Short story exploring marginalization and poverty across multiple settings

Tsegii wanted to train with eagles his whole life. He used to watch his grandfather send off the eagle, which would bring back a freshly killed prey for dinner. The beautiful bird was at once wild and tame. Tsegii understood the mutually beneficial relationship between the man and the bird.

When Tsegii was fourteen, he asked his mother if he could start training. He already started to envision his eagle, and had taken his grandfather's glove to start practicing. To his great surprise, she told him no, he would not be training in eagle hunting.

His mother said that next year, Tsegii was to be sent off to school in the big city. She wanted him to study so that he could become a doctor or a fine businessman and live life away from the village. But Tsegii did not want to go to Ulanbaatar, where there were more cars than there were eagles. He wanted to stay in his home village and learn how to train the birds.

Tsegii had no say in the matter, though. His father was away and besides, he agreed with his mother that Tsegii needed to go to school in the big city. Tsegii had never been to Ulanbaatar. One cold morning, he was placed on horseback with a sack full of clothes and led by his uncle to Ulanbatuur. The two men did not exchange a word for the entire journey.

At the outskirts of the city, Tsegii's uncle stopped and met a man with a car. They exchanged words while Tsegii waited on his horse. After shaking hands, Tsegii's uncle signaled for him to get down from the horse. Tsegii took his sack of clothes, which included his grandfather's glove, and did as his uncle told.

The stranger with the car opened the back door and motioned for Tsegii to get in. Tsegii remained silent in the back seat of the car while the man navigated his way through the dirty, crowded streets of Ulanbaatar. Tsegii had never seen so many people in one place. His eyes were riveted. Suddenly the car stopped in front of a giant building. The building must have been ten floors high. Tsegii stared, and was startled when the driver came around to the back seat and opened the door.

"Come with me," the man said.

Tsegii followed. He could not read the signs outside the school, but he followed the man into the giant building and down a long corridor. The man stopped in front of a door that was halfway open and knocked.

"Come in," a voice said.

Inside were two people: one Mongolian man and a Western woman. They motioned for Tsegii to sit down and he did. The stranger left the room without saying goodbye to Tsegii. At once the woman started to talk in a strange tongue, and the Mongolian man translated what she said for Tsegii.

"Welcome to the International School," the man said. "My name is Tserenkhand and this is Anna. Anna is going to be your teacher. You are going to learn how to speak English. Aren't you excited?"

Tsegii looked down. He did not want to disappoint the man or Anna, his new teacher. The man then said, "Come, I'll take you to your room." Leading him back down the corridor, the man spoke the entire way but Tsegii was barely listening. He moved into his dormitory room and settled into his new life in the city.

For the next six years, Tsegii studied hard and graduated from school. He wanted to impress his mother for fulfilling her wish, and looked forward to returning to his village. But when he did return, he found that there was no place for him there. He did not learn the old ways of hunting with the eagle, and his cousin was tending to the family's herds. His mother had not arranged a marriage for him, and Tsegii felt completely alone in his own village.

To make matters worse, Tsegii's mother scolded him for not finding a job in the city. She told him to go back to Ulanbaatar and send home money from his job, money which she needed to support the family. The family could not afford to buy any new goats and were running low on charcoal. Tsegii reluctantly agreed, and the he soon returned to Ulanbaatar to find a job that would earn him enough money to send home to his mother.

Although Tsegii told every prospective employer that he graduated from school, the only work they gave him was cleaning the building. When Tsegii asked them if he could work with the computers in the office, they all laughed at him. Tsegii told them he knew how to use the computers, but he had no choice but to pick up the broom and start sweeping.

At first he lived with three other young men in a small apartment, and believed that one day he would be hired to work in the office. His roommates thought he was crazy and laughed at him when he told them he went to school. They went to school, too. Tsegii should get a job in the factory instead of cleaning buildings. He will earn twice as much money, they said.