“What is that?!” I exclaimed after my mom had unknowingly put my favorite white T-shirt into the colored laundry.
“I'm sorry, I made a mistake,” she apologized after removing her purse from her shoulder.
“Whatever,” I whispered.
After a long pause, my mom asked, “What is it?”
“TBH you had one job as a mom and you made a mistake. How hard can it be?”
“You wouldn't know how hard it is to be a mom, let alone be a working mom,” she argued as she took off her black sweater. I got into bed and pulled the covers over my ears trying to drown out her voice.
“Yeah, right. I would be the best mother! After all, how hard can it be?” I defensively replied as I shut the lamp and attempted to go to sleep.
“What the fu-!” Suddenly these two kids hugged my body. Where was my bed, where was my iPhone, where was my white-ish T-shirt, and who were those people? The kids continued to hug me by not letting me go. One of the kids was a little girl who looked about eight years old, she was wearing pigtails and an orange dress. The other kid was a boy, he was wearing blue shorts with a red shirt who looked about five years old. “Ew! get off!” I exclaimed, trying to make the kids let go of me.
“Cousin!” they joyfully screamed.
“Cousin?” I wasn't their cousin. I wasn't even a part of their family, let alone country, so why were they calling me cousin?!
“Cousin Mai, how are you? So glad you are visiting!”
Instantly, I pushed myself out of the hug and looked for who said that. My eyes instantly focused on a thin women with plum colored cheeks and short straight black hair. She wearing baggy clothes made out of some grainy rough fabric. She was not wearing any jewelry, so I assumed she wasn't rich enough to afford any; I remember learning in World Studies class the more jewelry you wore, the higher class you belonged to. She continued to welcome me, but her words were drowned over the voices in my head. Where am I? Why am I here? If this was a punishment, I was definitely starting to learn my lesson.
She took my hand and guided me to a room which looked like the kitchen. It had a clay stove with a pile of grains and vegetables next to it, along with purple drapes covering the windows and a wooden table with a piece of cloth on it.
“They really did miss you! Anyways shall we make the children some breakfast,” the women offered.
“Ew! Don't touch me.” I jerked away “Who even are you!?” My heart started to beat harder, and my lungs became dryer. This is not happening. While she was scavenging through the piles of corn and cabbage, I was scavenging for a sign of an iPhone so I could call for help. The earthy smell of dirt lingered onto the corn pulled fresh from the field. She continued rapidly shred the leaves of the corn and drench it in water over and over again. Her hands were starting to get small cuts from the sharp ends of the leaves attached to the corn, but she resumed to tear it anyway wiping her blood on the blue cloth laying on the wooden table.
“Hey, quick question... where the hell am I?!” She kept on ignore me drowning out all excess voices in the room “Hello, do you not he-” Immediately she handed me a block of corn
“Make yourself useful, you can't expect me to peel all this corn do you?” She joked. There in my hands lay a bright yellow piece of corn, it was smooth like rubber but leaves sharp like knives, in front of us laid a pile of even more corn.
“You don't expect me to peel all of that do you? I mean especially in only one day?” I questioned.
“It's not like anyone else will do it, now hurry because my kids can get very hungry, very fast.” LOL did she actually think she could peel 20 pieces of corn in the span of 3 hours, she must be either superwoman or super crazy! Eventually after making breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I had decided it was time to go back to my scavenger hunt for help. I swear if I had to peel another piece of corn my hands would fall off, it was scary to think that these mothers do this every single day. I found myself walking into a small room with a bamboo bed and a big wooden box lying next to it. “Bingo!” Hopefully, I had found my escape, but I didn't want to get my hopes to high up.
“OH MY GOD!” I yelled dashing away from the box.
“Mai, Mai, what happened” She yelled rushing in with a handful of bright green Mulberry leaves.
“What the heck is that?!” I screeched pointing to the box invested with gray colored worms.
“Silkworms, duh,” she said bending down and dropping leaves which she had gotten from the bushes outside into the box, as she waited for the worms to dash towards the leaves fighting for a bite each. “Here take a worm and give it a leaf, it seems a bit weird right now but doing this everyday you get used to it”
“No, no, no... DO NOT touch me” I shrieked backing away quickly. “Please don't give it to me, I hate bugs, not just hate, despise!” I begged. She continued to collect the leaves from the bushes outside and fetch water from the well next to the field, so she could hydrate and feed the worms, while `laughing at my so-called ‘ignorant’ fear.
It had been two hours and I still was in this horrendous place, so I decided if god's not going to let me out I guess I was going to have to do it myself. I remember seeing in the movies in order to go back home you had to find a specific door which would then transport you back to your world once kicked opened. I glanced at the house peering for a sign of a door, but all I could see was multiple small rooms and one small door leading to the farming field. “I guess that will have to do. 1,2,3.” I dashed to the door and kicked it open. Nothing. I closed and kicked it open again, still nothing. Was I stuck in here forever? I couldn't die like this, not in these clothes, not with these people! “I'm sorry god, please just take me back, please” I prayed. “Mai come here, we need to start our cleaning!” She yelled from the bedroom. “Oh frick, please god, you know If there's one thing I can't do it’s clean.”
“Ouch!” Oh god, what happened now. As my eyes began to became clearer I noticed a teddy, bear. And an iPhone, MacBook Air, squash racket, and even my “NYC Girl” pillow. I dashed outside my room to make sure I was home, outside I saw my mom who was as usual sitting on the cream leather couch furiously typing away emails on her laptop. Next to the couch lay a few maroon beanbags and a flatscreen 60 inch TV resting on the white walls. “OMG, OMG, It actually worked!”
“Mom, Mom, Mom, I had a dream where I saw what it was like to be a mom for a day, and not even in here but in like China! I saw all the work you had to do, from feeding her silkworms to feeding her chi-” She continued to type on her laptop pretending like I was on some sort of mute button. “Mom?, Fine, I'm sorry and you were right.” She looked up from her laptop with a satisfied grin. “Continue,” she whispered. “You were right, being a mom is hard, not just hard like the hardest thing I have ever done, from cooking, clean, nurturing your kids every single day; to never having time to put your needs before ours, it's exhausting and I'm sorry. I really am,” I explained. “Good,” she said leaning in to kiss my cheeks “Now tell me more about this dream.”
Sources :
"Ancient China." Kids History: Daily Life in. Ducksters, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"Making Silk - Connecting Women to the Silk Road (Women in World History Curriculum)." Making Silk - Connecting Women to the Silk Road (Women in World History Curriculum). Women In World History, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"Gender Roles." AP World History 2012-2013. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Donn, Lin, and Phillip Martin. "Han TimesAncient China for Kids." The Han Dynasty (Han Times). Lin Donn, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
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