The Rose of Life
by Alyssa C.
Once upon a time a long time ago in Sichuan, China, there lived the Ling family. They had beautiful gardens and magnificent courtyards full of fine flowers. In the gardens, they had good ripe vegetables. This was the year of the Dragon.
Today was a special day LiLi, the mother, who was like a porcelain doll, had a baby boy, 'cute as a button,' named Lenchi. The family had a huge party. Chow, the oldest son, who was not very tall but quite mysterious, and his other sister, Titi who was beautiful and considerate, got all dressed up for the party. Titi was 12 years old. Even though they had lots of money, they did not have servants: they made Titi do all the work like every other girl in China. They washed in the wash basin and put on beautiful robes. The robes were made of very fine silk the kind they wear to celebrate the New Year. On each robe, there was a Dragon with four toes. This robe was bright red.
Then Chow went to see what Chin, his Dad, who also was very tall, was doing. Meanwhile, Titi went to the garden to gather the vegetables for the feast. LiLi was inside cooking the rice and making the tea. Then LiLi called to Titi, "have you finished your sewing? "
"No, mother," replied Titi, and she ran off to do her sewing.
When Titi had finished her sewing, she went out to the garden to gather more vegetables. To her surprise, she found Chow outside. He was sniffing the flowers and talking to them. "Chow," she said. "What are you doing out here? You will get sick."
"I know it's cold out here, but I love these flowers," Chow continued, "A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses."
"Oh well, you had better go inside now."
"Alright," he agreed, and off he went.
Later that night, Titi went to change the water in the wash bowl for Chow. But when she came into the room she could see he was sick. She called LiLi right away. LiLi was worried. She put him to bed and said, "I will get you some herbal medicine tomorrow".
The next day LiLi went to get the herbs. She brought them home and heated them into soup for Chow. This went on for weeks. Change the water, bring the soup, change the water, bring the soup. The bringing of the soup she did not mind. It was changing that wash water. It was always so dirty!
During these times, Chow and Titi became closer than they were before. Then, one day, when Titi came in to change the water, she saw Chow was sleeping. She went in quietly and she noticed the wash water was still clean. She ran to her brother to see if his heart was beating, but it was not. She ran for her parents, and found them crying in their room.
Then she ran faster than she did before. She ran straight to the garden. She remembered when Chow was sick and said that he loved the garden. At the time, she was jealous of him because he could sit around and smell the flowers while she did all the work. Then she grabbed a flower and ran back to place it on his bed. Titi was so proud of herself because she had given her brother a piece of the garden, and of herself, for eternity.