Creative Projects by the University of Montpellier's Master Students in English Studies
“My name’s Killa, and I’m ten. I live in a village named Quentena, on the Altiplano in Bolivia. My parents and my older brother grow potatoes. I help them on weekends, but I spend the rest of my time in the nearest boarding school. I leave the village every Monday morning before the sun rises. I walk with two other children to the big road where we wait for the bus. We walk one hour, and we ride one hour.
She could not remember living a day without experiencing some form of pain. Not to say that the pain was always unbearable; as a matter of fact, it rarely was. Bearing the pain had become part of it all. Sorrowfully, she came to accept pain as normal. She always believed that she was born to endure her condition, that she would endure it all of her life, sensing somehow that the pain could not be eluded, that it was part of her, immovable and unyielding.
Continue reading “Pain”
It’s five in the morning. It’s completely dark outside. Alexia is awake. She has barely slept. Should she try to sleep a little longer and wait for the sun to come up? She knows she can’t. She is far too excited. And nervous. It’s today.
Since my early childhood, I was told that I was destined for great things. I was not only a diligent child in class but also in my daily life. I was always attentive to my surroundings and to others. On one ordinary spring day, I noticed a change in the demeanor of a classmate who was usually radiant.
Continue reading “Whispers Across Silence”
I was born without a name. I went by my designation number.
The war was still raging.
I was told that I was born because of the war. The others don’t have the X at the end of their designations like I do. I have it because my prototype was genetically enhanced to fight in the war.
When the war ended, they told me my name was Sam and I had a family to go live with. I argued that I had been born to fight a war, not to live an ordinary life. They told me I would have to be terminated since there was no war left to fight.
So, I did what all the other soldiers did—I packed my bags and I went home.
