I went on my usual morning journey to the river in order to gather water for my family. When I got back home with the bucket of water I saw soldiers at the door. I quickly evaded their vision onto a nearby tree and watched them from afar. I could hear their voices screaming for something, for someone. “Get out now!” one of the soldiers yelled to the door. He was knocking multiple times; each consecutive hit grew stronger and louder.
When the door finally opened he pointed the gun at the person who opened the door, it was my mom. The soldier then continued to scream for a different person, they screamed for my dad to come out. I then saw Mom go back inside and Sakol came out to greet the soldiers. “What do you want?” Sakol asked the soldiers with a bold voice.
“We need him, he was accused to be a traitor of this country, and he will go to prison.” The soldier responded as he dropped the gun. “Get him out now, this is an order or you will all die!”
Seconds later Dad came out of the dark house and out into the bright light of the sun. There he stood shaking, tired, and he coughed as he was getting old. The soldier grabbed him by the arm and pushed away from the door of the house. I saw the pain in my dad’s eye; he dropped to the ground and couldn’t move. The soldier then picked him up by his wrist and dragged him along the dirt path staining his black clothes with mud. I couldn’t bare it any longer; I dropped the bucket and yelled at the soldiers “Why, why are you doing this? Stop this, he has done nothing wrong, don’t kill him!”
The soldier looked and stared right into my black eyes, I could feel a chill down my spine regretting what I had just said. The soldier rushed at me with his gun and slammed the gun right onto my stomach. The sensation of pain grew quickly as I groan and fell to the dirt floor on my knees. I looked up as I could see the soldier; he spat on my face and ordered me to get down on the ground. He then used his hard foot and kicked me once again in the same place. I coughed up spit as I could feel the pain rushing throughout my body. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move my arms nor my legs, I couldn’t stop. The kicking kept going as the soldier kept screaming and yelling for me to get back up on my feet. He then used his gun and smacked me across my face, the gun cut through my skin and blood started to drip out on to the floor. The gun hit the side of my check so I hard I was losing conscious, I had a difficult time keeping my eyes open as I saw the other soldiers dragging my dad away. I wasn’t able to keep my eyes up anymore, my vision slowly faded, my dad getting carried away by these cruel soldiers. This was going to be the last time I will see my dad I thought to myself, nobody who goes to prison ever comes out alive. I then felt a soft warm hand placed on my body, I didn’t recognize whose hand it was, but it felt comforting. I could feel as the hands picked me up from the ground and then a felt a rush of water on my face. Even though I wanted to get back up on my feet and to run after my dad, I couldn’t move my body. I could feel as a tear ran across my face, over the bloody cut.
“Just rest Seang, just stay still.” A calming voice spoke to me as I slowly dazed away into sleep.
I woke up an hour later just in time for work in the fields once again. I couldn’t be late, no one could be late or they would get beaten and killed for disobeying orders. I looked and left and right and saw my mother sitting on the cold hard floor. She was in despair, she looked down and I could see her face, it had shown tears. I tried getting up, but a rush of pain strikes my body once again. I hovered my hand over my stomach as I coughed and tiny amounts of blood came out. I went over to the left and tried to get the water that I had gathered just recently. Trying my hardest I had no strength to even lift up the bucket, then my mom came over and picked up the bucket for me. I responded with a thank you and hugged my mom tightly. I didn’t want to lose her even if my dad is gone. I didn’t have a shred of hope that my dad would still live, I knew that he would die there in prison.
As explained by rumors around the field, the prison is a hell hole. It was the place of starvation, disease, and worst of all bloodshed. There prisoners are tortured every second of every day that there are kept in there. I heard that each cell in the prison could barely fit one human and there was no space to move, no space to breathe. There was no windows, no bright light; the prisoners were stuck in a small tight cell in complete darkness just awaiting pain and death. I heard horror stories of the torture and how you could even hear the screams of death even a mile away when working at the fields. It is said to be so horrible, so inhumane that prisoners here aren’t even allowed to kill themselves; they are stuck by chains just awaiting pain for days to come. I didn’t want my dad to face that pain, I didn’t want my dad to live in prison, worse than working here in the fields, and I could never imagine what they do there. I don’t want to imagine the sorrow and depression the prisoner’s face worse conditions than working in the fields from day to night. I used all my strength to cry out loudly into my mom’s shoulders, a sob of pure sadness.
I then got up and tried to regain my balance, I had to go to the fields as I didn’t want to be late for curfew. Even with what had just happened to me, I had to go no matter what conditions I was in, that was the rule, and we had to obey it. I quickly washed my clothes from the blood and exited out the door. I saw my mom behind me and she was also getting ready to leave to go to her camp. I slowly walked there under the hot sun, swaying back and forth, I had no energy left but I had to keep going.
One step at a time I finally arrived at the fields and did the same work I did the day before. This time I worked even slower and heard the guards watching me yelling to go faster or else they would come and hit me. I looked left and right and saw as no one cared if I looked hurt, they just continued working on their own task and the guards didn’t care, they just kept watching observing our every move.
By the time our first break came I was out of breath and couldn’t move a muscle anymore. I couldn’t even eat the porridge and just closed my eyes resting with the little amount of time we had. The image of my dad being dragged away kept appearing in my mind. I couldn’t believe I didn’t want to believe that my dad is going to die. That was the last time I will ever see him again, that was the last time he’ll ever see me, I never even got to say goodbye to him. I used my sleeve to wipe the tears that was coming down my face and the break ended shortly after. We got back to work and once again I had trouble picking up the shovel and plowing the dirt.
When the second and last break for today came, I was gasping for breath as my arms and legs were shaking by themselves. I could barely sit down let alone walk forward to the seat. I didn’t eat anything today and I thought I was going to die. I thought to myself that I wouldn’t be able to go and get food since I was injured from the morning, I couldn’t help my family for a while since I was in pain from the soldier in the morning.
The second break finished and I worked once again until the work for the day finished. I walked back home just waiting to go to bed and sleep. I didn’t want to think anything or about my dad, I just wanted to get rest and prepare for the next day. I knew someday I had to realize that my dad will die soon, but I didn’t want to think about that today.
When I got home, I was greeted with a hug by mom as she cried tears of joy that I was able to get back home today. She told me that I didn’t have to go out this night if I didn’t want to and I hugged her back.
“Are you okay Seang?” Sakol spoke to me with a voice of concern.
“What happened, are you tired, let me get you some water to wash up.” Lynn said as she rushed to get a cup of water for me.
“Hey Seang, are you going to die, I don’t want you to go to prison just like Daddy?” Ping said when she went up and hugged me tightly.
Sophea was gone and apparently she went out to gather food during the night in replacement of me. I went and got to my bed where I lied there and closed my eyes trying to forget what happened today. I quickly went to sleep and the day ended.
Soldiers