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The café was not too far from a
sunny beach, where many tourists roamed and surfed and played. It was busy
today, as the weather was good and it was early summer. Tourists came in
droves, and nearly all of the tables were full. Nara had her hands full, carrying
a tray of food to a waiting table. She smiled politely at them, a family of 5.
She turned and almost bumped into another waitress. “Oh! Sorry!” stammered Nara
before making her way to another table to refill glasses of water. “Is there
anything else I can do for you?” she asked them. Most of the time people
answered this question with a no, but occasionally someone would want something
else. More bread, a drink, something. This table didn’t though, so Nara turned
away. Shela, the hostess, caught Nara’s eye and waved her over.
“Hey Nara, do you mind seating
someone?” Nara nodded, grabbing a menu, and looking towards the person Shela
was pointing to. There was one small table left at the back, halfway behind a
potted plant, so she would have to seat the person at that table.
“Excuse me, sir. Hi, we can seat
you now, if you’ll just follow me.” The man, who had been staring at his cell
phone, nodded, sticking his phone in his pocket and following Nara between
tables. The man piqued Nara’s interest. He wasn’t much older than she was,
probably 22 or 23, tall, Asian, and alone. He didn’t seem like he was from
around here, or this country. Maybe he was an international? When they reached
the table, Nara indicated for him to sit. “Is there anything you would like to
drink?” She asked in a bright voice.
“Water is good,” he said, settling
into the chair. Definitely had a foreign accent.
“Alright, I’ll be back to take your
order soon,” and with that Nara turned away. She was stopped by a few tables
asking for one thing or another before she reached the glasses and water
pitcher. On her way back to the back table she noticed the man intently staring
at the menu, occasionally checking his phone, as if he was waiting for an
important phone call. He massaged the back of his neck with a hand, holding the
menu with the other. Nara walked over slowly, worried that he still hadn’t
decided on what to order. He looked up when he saw her approaching.
“Hi! Are you ready to order?” She
smiled, trying to be cheerful. He looked kind of stressed out and grim.
He shrugged a bit and asked her,
“What do you recommend?”
Nara pointed to number 17 on the
menu. “The ratatouille crepe is good. Or number 6, the paella.”
He nodded, “Those are fine.”
“Both?” asked Nara, a bit confused.
He nodded, looking back down at his phone, as if dismissing her. She shrugged,
turning and walking over to the kitchen with the order written down.
Nara brought the finished dishes to
the man’s table. “Do you need anything else?” She asked politely. He shook his
head in response.
As Nara made her way around the
room, refilling drinks and taking orders, she kept glancing back at the man. He
picked at the food, not eating much. A few times in the next hour she went over
to see if he needed anything else, but each time he dismissed her. The café
began to quiet down, the lunch rush ending. The Asian man kept sitting in the
corner, giving no indication that he was planning on leaving soon. Nara finally
walked back over, when only 4 other customers were left in the whole café. “Do
you need anything else? A box?” Nara looked at the food, which was only a
quarter, at most a half, gone. She set down the bill. He took out a credit
card.
“Oh. Yes. Thank you,” He spoke as
if distracted, his voice moving with a Chinese accent that was very familiar to
Nara. It was a bit like her Mother’s accent, although now that her mother had
lived here for a long time the accent wasn’t very prominent. As a matter of
fact, he spoke English very well for someone from China. Maybe an international
student?
Nara returned with two boxes and
the recipet a few minutes later, reluctant to disturb him again. “Here you go,
Mr. Quon He. I hope you enjoyed!” He looked up at her, as if a bit startled.
His eyebrows shot up a bit, and he
actually looked at her, not as he had looked at her before, not really seeing,
but this time actually taking in her appearance. “You speak Chinese?” Nara was
surprised, and then she realized he must have been able to tell since she
pronounced his name correctly. Even so, she hadn’t used proper form. Mr. Quon
He. Quon He would be his first name in Chinese, surname Lee.
“Yes,” she replied. He nodded, then
looked back at his phone, as if his curiosity was satisfied and he no longer
needed any more information.
20 minutes later, at the end of
Nara’s shift, she shrugged on her coat and grabbed her bag before heading
outside to catch the bus. It was midday now. She walked towards the bus stop,
and then paused. Lee Quon He was sitting on a bench. She was about to walk
past, but changed her mind at the last second, approaching slowly. Did he need
help with something? He seemed so distracted and almost distraught when he was
at the café. “Lee Quon He?” She asked cautiously, not wanting to intrude, but
she felt like she should at least see if there was anything she could do for
him. He looked up, startled. She switched to Chinese. “I don’t want to bother
you, but is there anything you need help with? Is your cell phone not working?”
She suggested, noticing that his cell phone was still in his hand. “Or do you
want some other food?” She looked at the boxes of leftovers, wondering if he
didn’t like them.
He stared at her a moment, as if he
didn’t know how to respond. Then the corner of his mouth turned up, just a
little bit. “You speak good Chinese,” he said.
This startled Nara a bit, then she
smiled a bit too, “You speak good English.”
He shrugged in response, “It’s
okay, but tiring. I had to study a lot before I got my first job here. What is
your name?”
So he worked here. “Nara. Chun Feng
in Chinese.” He nodded.
“My cell phone is okay.” He
hesitated a moment before continuing. “But do you know of a good Chinese
restaurant around here?”
Nara’s smile grew. “Of course.
Close by too. I can show you, I was thinking of eating there actually.” She
realized she probably should have been concerned with stranger danger, but he
seemed harmless enough, and she figured it would be fine if they stayed in
public places. He nodded and stood, and she started heading towards the bus
stop, before he stopped her.
“Do you mind if we take my car?”
Nara looked where he was pointing, at a black sports car. Nara was a little bit
concerned, but she was the one that had asked him to go to the restaurant, and
she didn’t want to inconvenience him by making him take the bus back here.
Wasn’t it a bit unusual for someone their age to have such a nice car?
“Sure. That’s fine,” She said, and
they headed to the parking lot. The day was sunny, and he rolled down the roof.
It was a convertible. Nara started directing his driving, and then they were
quiet for a minute.
Suddenly he asked, “So you’re
parents are from China?”
“Only my mother,” Nara responded.
He nodded as if this made sense. “My mother is from Fujian.”
This piece of information seemed to
surprise him, and his eyes grew a bit wide. “I am originally from Fujian.”
“What?! Really?” Nara laughed a
bit, what were the chances? He nodded, smiling again. Nara pointed to the
right, and there was the restaurant. It was not very large, but it was popular
among the Chinese population of the city. They had the best noodles and steamed
buns.
A waitress led them to a table by a window, handing them two
menus. Lee Quon He looked around at the other customers, smiling when he saw
the food they were eating. “It smells good,” He said, looking back at the menu.
The menu was in Chinese, with bad English translations. “Ah, fótiàoqiáng, is it good here?” He asked Nara. She
nodded. “And poh pia. Jiaozi, baozi, Cong you bing. I should get some for my
mother.”
The waitress came back,
ready to take their orders, but before either Nara or Quon He could speak she
exclaimed, “Oh! Oh! Oh my! You’re Lee Quon He! Right?!” Nara looked surprised,
Quon He’s mouth parted slightly, as if he wasn’t sure what to say. People from
a few of the other tables looked up, saw him, and then began to talk excitedly.
Some people got up and walked over to their table.
“Lee Quon He! Can we have
your autograph?” seemed to be the question coming from most of the people. Nara
was shocked. Was he famous for something? What was happening? Lee Quon He got
over his own speechlessness, and smiled and nodded, taking out a pen and
signing the napkins and papers handed to him. It took another minute before
things had quieted down and they could order.
When the waitress had left,
Nara raised an eyebrow questioningly. She wasn’t really sure whether to ask or
not. As it turned out, she didn’t have to, Quon He provided the information
without being questioned. “I’m an actor in China, although I have had roles here
before. I’m not usually recognized here though.” He said it nonchalantly, like
he was just observing the weather or telling her he was a plumber.
Nara nodded slowly, “So
are you here filming something now?”
His facial expression
changed again, back to being concerned, his brow furrowing. “No…” he trailed
off for a moment. “I’m here with my mother.” He paused a moment, brushing the
hair away from his face with a hand. It was then that Nara noticed the bracelet
on his wrist, a bracelet from a hospital.
“Oh,” Nara said softly.
She guessed, “Your mother is in the hospital?” He looked up, a bit surprised,
and nodded.
“She’s getting surgery.
That’s why we’re here, there is a specialist here that was recommended to me. I
was hoping I could take her some time, just to be a tourist and see what it’s
like, but unfortunately we are here under these circumstances.”
Nara nodded. Then the
waitress came back with a tray filled with many different dishes. “Thank you,”
Nara said, smiling to the waitress. She smiled at Nara a bit, but her smile was
even wider for Quon He. The fame clearly had effect on other people.
When the waitress left,
they began to dig into the food with chopsticks, Quon He a bit more gracefully
than Nara. Nara used chopsticks, but certainly not as frequently as someone
living in China. Nara did love eating good Chinese food though, and she quickly
began placing items on her plate.
“So what about you?” Quon
He said between bites. “You know things about me now. How about your story?”
Nara shrugged, pulling
some noodles onto her plate before speaking. “Well, you know I work at a café,
and my mother is from Fujian. I guess I’m also a college student.”
Quon He nodded. “You go to
school around here? What are you studying?”
“I go to school north from
here a bit, at Stanford. I’m studying microbiology and immunology, also music.”
“Music? What do you play?”
Quon He seemed interested in that bit of information.
“I play the cello,” Nara
said, she looked up at Quon He for a moment, and noticed the scar on his
throat, close to his jaw. “You play violin?”
“Yes,” He smiled and
nodded, pointing at his violin scar, noticing that her eyes had gone to his
neck.
When they finished eating,
Quon He asked for several to go boxes, and packed up the remaining food.
“There. I can treat my mother to some good Chinese food, I’m sure it’s better
than the hospital food.”
“So it was good?” Nara
asked, smiling. Quon He nodded.
“Thank you. It was good to
have a distraction. My mother told me to get out the hospital today, but I
wasn’t really sure what to do except sit and look at my phone and wait for an
update on her health.”
Nara smiled, “No problem.”
The doors of the restaurant clinked shut as they left. “Alright, well I hope
everything turns out well, but if you need any help or just some distraction
for a day, here’s my phone number,” Nara scribbled her number on a scrap paper
and handed it to him.
“Thank you,” Quon He
nodded an accepted the paper. “Do you need a ride home?”
“Nah, I’ll just take the
bus,” She smiled and waved as he left in his sports car.
When Nara got home, she
gave into curiosity and googled Quon He. It was true, he was a pretty famous
actor in China, and he had even been in a few fairly well known movies in the
United States.
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