O’Reilly’s at Green Mts National Park

Colin

Narrative Hook Challenge Winner

Narrative Hook Challenge Winner
The winner of our Narrative Hook competition was Hazel Barker for the line: ‘Dad lied to us. The Second World War was over, the long wait at an end.’
Hazel wins a swag of books and $25 cash prize. Congratulations, Hazel.
(Excerpt from Omega Writers’ Magazine, ‘Words with Wings’ Feb2014)

Chapter 1
Post-war Rangoon
Dad lied to us.
The Second World War was over, the long wait for freedom at an end, and when government employees were summoned to Rangoon my father was appointed Assistant Registrar and Personal Secretary to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. As so many homes had been bombed during the war, he was ordered to leave us behind where we had been living at Mandalay. Having suffered the lash of his tongue and felt his blows all our lives, we regarded the separation from him as a glimpse of heaven, but our relief was to be short-lived. In late 1946 Dad wrote telling Mum to join him at Rangoon as a home now awaited us there.
All happiness vanished.
For nearly two years, Mum and her remaining children had lived in the old capital of the Burmese kings, and Dad had sent us our much needed living allowance each month while he was in Rangoon.
So, when Mum received the letter ordering us to leave Mandalay, we reluctantly took the train to Rangoon, only to find there was no house. All seven of us had to live in a single-roomed warehouse within the grounds of the High Court.

(An excerpt from Part 2 of my memoir ‘Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil’)