Das seltsame Buch - Académie de Nancy-Metz

After school, Wangi came back home, her parents weren’t in the house. They left a little note on the
table “Darling we’re going to your uncle's because he had an accident. I will call you later.”
After reading this note, Wangi went into the garden to have a look at the place where they had dug the
hole. Although she had promised the opposite, she hastened to take the spade in the garage and started
digging. After a few minutes, she felt the book in her hands. She was scared, she dreaded that moment
but she wanted to know if her parents had told her the truth. She sat in a corner, took the book. To
Wangi’s surprise, it was a book about wild animals. She didn’t understand why he had said that she would
have nightmares and that it was only for adults. She thought for a moment and wasn’t proud of what she
was doing because she had made a promise to the people who had saved her from poverty but something
told her that she had to open the book. Wangi opened it. There was a photo with a letter. Her heart
started beating quickly when she saw a Chinese couple on the photo. She turned the photo “Wangi’s
parents”. She couldn’t believe it. She cried. She didn’t understand why her foster parents had never
shown it to her. Wangi started reading the letter. She began to tremble and cried, cried…She put the
photo and the letter on the floor, closed her eyes. Now she knew why she was adopted.
When Mrs. and Mr. Stein wanted to adopt a child in China, they learnt that a Chinese mother gave birth
to a child who wasn’t like the others because this child had developed something very rare; she was a
very bright child. The couple thought that it was a good opportunity to have a good reputation again
because it was a little girl and moreover she was gifted; so they went to China to find this baby and
when they found her they offered Wangi’s parents a lot of money in exchange of their daughter but
they refused although they were very poor. The Steins insisted but for Wangi it was clear. They didn’t
want to exchange their daughter for money. Unfortunately this family was facing a man like Mr Stein
who wasn’t the kind of person to give up when he really wanted something…
When Wangi learnt with the last paragraph that Mr Stein asked some men to kill her parents because
they refused to give them Wangi, she collapsed and cried with all her soul. The phone rang, it was her
mother. She rose and put the book back in the hole. She rinsed her face, tried to calm down. She would
act as if there was nothing because she was just twelve and she didn’t know and couldn’t do anything for
the moment.
'How are you darling? I called but you didn’t answer…'
'Hi mum! I’m just tired, I was sleeping and I didn’t hear the phone sorry,' she said trying to hide
her pain.
After that day, Wangi always had nightmares about her parents and how they were killed. Every time,
she wondered if it had been a good idea to open the book that day.
He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.