A Fettered Conscience

I have a degree in International Business, and sometimes I do not know why. Also, I have no idea what genre this is.

“Qui, you have to leave now, it is your last opportunity. You will meet my friend at the border of the province; he’ll be in a small, rusty red Toyota pick up truck. He has arranged for your transport back to your home. His name is Xuan, he is a good, smart man who will do everything he can to help you. But if you do not leave now I’m afraid there’s no hope of you being able to leave again. My bosses are coming here, and one of them is going to be staying for at least a year. You cannot wait another year. Go on now.”

            Qui assented quietly and gave Kurt a small smile of appreciation as she hopped onto the train heading south. She had only her small burlap rucksack slung over her shoulder, filled with her favorite porcelain doll that she had found next to some garbage outside of the factory  and a book that her grandmother gave her 3 days before she passed away. They were her most prized possessions"without them she felt lost and unconscious.

            Kurt’s Vietnamese had come along strongly since he moved there 2 years ago. He was an ex-pat regional manager for Bundle, Inc., one of the biggest consumer electronic companies in the world. Qui was studying at the local university before Bundle razed it and built in its stead their flagship manufacturing plant. She had no money and no way of getting home, so she was forced to work for a bit just to save up enough to be able to see her family again.

            Kurt first met her a year ago as he was inspecting the plant. He noticed the resolute sadness in Qui’s eyes as she worked at her station. He spoke with her and found out her story. She had just turned 19 and Kurt quickly realized what a brilliant girl she was.

            The local plant managers were brutish, repulsive fools who shattered the lives of many women in that plant. It was only until very recently that Kurt found any of this out. He pled desperately to his bosses back home to do something about it, to put matters in their own hands and get the law on their side. But production was up, sales were booming, and Kurt was just a lonely voice in a canyon of moral apathy.

             He watched the train as it chugged away down through the town and over the bridge until the night sky was silent and the station empty. He felt so alone and downtrodden. He gave Qui his own money for the train ticket, and a bit more to help out her family. She had missed her mother and father so much, and only spoke with them a handful of times on the phone over the past year. They were very poor people, without the means to get her back home.

            Qui met Xuan and was taken back to her home where she greeted her parents and younger sister with tight hugs and beautiful tears of joy and relief. That night, as she fell asleep in her own bed for the first time in two years, she thought of the man who saved her life. In the same way, as Kurt took off his shirt and tie and switched out the light in his hotel room, he wondered if anyone would rescue him from the pain and regret he had come to know. A different kind of life was in store for him, rapping hard on the inside of his mind was his conscience. He had helped one, but there were so many others still suffering and he wanted no part of it any longer. It took quite some time for him to finally fall asleep.

Reviews

[Marie]

Very good; such a sad, grippping story. I felt the sadness of both Kurt and Qui.