The Grandfather's Ghost: Jin's Journey from War to Peace

The night air was thick and humid. The sky was clear and the moon was full, casting a soft glow over the alleyway. Jin walked into the alleyway with her hands in her pockets and her head down, thinking to herself. She had just left work after a long shift at the local supermarket. She didn't really like working there; she felt like she wasn’t being challenged enough, or that they needed her. It was just a job to pay the rent on her tiny apartment, not much more than that.

She walked slowly across the alleyway. Her feet kicked up small clouds of dust from the cracked sidewalks as she made her way towards the dumpster at the end of the alleyway. There was a small rustling noise coming from inside of it, then a click as if someone had just opened a bottle of beer. Curious, Jin peered into the dumpster through a small crack in the lid.

There was now no rustling noise, but instead a soft voice began to speak: “Granddaughter?”

Jin jumped back from the dumpster and started looking around wildly for the source of the voice, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “What? Who's there?” she said in a whisper, backing away slowly into one corner of the alleyway while keeping her eyes peeled on all sides of her.

“It's me dear, your grandfather Ji-Ji." The voice said again; now it sounded even closer than before, as if whoever was producing it was right next to Jin's ear instead of inside a dumpster behind her.

Jin whirled around and stared straight ahead into an empty patch of wall separating two adjacent stores in the alleyway, where suddenly a glowing light began to appear in front of her face. As soon as she could see what it was—a carved wooden coin depicting an old sailing ship on one side and what looked like Chinese characters on the other—it flew forward and immediately shot into Jin's forehead between her eyebrows without any warning whatsoever. She let out a sharp yelp and fell backwards onto her butt while reaching up to touch where it had hit her head with both hands (the coin itself had disappeared). Then she heard Ji-Ji's voice again: “Great granddaughter... please listen to me... I have something important to tell you..."

*

Jin sat cross legged on her couch with a blank expression on her face staring into space as Ji-Ji told his story. He began by describing his experiences as captain of his first ship during World War II which he'd called "The Jia Qi". He told her about how young he'd been when he started his merchant career (only 17), how he'd gotten his first ship and how he adapted quickly to life at sea, about how he'd made friends with some other young captains who became his good friends for life—"My best friends," Ji-Ji said earnestly—and how they used to stick together like brothers on their voyages around Southeast Asia until World War II broke out right in their own home waters (he never mentioned China by name but that's what he meant). They had all joined up with various resistance movements against Japan together back when they were still alive but had lost contact afterwards because they were separated by different factions fighting each other for control over their own homelands during those wars. None of them survived very long after that first year though; they were either killed or forced into hiding because they had all refused Japan’s offer to join its side (which would have been unthinkable for an honorable man like Ji-Ji). He told Jin about his journey across Southeast Asia after losing contact with his old friends and finding himself adrift in Hong Kong harbour looking for work (he continued saying that this event became stuck in his mind more than anything else throughout his entire life), about how he got hired on by an American crew who wanted him to continue shipping supplies across Southeast Asia by day while smuggling guns back and forth at night for their secret operations during those years ("I've always hated war," Ji-Ji said emphatically at this point, "but those men I worked with were so brave and honorable I couldn't say no"), about how he ended up getting caught doing some things he wasn't proud of while transporting guns across Thailand one time ("It was wrong," he admitted remorsefully, "but I did what I thought I had to do in order to make money")...

*

Jin listened intently to every word Ji-Ji said without uttering a single sound (she didn't even move except for occasionally nodding in agreement or shaking her head sadly in apparent disbelief). When Ji-Ji finished telling his story she simply asked him: "What happened after you got caught?" Ji-Ji paused for several moments before answering: "Well Granddaughter..." he began reluctantly, "for my crimes against my homeland I paid dearly." He went on to explain that Japanese soldiers raided every ship flying under any American flag looking for illegal contraband goods; one time when they searched “The Jia Qi", Ji-Ji got caught trying to hide several boxes full of weapons inside of multiple sacks filled with rice ("You don't know how heavy rice is!" he cried out incredulously), which caused him to be imprisoned by Japanese authorities for several months until eventually being sent off to fight alongside Japanese troops against America ("They gave me no choice," Ji-Ji stated firmly). He continued saying that although Japan didn't make him fight directly against Americans ("Thank God!") they did force him under threat of death (or worse) torture or imprisonment (a fate which Ji-Ji feared far more than death) into transporting thousands upon thousands of soldiers aboard all types of ships across Southeast Asia over the course of five years until finally being captured himself by American forces while crossing Malaysia's border into Thailand one night ("Captured myself?" Ji-Ji asked rhetorically, "Yes... killed myself perhaps is more accurate"). Before finishing his story however, Ji-Ji took a final moment before saying: "That's all there is Granddaughter... my whole story is told."

*

After hearing everything from Ji-Ji that night Jin spent days thinking about everything she'd learned from him before finally deciding what she should do next: she knew what she wanted most out of life now—to help others rather than herself—and now knew exactly how she would go about achieving it too (by helping others)! She returned to work at the supermarket feeling much happier than ever before knowing that whatever happened in life now couldn