ChaE1213


 * Teardrops of Gold**

(The character) wishes to be rich because he wants to let his wife to be able to receive treatment for her cancer, but he is a poor man and doesn’t have any money. //There was this man living with his sick wife in a hut. They were of poor class, both of them in their forties. They didn't have any children, and lived in the hut alone.// Let me tell you of my story of my life’s regret. If it hadn't been for money, my wife would still be…

We used to live in a poor, old little hut in the rural side of Afghanistan. My wife was ill, and every day I went to the market trying to sell every bit of my belongings so I could get the money to treat her. I woke up early before sunrise every morning and said to my wife, “I will get the money in any way that I can, so don’t worry.” She always told me in a whispered voice, “Worry about your own self. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” But I knew she wasn't She could barely speak those words out of her mouth and it took all of her effort just to whisper those words. She closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep. “Don’t speak,” I said in a hushed voice even thought I knew she wasn't listening.

My wife had been like this for four years now. One day, as I was coming home from work in the mines, I found my wife behind our hut, fainted. Maybe it was from the hot afternoon sun. Or maybe she was exhausted from all of her hard work planting in the fields. But after a few days she was still ill, and started to get a fever. She had been throwing up for days in the bowl I put next to her. I hadn't been to work for a week now so they were probably going to have me fired. But, I had to take care of my sick wife.

I walked out of the door without anything to eat; I didn't want to spend my money I was saving up just to feed my own stomach. My sandals were all tattered from walking two kilometers to the market every with my belongings to sell. Little kids were playing outside. It was a good day, with the sun rising over the horizon. I could see the Hindu Kush mountains from here. As I was walking, I started to wonder when I could ever get enough money for my wife. Will I ever be able to save her in time? I tried not to think about that.

The market was a busy place every day. There were many people crowding the roads trying to sell their goods, kids running around stealing candy from the stands, and people yelling at each other complaining about prices. I was walking past, when I saw this group of people lined up at a stand covered with velvet cloth. I asked a man waiting in the crowd, “What’s going on here?”

“There’s a fortune teller that comes around once a year for one day. They say that her fortunes are so accurate and she never gets them wrong.”

“A fortune teller?” I've never believed in those kind of things, and I wasn't really worrying about my future. What good things could ever happen in my lowly life? But, I stopped at the thought. Will I ever be able to save my precious wife? I stood in line, waiting for hours before I stepped in the tent.

The woman’s whole body was covered in dark cloth, even her face, except for her eyes. She motioned me over to sit in the seat in front of her. She had huge rings all over her wrinkly light skin, and jewelry all over her body. She looked at me intently as if she were reading my mind.

"Tonight you shall be granted your only wish. But, you must be careful about your wish, for many bad things will happen if you take advantage of that privilege. I am warning you, son; I especially sense ominous feelings in the air today."

I walked out of the tent without saying anything. Of course my only wish is to make my precious wife feel better! But.. is the fortune teller telling the truth? No, that is just stupid.

...

That night, a voice of a shadow spoke to me, "Here in this cup I give to you, shed your tears in it, and you shall find teardrops of gold."

The mysterious shadow then disappeared into the darkness of the night.

...

I woke up thinking that I had an absurd dream. I went to check on my wife to see if she was alright; she was still as sick as ever.

Then, walking back into my room, I saw a cup which I hadn't seen before. Could it have been the cup from my dream? If it had been, the shadow was actually real? That's absurd. The cup was plain white, probably made from clay; it looked pretty ancient. What did that voice say again? If I shed tears, drops of gold will appear? Outrageous. If that was true, then I would be the richest man on the earth. But, what if it actually works?

No matter how hard I tried to tear up, I couldn't, even if I knew I had to for my wife's sake. I tried to think of the saddest moments in my life but I couldn't. Anything I tried didn't work. So, this is where I started having malevolent thoughts. I tried thinking of things that would make me cry.. What if my wife died at this moment? I thought to myself. Tears started to fall. I held out my white cup under my eyes so that my tears would fall into it. Suddenly, my tears magically transformed into drop of pure, shiny gold. I started tearing up at this beautiful sight of gold again. Drops of gold started piling over the floor. In a short time, the drops of gold covered the floor; I couldn't walk anywhere without stepping on any gold. I wanted to fill the whole room with this gold! The whole hut! Then I wouldn't even have any need to live in this hut. Why couldn't I have discovered this cup earlier? As the cup started to produce more and more gold as I filled it with tears, the cup started to become a grey color. I didn't notice until much later. My malevolent thoughts started to get more extreme and my head clouded with evil ideas. The thoughts took over me and my own thoughts and I started to become insane. I did anything to try and get those gold pieces. When my golden drops piled into a mountain that almost reached the ceiling, I still had no idea of stopping. My greed was going over the top. I knew that I should not have made the choice to do this in the first place. I wanted to be the richest man in the world now! Then I can help all of the poor people in the world! That would be doing a good deed, right? I started to lose things to cry about. What if I killed the most precious being in my life?

Then something strange happened. My actions started to take over my body. This is where things really went downhill. I don't remember exactly what happened during this time. Maybe it was one minute, one hour, one day, that I was possessed; I don't remember. My greediness took over me and I couldn't control my actions. I vaguely remember: I was walking into my wife's room where she was sleeping to tell her of the good news that I had enough money for her surgery now. On a spur of moment, this is where my mind went black, filled with the malignity that built up. Ghostly figures started swirling in my brain trying to grab the money. Illusions of black and red swirls flew through my mind.

When I woke up, something appeared in front of my eyes that I couldn't believe. My wife, my precious wife, my darling, was covered in blood. I became outrageous. WHO DID THIS TO MY WIFE? I looked down to find my hand holding something it shouldn't have been holding. The knife was covered in her blood. Tears didn't come out. I looked at the cup which had caused all of this trouble; it was black. Was it always black? I threw it against all of the blood money which I didn't want anymore. The drops of gold started to disintegrate and vanish into thin air. My wife's body did also, turning into red flower petals that flew away with the wind.

I had lost everything.