MY STORY AS A KID

When I was a little boy, I was very naughty. Even the neighbor called me a grasshopper. I went around the village and messed things up. I remember this one time, I went into the forest and saw a lot of clay pots. I didn't know what the clay pots contained. I was very curious, so I broke one and found a set of white bones. I thought it was dog bones. Later I found out it was human bones. People leave it in there for memories. I guess, back then in China, people were poor that they could not afford coffins. Therefore they replaced coffins with clay pots.

Anyhow, let me continue with my story. I was the kind of kid that was not afraid of anything, such as ghosts, tigers, or even dead human bones. Anyway, I broke the pot and left the bones on the ground and then I went straight home.

Later that night, I began to feel sick. I was hot for a moment and cold for a moment. Then I got a 103 degree fever. My parents gave me medicine and I fell asleep.

It was very scary around midnight. I had a dream of an old man telling me, "You broke my bones and you better return my bones." I suddenly woke up sweating all over. I told my mother and she said, "It was only a dream, baby." She comforted me back to sleep.

The next day came and it happened again. The old man's voice popped up in my head. He told me he was in the forest, cold and he had no where to go. He wanted me to return his bones. I was very scared and told my mother. She told me the same thing, “It was only a dream.”

I recall back then that I was sick for a whole month and had the same dreams. My parents realized that this situation was not getting better. Therefore, they started to ask the neighbors for advice. The neighbors told my parents that "your son has trashed a dead person's house and he better replace it with a new home for them."

My parents did not know what to do, but one of the neighbors told them that, in the village, there was a blind man who could have contact with dead people, such as ghosts. Our neighbors suggested to my parents that they should go see him. And we did. Right when we got in front of the blind man, he suddenly yelled out, "Yeah! Your son has broken a dead person's home and needs to replace it with a new home." The blind man was very nice and helped us.

First, we needed to find out the dead man’s name and where he lived. We went and looked for his family members and got some information. Secondly, we needed a new clay pot and I carved his name and birthday on it. Thirdly, I needed to apologize to the old man and hope that he would forgive me. Lastly, we needed to see if he accepted my apology.

I was lucky and everything went well. Ever since this incident, I learned my lesson and behaved myself. The one thing that I learned was that I will respect others and also dead people.

Now when I see funeral cars on the streets, I bow my head down and give them a farewell. However, because of this incident, I had a god-grandfather which is the blind man who helped me. He liked me and asked if I could be his god son. I guess it was faith that brought us together. Anyhow, my god-grandfather passed away three years ago and I went back to China and gave him honor.

This is a true story that happened to me. One benefit that I got from this experience was to be a good boy and not a naughty boy. You will pay for what you have done. Now that I am a father of two daughters, I always tell them to be good.