When Mike was a child, Mike often got sick and had few friends. His parents hoped him to do more exercise. So they often encouraged him to do more sports. As he grew up, he became interested in climbing mountains. When he was 14, he climbed his first mountain—a 3,600-foot peak. And at that time, he was a bit overweight and breathless when he reached the mountaintop. But he was hooked by the challenge of conquering (征服) something bigger than himself. Since then, he’d climbed nearly 50 peaks and met many friends.

He usually went climbing with his friend David, whom he’d met during climbing a mountain. Two years ago, on November 28, when he was 16, Mike and David drove to Oregon to challenge Mount Hood —11,130-foot.

Both of them were prepared. Starting winter climbs at night is safer because there’s less risk of the sun melting the snow. That day, they started at 2 a.m., following the paths along the ski runs. The temperature was about 8 degrees, and they wore easy layers that they could easily take off, knowing hiking in the snow would make them warm.

After about4 hours, they reached Devil’s Kitchen, a plain at about 10,000 feet, just before the final push to the peak. However, the wind conditions here were poor. Mike’s exposed skin felt as though it were burning, but David and Mike were not discouraged and went ahead. They were prepared and longing for the climb.

The trail they followed grew narrower and steeper (险峻). At around 8 a.m., they reached a patch (小块) of ice called an ice step. It was about three or four feet tall and sloped (倾斜) at a 70-degree angle.

Mike volunteered to go first. He placed his right foot on the ice step. When he set his foot on it, it remained good. Confident he was safe, he put his all weight on it. Suddenly, he heard a crack (破裂), and a whole slab (片) of ice broke off the step, right under his foot.

In an instant, Mike fell backward.

Seeing blood from Mike’s left leg, David realized they need help.

My mom only had one eye. I hated her. She was such an embarrassment. She ran a small shop at a flea market and collected old clothes and some other things to sell for the money we needed.

Once during elementary school, it was a field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed and wondered how she could do this to me? I was so angry with my mom and wished that she would just disappear from this world. So I said to my mom, “Why don’t you have the other eye?! If you’re only gonna make me a laughingstock!” My mom did not respond, I guess I felt. a little. bad, but at the same time, I felt so good to have said what I wanted to say.

I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty. I told myself that I would become successful in the near future, so I studied very hard. Later I got accepted by the Seoul University. I left my mother and came to Seoul to study. Then I got married there. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. I enjoy the life in Seoul because it’s a place that doesn’t remind me of my mom and my past.

This kind of happiness was getting bigger and bigger, until one day someone knocked at my door. It was my mom! And still with her one eye! It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom’s eye. I screamed at her, “Who are you? I don’t know you! How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter!” To this, my mom quietly answered, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,” and she disappeared out of sight.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. After the reunion, I went down to my old house, just out of curiosity. There I found my mom fallen on the cold ground. I did not shed a single tear.

Then a piece of paper in her hand came into my eyes. It was a letter to me.

I think my life has been long enough now, and I won’t visit Seoul anymore.

You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident and lost your eye.

A Narrow Escape

A holiday in Penang was an annual affair for my family. My parents grew up in Penang and are very fond of Penang food. In December every year, we would drive up to the island to spend three days visiting their favorite restaurants.

This year, we started our journey up north on a Friday morning. The drive up was punctuated (不时打断) by stops at Bidor town and Kampar so it took us six hours to reach our destination. We always stayed at one of the hotels in Batu Ferringhi. The beach was just a short walk from the hotel entrance and our rooms had a lovely view of the sea. We spent our first evening playing on the beach. After dinner, we returned to our rooms to play card games. Mу parents had a rule for our holidays which was that we spent time doing things together. There was to be no TV and no internet. We really enjoyed ourselves together.

The next morning, we went to Bukit Bendera, the Malay name of the Penang Hill, and then spent the rest of the afternoon in town visiting our favorite shops. These lovely shops never failed to amaze us. As we were having tea at a coffee shop, we overheard people talking about an earthquake near Sumatra, an island in Indonesia. We headed back to the hotel and then went to the beach. We took a walk along the beach, picking up seashells. Suddenly I noticed a strange thing. The sea seemed to be retreating(后退) from the shore. I called my father to look at the curious occurrence. My father took one look and went pale. We saw a grey line in the distance moving towards the shore. It seemed to grow taller by the second.