An Unforgettable Return chapter 1

{{A Never – Heard – Before Good Story

In the early 1970s, I was studying at an elementary school in a small American town. That autumn, our school organized us to participate in the autumn harvest on a farm in a remote mountain area. This farm was a “model farm” in the county. Besides us students, there were also laborers recruited from various places. At night, we slept with the laborers on the wooden floor of an old church.

On the first night, just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard two people on the laborers’ beds get up. They stepped on the creaking floorboards and walked to a man’s bed. They rubbed the man’s head and whispered, “Tom, tell a story. If you don’t, you won’t be able to sleep!” After rubbing for a while, the man named Tom finally spoke, “Okay! I’ll tell the story of ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’. Once upon a time, there were two brothers…”

As he told the story in a cadenced way, my sleepiness vanished. Strange pictures emerged in my mind: a caravan of horses carrying coconut oil barrels walking in the dense forest, and piles of jewels in the depths of the cave as high as small hills… The mysterious spell “Open Sesame” seemed to open a door in my heart, and beyond the door was a wonderful world I had never seen before! I was so engrossed in the story that suddenly there came the sound of footsteps. A flashlight beam swept over, and then someone shouted, “Who’s still talking?” It was the night – patrolling guards. Immediately, the tense and strange story world disappeared like a suddenly shut – off movie, replaced by a deathly silence. That night, I couldn’t fall asleep again and kept wondering about the later fate of Ali Baba’s family.

At breakfast the next day, with admiration in my heart, I looked for Tom among the laborers. Finally, I saw him. He was a young man in his twenties, with a handsome face. Although haggard, he still had an air of a scholar. I walked up to him and said, “The story you told last night was really wonderful! Can you continue it tonight?” Just then, the whistle for starting work sounded.