and China there is a city where they still worship Shijie. I will not be scorned there. My curse will be a gift. I will be free.