Sophomore Doreen Yuan is working on a novel. She’s given us the start of it. She has great plans for her mysterious figures. But, let’s play. Where would you take the story?
Snow Country Train
Chapter One
“In the Endless Snow”
Story begun by Doreen Yuan
The piling snow made it hard to see the end of the railway track, a place buried in a raging storm. Driving past, we see the faded shadows from struggles of passengers long ago. You can only see the ongoing snowfall, and the occasional dry dead trees in the snow. My friend Dazai, who had been suffering from the stale air in the train carriage, suddenly sat upright and winked at me with a mysterious smile. He then reached out and pulled up the window frame, shaking off the rust, letting the cold air rush into the train car.
Dazai looked out of the window, as the wind and snow fell on his hair and shoulders. Luckily, the train doesn’t travel quickly, or else I’d fear that the cold would bite his skin. My friend Dazai is clearly cold, but he insists on reaching out the window for the snowflakes. He quickly withdraws his hand when the cold wind picks up, turning into a flurry. He stretched his hand out and marveled at the melting snowflakes on his skin.
“This is such a fleeting thing.”
The other man in the carriage fiddled with arranging a briefcase.
The melted snow made an imprint on Dazai’s suit, darkening the fabric, but a few flakes remained. The other man with the briefcase, AnWu, as always, looked helpless. And, once again, he opened his neat briefcase, took out the plain checkered handkerchief and handed it to Dazai from across the table.
“It’s dangerous to open the window in this storm. It’s dangerous.. Please don’t…, ” said AnWu.
Editor: Shelby Armor
Dazai (Chinese)and the narrator (American) are two young adults of high school age with paranormal pyschic gifts. They have been invited, as case studies, to the first International Conference on Paranormal Activity, held in Jakarta. . On the train to the conference they share the same carriage with a North Korean paranormal scientist (a genuinely good man with a mission to create a just world community).
……..Take it from there………
I would like to know Doreen’s writing method. Is someone translating to English what she writes in Chinese? Is she using a Chinese to English dictionary… program?….website ?