章節 11: A house is just a house
I took my things from the trunk of Mom's Chevrolet Corvette, the newest model.
Red, because she craves attention, she's a bad ass, my Mom, being a lawyer, almost everyone looks up to her, and dominates them. All except, my father. He is her equal, I sometimes think he is too good for her.
Dad, here's your tea and butter cookies I bought for you and mom, but specially for you. Be careful, it's still hot. I said to him as I sat on the couch. I inspected his face it is a bit tired looking. His eyes are not as lively as the last time I saw him. I look at the holiday themed decorations stringing up at the mantel of our fireplace. The same style each year. I can't say we are traditional, but my Mom likes to keep things neat. She always kept the same insence burning, red sandal wood, along with my Grandparents photos, a dining table with center pieces from twigs and red marbles and different sizes of stones. Her vase collection has grown over the years, but this year I spotted some of them has been missing.
My my, let me look at my little girl. Dad is signaling me to him, I reached out to hold his cold and wrinkled callused hand.
Daddy, I'm not so young anymore. I'm almost a quarter of a century old, aged 24 just like Mom when she met you.
Ah the, girl I met when I was Niānqíng, a young fellow. He drew from a distant memory. He was straight faced, almost as if it is not his wife that he met, or he remembered something else entirely.
Yes, yes, that was me. My Mom quipped. That was a very long time ago, I remember him talking a lot, and me admiring how well dressed he was, I did fall for him the very first time I saw him. But no more talk of the past let's stay in the present. I hope you are hungry, your Dad's been craving Chinese food. I ordered us some from his favorite restaurant.
We ate at the dinner table, as I slurped down my noodles, and took a bite on my fried dumplings, My father took a long and deep breath. Dad are you feeling sick?, I slowly asked.
Angel, I am very glad you are home, I missed you so much. I do need to rest now.
Oh dear, I'll get you to your bed, Mom told my Dad.
She wheeled him to a newly built addition at the back. A fully equipped bedroom, with a bath, showers and a robotic bed, that made it easy for him to move to and from his wheel chair and vice versa.
She locked the door behind her, not letting me see how my father deteriorated from a runner and a golfer for 35 years, to an injured athlete, maybe a slightly older sportsman. He loves all kind of sports. I watch football, baseball, Swimming, diving, even ballroom dancing with him. His all time favorite is running. When the olympics is on the television, he always asked me to tune in. He idolised one athlete named Wáng Jûnxiá, he could compare her to a young Usain Bolt, but she could smoke him by a mile.
I smiled at him, remembering him say that, he is actually saying all girls could beat a boy in any game. Wang is a Chinese former distance runner who ran in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics She even currently holds the record for 3000 meters and held the 10,00 meters distance running for 23 years.
That same year I was born, Angel Jiang Mert Yi, I mix my name up most of the time.
I usually go by the name Angel. My father is the river, I , am his Angel by the river.
There is this warmnt, summery feeling, when I am by his side, and his stories when he was still a boy in China made me realise what I have been missing. A history of my own, what I write in my own life, who I care about, and who will make my heart flutter like he felt the day he met my mom.
As Stella, my Mother closed Harry's bedroom door, her once proud face now seemed to sink, as if her crown was snatched from her. Her dress was well pressed, starched, but her eyes has bags under them, and wrinkles started to form on her forehead. I never caught her without any make up before. She was always primmed like a doll, her red lips, matched her red stilettos. Heck I never knew her favorite color is red.
Now as I saw her in my adult age, in my smart casual jacket, which the sign of maturity for women is to be properly clothed. She now looks to me as though she is burdened by him. She is not looking happy at all, I felt it the moment I entered the Yi residence.
Finally I was in our house, I haven't stayed here in several years from my graduation in high school, Only visited like a few times since, but surely it doesn't feel like a home anymore.
This house became just a house, empty and cold like the weather outside. Frightful, I hate this song playing in my head. This holiday season is turning into a gloomy and endless party of rain and snow.
I walked into my old bedroom, the only place which is not red, it is plain and white just how I left it.
A doll house at the corner, one picture frame with me and my dog on the end table, a lamp I made my Dad buy from his trip to China, for my 11th birthday. All are still here, except my family. It is lost. Somewhere between the east and the west.
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