Loung's Life Within One Month after the End of Her Story - Essay Example

Loung's Life Within One Month After The End Of Her StoryA fortnight has passed but the taste of being safe has not yet sunk in. Every night Loung wakes up with her body drenched in sweat and throat choked with fear. The dinning place, that has doubled up as her bedroom, seems to be big and empty. This one bedroom apartment, which is nothing compared to the home she and her family had left in hurry five years ago, seems to be haunted by some disembodied spirit that has sworn itself to torment Loung's soul for the rest of her life.

Most of the times she feels like going straight into the adjacent room and sleep with her brother and Eang, fearing that she might wake up losing them as well. Lying on her bed, with eyes wide open, she stares at the ceiling and thinks of good old days, her childhood days, before the Khmer Rouge regime destroyed it once and for ever. She dreams of her visit to the noodle shop with her family and her playing hotchpotch with her siblings and friends. But these thoughts inevitably turn towards that fatal day when the bad soldiers came and took her father to the killing fields.

The good memories struggle hard against the flood of bad memories that impinge incessantly on her mind and then she is left to grapple in her bed clinging to her pillow, as if, it is the only thing on earth that she could rightfully hold on to. And as she slowly closes her eyes, her mind hovers over the home she has left behind, her father, mother, brothers and sisters. It is her dreams that keeps her past alive.For Loung, days in the one-bedroom apartment seems better than nights. With Meng leaving in search for work, she is left with Eang who has become more like a mother to her than a sister-in-law.

Loung helps Eang with all the household activities which in reality takes hardly any time. Then they sit and talk and talk about their families and days they cherish. They looks outside the window to watch the hustle bustle of the street. Unknowingly, they stop talking and get engrossed in watching people on the street and try to imagine their life. They are brought back to the reality by the shrill ringing of the door bell. It is the weekly visit by the members of the sponsor who have brought them to United States.

The man sits on the dining table, the only set of chair and table in the house, and enquires about their health. He then asks Eang to sign some papers which were needed for the admission of Loung to school. He also suggests some job options for Eang and gives some papers. As Eang closes the door behind him, Loung looks at Eang's face, and they hug. At last they know there is hope. Hope perhaps not of a better life but of a life without fear. A life turning towards normalcy.