Development: Winter
"What do you mean you can't go anywhere?" Ji Long
pouted.
"My mom got really angry at me last time for running
off and being gone for such a long time!" Fenghuang wasn't happy that she
wasn't allowed to leave the concert hall this time either.
"We won't go far this time! It's just around the
corner!" Ji Long pulled her arm, dragging her towards the back door.
Fenghuang kept protesting saying she couldn't go, but eventually, like always,
her curiosity got the better of her and she caved in.
"Fine, but just for a few minutes!" She warned. Ji
Long's face lit up,
"Yeah, sure! Just a few minutes! Let's go!" They
left through the back door, and walked around to the front. Standing on a
crowded street in Britain seemed more frightening to Fenghuang than it did in
Japan, Germany, or any other city they had gone to. They walked through the
crowd, Ji Long holding onto Fenghuang's arm. They turned down this quiet alley,
and on the side of the tall, old building, a turned off sign indicated a
theater in the basement.
"This doesn't look safe..." Fenghuang whispered.
"Don't worry, I came here earlier with Dasun and Lin.
It's fine, no one's here." He pulled her into the building, and led her
down the dark stairs into the basement. At the bottom of the staircase, Ji Long
found the light switch, and flipped it on. The light filled a little room full
of chairs. The chairs all faced a tiny stage that was nothing more than a small
platform raised slightly above the ground. On the stage stood an upright piano,
a microphone, and a layer of dust.
"It hasn't been used in a while." Ji Long let go
of Fenghuang's arm, walking towards the stage. "I was surprised that there
was still electricity down here." He hopped up onto the stage and grabbed
the microphone that didn't work, and shouted into it,
"Welcome ladies and gentleman, put your hands together
for the most popular, badass, coolest band you have ever seen,
the...uh...the..." Fenghuang laughed at this. "Hey!" He shouted,
"I haven't exactly thought of a name for our group yet! It's harder than
it seems!" Fenghuang hopped onto the stage too and sat down at the piano.
Ji Long sat down next to her. Fenghuang put her hands on the keys, preparing
herself to play a piece she had been practicing. She took a deep breath, and
her fingers came down to play the starting chord. A terrible, frightening sound
came out of the piano that made her jump and gasp. Ji Long rolled over
laughing. He fell off the bench in hysteria. Fenghuang tested the other keys
and found that the entire piano was out of tune. Ji Long was gasping for air,
but was able to make out,
"I...told you....this place....hasn't...been used...for
a while..." He couldn't stop laughing. "You... you looked
so...serious!!" Fenghuang didn't think it was funny at all.
"I was actually going to play something nice for
you!!" She stood up angrily, a puff of dust rising into the air with her.
Ji Long stood up off the floor, covered in dust all over, still chuckling.
"I know I know, I'm sorry. You just looked so serious,
it was too funny." He smiled that off center smile at her. That smile made
Fenghuang's embarrassment and anger melt away. He walked closer and threw an
arm around her shoulders, "You can play for me another time, don't you
have to get home soon?" Suddenly, she remembered again, that she wasn't
supposed to be out. She ran out from under his arm and off the stage. She heard
Ji Long laughing light-heartedly behind her.
When she arrived back at the concert hall, the doorman
stopped her outside.
"Miss Fenghuang, where have you been? Your mother was
worried sick about you." He looked concerned.
"Oh, sorry, where is she?" Fenghuang asked, out of
breath from running.
"She wasn't feeling well and went back to her hotel
early. She was panicking when she couldn't find you."
What?! What was going on? Fenghuang began to panic herself.
She felt like something wasn't right. Just then, a car horn honked. Fenghuang
looked behind her and saw the black car that had driven them there. The window
rolled down, and she saw her chauffer waving her to get in the car.
"Miss Fenghuang! Come on, your mother is furious!"
Without saying goodbye to Ji Long who had been standing there next to her, she
dashed into the car, and they drove off.
As Fenghuang jogged through the hallway of the hotel toward their
room, she could hear multiple voices coming from her room.
"Don't worry, she'll be here soon." "She's
not lost, please, calm down."
Fenghuang burst through the door, panting, searching for her
mom. She saw her pacing back and forth by the balcony window. As soon as Chun Hwa saw her standing there,
she stormed over and put her hands on Fenghuang's shoulders, looking down at
her,
"Where have you been!" She shouted. Fenghuang had
never heard her mom shout like that before. Her mom had always been so calm,
even when she was angry, she kept her calm. But now, that was not the case.
"You have never been so disobedient! What were you thinking? How many
times do I have to tell you to not go running off into the streets in some
foreign country you can't speak the language of? Do you how dangerous that is?
I didn't know that you were doing this every time until last spring." Her
mother stood up again, holding her head in her hand, continuing to rant about
what I had done. The maids and nanny were all trying to coax her to calm down,
they all looked terrified and worried.
Fenghuang didn't like being yelled at like this, she didn't
understand why she couldn't play and have fun. She shouted right back,
"You just don't want me to have any fun! We never stay
in one place for more than a week. You're always busy practicing piano, and I
have no friends! Why do you hate me for trying to have fun so much?!"
Fenghuang's anger skyrocketed. Chun Hwa, whipped back around and marched
towards Fenghuang,
"You're blaming me? You think I'm purposely trying to
make you miserable?!"
Chun Hwa was breathing deeply, trying to calm herself down.
She held her head in her hands, the pounding, the pain, she couldn't take it.
Fenghuang began shouting at her, and Chun Hwa couldn't help but respond just as
violently. Then, it happened. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Chun Hwa
looked at her daughter's angry eyes, and shouting lips, but she heard no more
sound. What's happening? She thought, why can't I hear her anymore? Then she
felt the pain in her head again, she felt as though someone had hammered a nail
into her brain. I can't move my hand again, she thought. No, wait, she tried
moving her body, I can't move my body either. Suddenly she was looking at the
ceiling, the white pattern getting farther and farther away until she felt a
dull thump. I'm laying on the floor aren't I? Why am I on the floor? She saw
the maids terrified faces, and then she saw Fenghuang. She saw her leaning over
her, tears in her eyes, shouting something. The sound all of a sudden faded
back in, and Chun Hwa heard the screams and sound of running, "Mom!"
One voice stood out, "What's wrong?!" She looked at Fenghuang, trying
to say her name. But just as quickly as the sound turned on, it turned off
again. And this time, Chun Hwa couldn't see anymore either, only red,
everything was red. Then it was dark.
Fenghuang was letting all her anger and feelings out at her
mom, but then she stopped, she noticed her mom was staring at her,
expressionless.
"Mom?" She asked. Her mom reached out a hand, but
before Fenghuang could grab it, her knees buckled and she hit the floor on her
back.
"Mom!!!" Fenghuang cried. The maids and nanny all
screamed and ran around not knowing what to do. Fenghuang got on her knees,
looking into her mom's eyes, trying to coax her to stand up. But her eyes only
moved towards her face for a split second, and then little streams of red blood
began spilling out at the corners.
Everything that happened after that was a blur. Before
Fenghuang knew it, she was at the hospital. How she got there, she didn't know,
all she could hear was the doctors voices outside her mom's hospital room.
"She had suffered with this aneurism for years
now."
"She refused surgery because of the difficult location
it was in. Any surgery to attempt to remove it would have most definitely
paralyzed her left arm, if not her left leg as well."
"She was a professional pianist, she would not take
that risk."
"She was in an argument with her daughter. Her blood
pressure had risen too high for the aneurism to handle. It ruptured, killing
her almost instantly."
Fenghuang listened to this, not understanding anything,
except that it was her arguing with her mother that had caused this. Someone
took her arm and pulled her up off the bench she was sitting on. Letting
herself be led, she walked out of the hospital. At the door was the most
paparazzi she had ever seen, but she couldn't care less. She didn't listen to
the crowd screaming, the cameras flashing. She felt a hand on her shoulder pull
her back and turn her around. She looked into Ji Long's eyes, his face worried
and scared. She looked to his side to see the same expressions on Dasun, and
Lin's faces. She couldn't muster any words to come out, she couldn't look at
them anymore, she could only let the hand pulling on her arm lead her away. She
turned back around, leaving her friends behind, and got into a car that was in
the street waiting.
The next few days, Fenghuang remembered many people coming
to talk to her, trying to explain what would happen. All that she could
understand was that she would never get to see or speak to her mother again.
She flew back to China where the funeral was held. Hundreds showed up, but the
service itself was prompt and over with.
Throughout all of this, Fenghuang wasn't able to speak with
anyone. She wasn't able to cry and mourn for what had happened. She wouldn't
believe what was happening. It was when she saw a foreign elderly couple come
into her house claiming to be her grandparents did she realize it was actually
real. Fenghuang's nanny spoke slowly and quietly to Fenghuang,
"Miss Fenghuang, you know that your grandparents on
your mother's side have died a long time ago?" Fenghuang didn't answer.
The nanny continued,
"Well, I know you haven't met your father before, but
these are his parents. They're from America. You know about this right?"
Still no answer.
"Well, they said that you could go and live with them
in America. Isn't that nice?" The nanny signaled towards them, and the old
woman stood up and came over to Fenghuang.
"How are you? I'm Debra." Fenghuang heard the
foreign words. She was somewhat familiar with English, she had studied some of
it herself, but she couldn't bring herself to respond.
Before she knew it, she was on a plane, sitting between her
two foreign grandparents. As they landed, and got in a taxi, Fenghuang looked
out the window and saw road signs welcoming them to the city. Debra leaned over
and read them to her, "Welcome to Los Angeles." As they pulled up to
the large house situated on the beach, her grandparents showed her her room. It
was large and spacious, and had a view of the ocean. Once her grandparents left
her alone, she sat on the bench underneath her window. The setting sun casting
shadows on her face. Hearing the unfamiliar roar of the waves, smelling the
unfamiliar scents of LA, living with strangers she just met, she finally cried.
The sun set. But even though it was dark outside now, the lamps on the beach
turned on, their faint yellow glow illuminating the dark.
___
Next Episode: 1-7-14
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