Banished
Written by: Margaret
Sun Lie’s hands trembled slightly as she rolled out the dusty painting onto the kitchen table before holding it flat with her feeble fingers.
“Oh, how romantic!” swooned Susan beside her.
“Nan, do you know them?” she asked her grandmother excitedly.
Susan, always eager to spend time with her grandma had come over to clear out the loft in her grandmother’s old house. She came across the painting, rolled up and tied with a pale pink ribbon hidden away in a dark corner behind boxes full of faded memories.
Although the colours had faded somewhat, Susan was aware that she was looking at a beautiful work of art expressing deep feelings of love and anguish. She saw despair in their distraught eyes. The way they clung to each other emphasized a shared fear.
Noticing suddenly that her grandmother sat motionless, Susan tore her eyes from the young Chinese lovers to turn to her grandmother.
Shocked to see tears trickle from her beloved Nan’s eyes, Susan impulsively pushed the painting aside.
“Who are they, Nan?” asked Susan softly, taking her grandma’s hands between her own.
Releasing her fingers, her grandmother pulled the picture back towards her.
Her aged eyes glistered and her pale lips formed a sad smile.
“Hu Jie,” she whispered as her fingertips traced the handsome face of the young man in the picture.
“They forced me to leave you.” Sun Lian’s anguished voice disclosed decades of hidden affliction.
“Nan, what happened?” Susan’s voice was full of concern.
“They sent me as far away from you as possible, Hu Jie. Across the big sea. You were too good for me, they said.” Sun Lian shoulders sagged as she continued. “Your parents had other plans for you – and my parents agreed. That’s what hurt the most, Hu Jie….my parents agreeing…..they knew – you see.”
Susan didn’t move, she was afraid to breathe. Her grandma seemed to have forgotten that she was sitting there.
“Did they ever tell you, my darling? She looked just like you, the same fine features, your charming smile. She inherited your gentleness too, Hu Jie.”
Nothing could be heard but the ticking of the clock as Sun Lian closed her eyes for a moment before continuing.
“Robert took good care of us – little Julie and me. He was a good husband. He loved us.
Sun Lian’s face lit up as she turned her wrinkled face towards Susan.
“Your granddaughter has your dark almond eyes, Hu Jie.”
Susan’s eyes shot from her grandmother to the painting. “Oh my God,” she gasped. “The resemblance is staring right back at me.”
Taking her grandmother tenderly by the arm, Susan suggests, “shall we move to the sofa, Nan? I’d like you to tell me everything – from the very beginning.”
