Give a Second: part 2

Final part.

Nara went to work at the café the next 3 days without hearing from him, which didn’t surprise her at all. She hoped his mother was doing well and he wasn’t too stressed out. However, on the 4^th day, she got a text message from him. “Can we meet at your café again tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she texted back. She didn’t have anything planned for tomorrow afternoon, so why not? She also texted him the time when her shift ended.

The next day, after her shift ended, she found him waiting on the bench where she had first approached him. He stood. “Thank you for meeting me,” He said, bowing his head a bit.

“Sure, I wasn’t doing anything else interesting today,” She smiled.

“So, I can’t take my mother to see anything outside of the hospital, but I was wondering if we could go to a few interesting places, and take some pictures? That way I can show her what I can take her to see when she’s well. And I thought you might be able to help me figure out where to go,” He looked hopeful.

Nara nodded, happy to help. “Well there are few places I think we should go that your mother would probably like to see someday.”

Quon He nodded, and they walked over to his car and got in. As they drove, Quon He connected his iPod to his car and the sounds of a cello and violin began to waft over them

Nara had a jolt of recognition, “Passacaglia,” she said, smiling.

Quon He nodded. “You play cello right? Have you ever played it?”

Nara shrugged. “I tried to once, with a friend, a few years ago, but we were too busy and never finished learning it.”

Quon He nodded pensively. They were quiet for a minute or two, as the music continued. Then Quon He looked over, a little bit more seriously this time. “Do you want to play it? The passacaglia? I was thinking maybe we could learn it and play it at the hospital. A lot of the people could use cheering up.”

Nara was a bit startled at this suggestion, learning a piece like that took a bit of dedication. “Well, I would like to, I wouldn’t mind doing it, but I’ll have to practice some. No guarantees.”

He nodded, and smiled widely. “We can practice.”

“Turn right here,” Nara gestured to a road that lead of the main highway. They pulled into a parking lot that was half full. A short walk away was a lighthouse. It was a beautiful day, with the sun beaming on the water, and the lighthouse overlooking the ocean was stunning. They climbed out of the car and walked over to the base of the lighthouse. It was quiet, there were a few groups of people scattered around eating lunch on park benches or taking pictures.

“Want to climb up?” Nara asked with a smile. Quon He nodded and they started around the steps that wrapped around the tower. By the time they reached the top they were a bit out of breath. The wind was stronger up here, whipping around Nara’s hair and causing their eyes to water a bit. The view from the top was spectacular. Quon He pulled out his camera and began to take pictures.

------

A few mornings later, when Nara wasn’t busy, Quon He swung by her apartment and picked her and her cello up. “Where should we practice?” He asked her.

“Drive about a mile north of here. There’s a park where people sometimes play music. I think if we stay in the shade of a tree our instruments will be fine, and it’s not too windy today so hopefully the music won’t blow away.” Quon He nodded and accelerated the car. “I practiced yesterday, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep up a little bit,” Nara smiled, looking out the window and observing the pedestrians on the street. “There it is!” She pointed as they approached the park. She grabbed her cello from the trunk of the car and began to roll it over to a large tree that had a bench underneath it. People were walking along a walking path, and children were playing in a near by park. Quon He followed her over to the tree and they each took out their instruments. Nara had also brought two collapsible music stands that they now set up and used to hold the music.

“Alright, should we just start from the beginning and see how far we get?” asked Quon He. Nara nodded. Quon He raised his violin to his chin and gave a nod, and they started. The notes came out at first a bit stiff sounding, and at first the sounds of the cello and violin did not fit together quite right. Then they picked up on each other’s cues and the subtleties of each other’s musicality, and the music began to flow better. They made it all the way through the piece without having to stop. When they reached the end, They both looked up and grinned a bit. “Okay, I think that was pretty good!” Quon He said enthusiastically.

Nara nodded, “Yeah, although I guess there were a few places we should try and clean up a bit.”

They began to work backwards through the music together, marking places that needed different inflections and expression.

The next time they played the piece through, the people walking past began to slow, and some even stopped. A few children from the park dragged their parents over to listen. The notes came out stronger this time, as Nara leaned over her cello and Quon He pulled the pitches from his violin. By the time they had finished a small crowd had formed. When the last note was drawn, there was applause and children bounced about excitedly.

Quon He drove Nara home, and said he would text her with the best time to come to the hospital. “You’re very good at the cello.”

“You’re not so bad at the violin,” she laughed a bit. “Do you ever play it for acting roles?”

He shook his head, “No one has ever asked me to. I don’t know why, maybe they don’t know I play? But honestly, sometimes it’s hard to watch other actors fake playing an instrument.”

Nara laughed and agreed, waving goodbye as his car pulled away from the curb.

-------

One week from their rehearsal day, they agreed to perform at the hospital. When they arrived some patients were already gathered in seats around a common area, where two music stands and chairs awaited. Quon He went and spoke briefly with a Chinese lady sitting in a wheel chair who must have been his mother, she smiled a bit, and then Quon He joined Nara in taking out their instruments. Quon He and Nara had agreed on a few solo pieces they could play as well. First Quon He started. A hospital patient who knew how to play the piano would be accompanying them. First Quon He played a Tango that was very virtuosic and upbeat. Then Nara sat down and played a movement of a cello sonata.

Once both had played a solo piece, they each sat and tuned to the piano. Quon He looked up, ready to play, and seeing that Nara was also ready, raised his violin and gave the gesture to start.

The notes came forth, some slower, some faster, dancing around each other. This time they were even better than when they played in the park, and a hospital employee was filming them from the back of the audience. When they finished playing, the patients clapped, and they looked happier than they did at the beginning of the performance. Nara hoped she and Quon He had made the patients' day better.

-------

Nearly a week later, Nara came into work and one of her coworkers gave her a note, saying someone had left it for her. On the front it said her English name, but the actual note itself started by addressing her by her Chinese name.

“Chun Feng, thank you for helping me show my mother, even just through pictures, some of this area and helping me bring music to the hospital patients. We are heading back to China, but I do not like saying good bye. Instead I want to thank you for being a good friend, and I invite you to contact this number whenever you have time to come to China, I can help arrange it and show you around Fujian.” Attached was a business card with the number she assumed he had referred to. The note made Nara smile a bit, although she was a bit sad he hadn’t come by to say good bye in person. Spending time with Quon He had been interesting. Maybe she would have to take him up on his offer to visit China.

Give a Second: part 1

So this is just a short story in two parts, not really all that interesting, but it helped me practice my writing.

-----

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. 

Favorite Asian Drinks!

So sometimes when I got to the Asian food store or if I'm actually in Asia, I like to enjoy one of these drinks!
Side Note: And okay I know that it's probably incorrect to refer to these as "Asian drinks" but that's the best term I could come up. Who knows, they could actually hail from somewhere else and I totally wouldn't know....

The first drink is a yogurt type drink. I call it, and bare with my attempt at phonetic spelling here, yang ga duo. That's the name I was told.  Anyway it comes in packages of several little bottles. I think there might be pro biotic benefits or something? It's sweet, and just tastes awesome!

Ramune is also pretty awesome. There are like a ton of flavors: melon, strawberry, pineapple etc. I'm not really a big soda fan, but these come in such cool bottles! They are sealed with a little glass marble, so in order to open it you use a little plastic thing to push in the marble and then you have a bottle with a marble in it and okay so I"m not making any sense. But it's cool! At least if your like me and enjoy little things like weird bottles.

Please note our picture policy: we are unfamiliar with copyright laws, and if you have a problem with the picture use let us know! Although you should really take it as a compliment if we've used your picture....

Lastly, here is a drink that I actually first had last summer. It tastes amazing in the super hot weather of different parts of Asia. Plus I just saw it in the Prince of Tennis! It's more of an exercise drink I guess. Anyway, it's called Pocari Sweat. 

 

 

Any drink you want to recommend? Feel free to share!

~Suzuna

Trying new things part 1

Hey, thought I talk about something else today. The other week I was at the World Market and I saw that they had moshi! They had three favors, red bean, green tea, and taro. (I'm still not sure what Taro is though. My friend and I decided it tasted like a candle.) I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and I liked them.



It looks so good, I'm getting hungry...

Back on topic!!

I like eating pocky. I think I like the strawberry ones better than the chocolate ones. Man, all this talk about food is really making me crave sweets...



This is a picture of a cake in the shape of pocky (so cool!!!)



Well, I guess that's all I have for now.

Thanks for reading and a big thanks to our loyal readers.

~Hikari

Those Nostalgic Times

Sometimes thinking about anime makes me really depressed and kind of nostalgic. Don't get me wrong, anime can be hilarious and is totally awesome. I guess that today I'm just thinking about the past and the first time I was introduced to anime and manga, and that makes me feel old. How have I already become one of those people that is like "Back in the day..."? Anyway, back in the day...my brother was reading this one manga called .hack, so I became a little bit interested in it and read some of that series with him. But after that I wasn't really interested in anime/manga till a couple years later, when my brother began reading Hikaru No Go. And then came Bleach and other manga and anime...and fast forward a bit more and you get to now! So really it's all my brother's fault.
Anyway, first time introduced to anime/manga? Care to share?

Oh, and remember that on our Facebook page, we are having people post their favorite Asian food recipes, and we will try to make some of them! Then pictures will be posted of some of the results. So feel free to add a recipe! http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rice-Cracker-Circle/412708738755135
~Suzuna

Youtube, Twitter, Facebook

We have all of them! If you don't have a Twitter account, like/follow us on Facebook and vice versa. 
Now, special announcement for Youtube. First, we won't be posting until June, so a few months away. But I'll tell you what the videos are going to be about. I guess you could call them our vlog videos, or not, but we just do weird stuff we like to do! Such as art, language, food, music, cosplay, taichi, dance, and epic adventures! We would absolutely loved it if you subscribed now, but you don't have to, we'll be around more in June and over the summer! Here are all our links!

www.twitter.com/thericecrackercirc
www.facebook.com/thericecrackercircle
www.youtube.com/thericecrackercircle


That's all...for now!
~Yoruichi