Hanhtiet Le

"I will chop off your feet so you cannot run off again." Wide-eyed, fear holds my breath. She swings. UUGH The knife-edge bites into the earth far from my quaking feet. I am flabbergasted by Grandmother's abysmal aim. "You didn't do a very good job," my cheeky self thinks and as the tension snaps, I am overtaken by fits of laughter. Grandmother cannot contain herself at the sight of hysterical me. She doubles over. Till tears drip from our chins, we laugh and laugh together. Never, in our wildest dreams, could we have imagined where those feet would take me. Excerpt from Tell My Sister Where I Am and Other Stories