by Shinn A. H.
She was so engrossed in her schoolwork, that the ring of the bell indicated the break was over, and she realized that her friends never showed. The next couple of days would be the same: no sign of Jory or Jake during lunch. Because Mr. Patterson was trying to cram cellular biology in just one week, she never got the chance to chitchat with her lab partner. It also didn’t go unnoticed that Jory didn’t say much to her; he seemed to be rather busy filling out a stack of papers.
It was Friday and the fifth day in a row she had lunch alone, studying. On the upside, she was keeping up with her other core classes: math, history, and English; but, she knew something was wrong. Ever since she revealed her past and secrets to her friends at Jake’s birthday party, they hadn’t been the same; as a matter of fact, she hadn’t spoken to them at all. Jake didn’t show up the whole week at the studio and Kellie felt that Jory was avoiding her in biology class.
She should have listened to her inner voice and kept quiet. She barely touched her lunch and stared blankly at her notebook. Instead, to take her mind off how her friends were probably judging her, Kellie closed her notes and mentally planned her excursion to China, which was two weeks away. What should she write to Master Chen? What did she need to take with her and how was she going to get to the airport? As she was devising a plan, she suddenly saw Jake and Jory walk toward her with Melanie Cho. It felt as if her spirit was lifted up by a crane. They trailed behind Melanie in the outdoor corridor, but then turned a corner, following her into an open classroom. Kellie watched to see if they would come right back out. When they didn’t, she packed up her stuff and left her spot before the end of the lunch period to wait outside the door of her next class.
The next Saturday morning, it was too cold and breezy to train in the yard, so Kellie settled on being indoors. She flicked the light switch up in the studio and shivered, stroking her hands up and down her arms. It was nippy inside the building, so she cranked up the heater.
Attempting to warm up her frozen hands, she blew into them with her hot breath and rubbed them together. Ready to get started, she began her stretches by slowly rolling her head. She reached her arms up toward the ceiling and then swung them in circles backward and forward. Although Master Chen backed off from his extreme training regimen for the past few days, her muscles remained tired.
Taking in the cold air with a deep breath, she reached her arms up again and fell forward at the waist, touching the ground with her hands without bending her legs. She reached toward her right foot until she felt her right leg muscle pulling. She repeated the same move on her left side.
With her head still hanging toward the ground, she saw a shadow from the corner of her eye. She abruptly raised her torso, checking around the room. “Master Chen?” she called. With no answer, she continued with her stretches. Lying flat on her back, she pointed her toes in one direction and reached with her hands in the other direction. Elongating her spine felt good. She closed her eyes and relaxed her mind; for a split second, she forgot about the stresses in her life and just existed.
THUMP…THUMP…THUMP!
Kellie’s moment of peace was gone. She not only heard footsteps pounding on the carpet, but felt its vibrations. The attacker! That was her first automatic assumption. As her eyes shot open, her heart galloped and her muscles stiffened. She saw someone charging at her and an object coming down toward her. Her body rolled out of the way like an out-of-control timber log and she kipped up onto her wobbling feet; once she regained her balance, she whipped around and saw Master Chen.
“Not bad,” he commented, swinging at her again with a monkey stick clutched in both his hands.
“What are you doing?” yelled Kellie, ducking out of the way, just in time.
“WE TRAINING, NOW!” growled Master Chen, his demeanor unlike anything she had ever witnessed before. He targeted her with viciousness, like a true enemy would.
Master Chen stabbed and swung at Kellie fast and hard. Although he was an old man, he still exhibited a tremendous amount of power and speed. His swift movements cut through the air like a whip.
“I wasn’t even ready!” cried Kellie, evading all the strikes, but stumbling around. She was breathing rapidly and already losing wind.
“You must always be ready!”
Master Chen swung low at Kellie’s feet and she jumped up in the air as high as she could. Her timing was a millisecond off and the stick hit the bottom part of her heel, dropping her to her hands and knees.
Master Chen struck down at her again and Kellie did a front head roll onto her feet.
“You hit me!” Kellie yelped, panting.
“Next time, don’t get hit.”
“That hurt,” she winced, still feeling the sting.
“Ignore pain — Kellie, you just react to me. Instead, know what I am going to do. Focus!” Then with the monkey stick in his right hand, he tapped his right shoulder with his left hand.
Readjusting his weapon, he charged at her, assaulting her high and low. Kellie didn’t want to get hit again, so she tried to anticipate his attack. He gave her a clue and it had something to do with his shoulders. She didn’t take her eyes off them and could see the direction they were rotating before the weapon struck. She got it! The shoulders move first and the rest of the arm follows.
As he swung at her once more, she got out of his path. Then as he raised his arm high over his head, she spun around him and kicked him behind the legs, bringing him down to his knees. She grabbed his head and the bottom of his chin, and pressed his head back, with her foot still shoved behind his knee. At this position, Kellie had the advantage and could have done anything.
They both froze and Master Chen slowly put his weapon down.
“Good job,” he said with satisfaction.
Kellie loosened her grip. Still on the ground, Master Chen spun around and swept out her legs, dropping her on her back.
“Never let guard down,” he warned.
“What was all that for?” she groaned, the air knocked out of her.
“Unexpected attack — should always be expected,” he said as he picked up the monkey stick. “Always be ready — Oh, your dance date, Jory, stop by.”
“He did?” she asked, as she shot up, forgetting about the pain in her foot and back. “What did he say? Was he looking for me?”
“No…not looking for you. He said, ‘Hi,’ in Mandarin and asked permission to take you to dance. I told him this is dance, not marriage.”
“He spoke Mandarin?”
“Yes, but not very good. Seems like nice boy…little nerdy…”
Master Chen took the monkey stick and vanished into the back room without another word.
Why didn’t he want to see me? Kellie came to the conclusion he was fulfilling his word to meet Master Chen before the dance, but no longer wanted to be her friend. And why would he? She let him down by telling him she couldn’t go to the dance; she asked him to lie to Master Chen about going with her; and, she told him far-fetched facts about her life.
She felt her foot throbbing again and hopped back to the house. The pain triggered Master Chen’s response to her question in her mind. Why does he want me to be ready? Were there more attacks?
It was Sunday evening, five days before her departure to China. Kellie opened her closet door and from the back, dragged out an empty suitcase. She placed it on the bed and unzipped it, halfheartedly. After filling it with as much clothes as she could fit, she scanned the room to see what else she needed to take. She threw in a book, a pack of cards, and a bag of candy.
Sitting by the suitcase, staring at its contents, she started having second thoughts about leaving unannounced. Besides tormenting Master Chen with agonizing worries, she was scared. She had not been away from his parental security and she had never traveled alone. He raised her like a father and mother, left his home country for her, and for the first time, she was truly and deeply grateful for it.
She bounced up from her bed and yanked open the top drawer of her dresser
. Foraging through the mess, she found what she was seeking: a black velvet pouch. Kellie recalled vividly when Master Chen gave it to her.
“I have something for you,” he said when the two of them celebrated her twelfth birthday. He left the room and after a few minutes, came back with a present.
“What is this?” Kellie asked, eager to find out what it was.
“Open,” he said, smiling excitedly.
She loosened the strings and poured its content into her palm. Out fell a spectacular necklace: a jade stone set on a fine, twisted black rope. Her heart pumping with joy, she screamed, “I love it!”
“When I was young boy, best friend and I found jade stone,” said Master Chen as he helped her put the necklace around her neck. “We broke in two pieces and each kept half. It was symbol of friendship.”
“It’s so beautiful!” said Kellie. The opaque green rock had specs of what resembled clear green glass scattered throughout. It sparkled brilliantly and Kellie was mesmerized by its beauty.
Three years later, Kellie still gasped when she saw it fall out of the velvet bag. She put it around her neck, promising herself she wouldn’t take it off while she was gone…being optimistic she would return. The necklace was a reminder of Master Chen’s sacrifices, which prompted her to firmly go back to her original decision. If he could start a new life for them in another country, leaving everything behind, she could go back to China to help his brothers at the monastery. He would come to understand this — she hoped.
Her mind quickly drifted to what awaited her there and she feared the man invading Taiping Monastery. That’s when one of Master Chen’s sayings popped into her head: “Fear is other word for barrier. Do not let it stop you from being who you are to be.”
Well, she didn’t know what she was going to be in China, except for in danger, but just because she was afraid, she wasn’t going to let that stop her from doing the right thing.
She hid the packed suitcase in her closet and pulled out the chair at her desk. Grabbing a stack of blank paper and a pen, she began composing her explanation to Master Chen. After filling her trash bin with a surplus of unusable drafts, she put the final letter into an envelope and sealed it.
Friday morning arrived and Kellie was ready for her departure, well at least physically: she had all her savings, plane ticket, and passport in her backpack. The week went by slowly and every day she waited for Master Chen to catch onto her furtive plan. Whenever he showed no signs of awareness, she felt her guilty conscience pestering her.
If only Jake and Jory were still her friends; she needed them to either talk her out of this or support her decision. She continued to eat alone at school and Jory seemed to give her the cold shoulder more than ever in biology class. He never lifted his head from his desk; he seemed to always be either reading or filling out forms, and was the first to fly out the door at the end of class. Jake on the other hand, she never saw; he didn’t break his absent streak at the studio and she no longer saw him around school.
She ended up getting a B+ on her assignment and that grade might hurt her chances of getting an A in the class, but she didn’t care; it was the least of her worries.
Kellie took a seat to have her breakfast with Master Chen, the habitual routine before school.
“You ready for today?” he asked, behind the newspaper.
“What?” she responded tautly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about — for what — what do you mean?”
Master Chen lowered the Milldale Report and eyed her questionably. “The dance? Is not today?”
“Oh yeah — of course. I’m ready,” she said, with an unnatural laugh. “I’m going to get ready at Sunday’s house after school and go to the dance with her.” She felt disgusted with herself lying right to his face.
“Sunday?” Master Chen said, back behind his newspaper. “Today is Friday.”
“No…Sunday is a friend.”
Looking over the paper again, he asked surprisingly, “You have other friend?”
“Yeah — she’s the one I accidently hit with the basketball. Remember?”
“Ay,” he said, flipping the page.
Kellie spooned up the last morsel of her cereal and put it away in the sink. Still in the kitchen, she made sure Master Chen was engaged back with the local news when she pulled out the letter. She put it behind his teapot; he never skipped his cup of jasmine tea in the evenings.
“Well, I gotta run — I can’t be late for school.”
At the door, she stole one last glance at Master Chen.
“Good day,” he mumbled, engrossed in an article.
Once outside, she was one step closer to her destination. She acquired her suitcase she hid behind one of the oak trees, and hauled it onto the sidewalk, but not toward school. Instead, she headed in the other direction, straight for the bus stop.
After what felt like an eternity for the bus to arrive, Kellie yanked her luggage up the steps and dropped a few coins into the machine. She waited for the bus driver to ask if an adult was with her, but without looking at her, he said, “Keep it moving.”
She clutched on a pole at the back, feeling the bus jerk as it started to move; she rubbed her necklace as the public transportation took her out of Milldale. She couldn’t believe it: she was on her way to China.
In about an hour, she was wheeling her suitcase through the buzzing airport, her head spinning left and right, searching for her airline. Once she passed security and successfully got through customs, she waited at the boarding area. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as difficult as she imagined it was going to be. She glanced at a wall clock and estimated two important times: in about eleven hours, Master Chen would find her missing; in about thirteen hours, she would be in another continent.
Having made it this far, she was quite proud of herself. Beginning to feel more at ease, she people watched to pass time. A young mother chased around her rambunctious son. Once she caught up to him, she picked him up and flung him around. He cried in delight as she drowned him with kisses. As soon as she put him down, the pursuit was back on.
Kellie was relaxing on her chair when she heard her name. She didn’t bother to see who it was; she wasn’t the only one with that name. “Kellie!” she heard again. This time her stomach jumped up to her throat. What if Master Chen found the letter earlier than she anticipated?
She got up to surrender, but almost fell back on her seat when she saw who was calling her.
It couldn’t be! It was Jake and Jory heaving their luggage by their side. She ran up to them and couldn’t refrain from shouting. “What are you two doing here?”
“We’re going with you,” said Jory.
“And we’re not taking ‘No’ for an answer,” added Jake. “You don’t know what we had to go through to pull this off.”
“I can’t believe this!” Kellie kept shouting.
After settling down from the shock, she learned why she hadn’t seen or heard from them the past weeks: they were executing their own plot to go with her to China.
“We joined the Chinese club,” explained Jory. “Melanie is in my math class and I overheard her talking about the field trip to China….I thought it was the perfect way to go with you, so we joined. The club advisor, Mrs. Wang required us to go to their meetings, which were almost every day. We had to help at the fundraisers and she made us learn Chinese,” he said, holding up a book titled English to Chinese Translation. “We got the forms we needed from them to show our parents.”
“Jory doctored the paperwork to alter the dates since you were leaving today and they’re not leaving ’til next week.”
“We also had to get expedited passports,” said Jory. “Plus money out of my savings account. But, the toughest part was convincing our parents.”
“We told them that you were going and you know the place well,” said Jake. “That made them feel better about letting us go. And we didn’t tell you because we knew you would object.”
“That’s why I avoided yo
u in bio class,” said Jory. “I didn’t think I could keep this secret.”
“I don’t know what to say,” said Kellie. Their absence and preoccupation made sense now. “Well, what’s going to happen when Mrs. Wang notices you two don’t show up to the field trip? She’ll call your parents.”
“We already told her we couldn’t go,” said Jake.
“No one has ever done anything like this for me before,” said Kellie, “but, I can’t let you lie to your parents….I mean, what if they find out? They’ll be so worried and upset —”
“Does Master Chen know you’re going?” asked Jake.
“Er…um…no, but —”
“So we are all in the same boat,” he said.
“There was no way we were going to let you do this on your own,” said Jory. “We’ve gone this far…there’s really no going back now.”
Having difficulty expressing her appreciation, she hurled her arms around them and gave them enormous hugs. Jory never disobeyed his parents and Jake had an unbreakable bond with his mother. She understood the risks they were taking for her.
“Don’t get soft on us, Killer,” said Jake, his words muffled under Kellie’s tight squeeze.
“Flight 2723 to Shanghai will begin boarding” was announced over the loud speakers.
“That’s us!” said Kellie, leading the way to the gate. While they were getting in the long line, a husky male voice called out, “Miss! Miss!”
When they turned to see the security guard hailing Kellie down, they all froze.
“Miss…you left your sweater on the chair,” the big man in uniform said, handing Kellie her hoodie.
“Thanks,” she said, letting out a breath.
When they got to the front of the line, they gave the attendant their tickets; she examined the glossy documents printed with their names and flight information, gazed up at them, and then verified their passport photos.
“And where are your parents?” she asked, staring at them.
“Uh — it’s just us…” Kellie answered, unable to read her poker face. Was she going to stop three teenagers from flying unchaperoned? They were so close to getting on the plane; it couldn’t end here.