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Chapter 47
“... And may the good Lord be waiting as the gates of Heaven open wide to accept our dear sister. Amen.”
The spindly priest’s voice blended with the gusts of wind and pelting rain. Water drizzled off the oversized canopy that was provided in anticipation of the storm to offer protection for the attendees. It was a futile effort at best. A small group of mourners gathered around the open grave. They bowed their heads in silence as Father Robert indicated he’d completed what he came to do by closing his bible and stepping back. His eyes bore into the crowd as if he was searching for something, but what?
Although he’d never known Mei-Lien, he was a longtime friend of her uncle who entered his church asking for help after immigrating from China twenty years earlier. He knew there was a small population of Catholics in China, but he never dreamed one of them would find his way into his small congregation. Curious to learn more about the conditi
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You could hear a pin drop in the dojo as I listened intently while Shen, addressed the class. The students sat in neatly defined rows while giving him their utmost attention. I smiled as I recalled the first time we met, ten years earlier.It was early evening. I was seventeen and feeling my need for independence. I’d just had an argument with my parents about this very fact. I was in my final days of high school and my parents wanted me to focus on college -while I wanted time to discover who I was and what I truly wanted in life. I felt restless. It was time to strike out on my own -at least for the summer- and discover new people, places, and things while my parents thought I should be focusing on selecting a college and a career goal.The fact of the matter was that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I’d worked part-time over the years at the local gym to pay for my lessons in martial arts after my father became disabled and the
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I entered the neighborhood diner and eased myself onto the stool at the counter. The waitress, Lucy, smiled and nodded in my direction and I gave a slight wave. She poured a cup of coffee and silently slipped it in front of me while she examined my face more closely.“That looks like it might hurt, honey,” she said as she cupped my chin in her hand and studied the bruises on my jaw and temple.“I’m alright,” I assured her. “Some ice might help.”“Good idea,” she replied.Shen arrived in time to witness the exchange between Lucy and me. Since the day we’d, he’d marveled over how women were drawn to me. I can’t tell you why they are, exactly. I guess the fact that I am considered handsome was a major factor, but he declared it to be more than that. He said it’s as if I held some magic spell over the female species. I need only enter a room and they were at my mercy. Unfortun
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Jessica eased her slender body from the driver’s side of her silver BMW convertible. Her pale skin was in stark contrast to the thick ebony waves cascading over her shoulders. She struggled to balance the bulging bags of groceries in her arms as she carefully picked her way up the stairs and then down the hall of our apartment building. I’d repeatedly asked her why she insisted on loading her arms instead of making multiple trips. She couldn’t really explain her reasoning. It wasn’t as if she was a lazy woman. It was more the way she was raised. Her mother was a stickler about doing things in the quickest time possible. One trip was obviously faster than two.I heard her struggling with the key and briskly pulled the door opened before disappearing and leaving her to enter and shut it with her foot. She didn’t take offense. She knew this was the time of day I dedicated to training in my makeshift in-home gym.Bags toppled over as she
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I hopped out of a cab while Shen and a group of Chinese men stood huddled together watching me. Their faces looked solemn. I approached the group with a nod and shook hands with each man as Shen made the introductions to the few I didn’t know.We entered Wong’s Chinese Palace and walked through the crowded dining room and into a larger room that contained a conference table with chairs around it. I lagged behind and watched the men take their seats with swift silence. Shen motioned for me to join them as the group spoke in their native language. Although I was studying Mandarin, I was still weak at it and they were speaking far too rapidly for me to follow the conversation. My buddy did his best to keep up with the flow of the conversation, while translating the important aspects of it for me.“There have been rumors about forced slavery and prostitution for months, but no one has been able to prove it,” he explained. “There is a hou
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It was late in the night when the train pulled into the Poughkeepsie station. The train would go no further. This was the end of the line. I admired how the old and well used building managed to retain its turn of the century ambience.Shen and I had spent the past one and one-half hours huddled in thought amongst the mass of commuters who were now getting off the train and heading toward their cars with brief cases in hand.The multicolored leaves fell gently in the cool evening breeze as we stepped off the train. I pulled the hood of my jacket up while Shen adjusted the wool cap on his head as we scurried to a row of cabs. We were anxious to secure one before they were all scooped up by passengers who were eager to reach their destination. It was early evening and we didn’t know the city well. Walking to our destination wasn’t something either of us wanted to do.The cab driver looked hungry and haggard as he asked us where we wanted to go. S
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Shen strolled out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and another draped over his freshly washed hair. His body had relaxed enough to allow him to eat a little before he’ d hopped into the shower and, although still very worried about Dao-Ming, his good humor had returned and he was starting to behave a little more like himself. I watched him scrub the moisture from his wet head as he stood next to the television trying to decipher what I was stretched out on the bed watching. Just as he asked the name of the show, my cell phone rang.I winced when Jessica’s telephone number came up on the caller ID. She was extremely argumentative when I told her I was going on this rescue mission with Shen. Our parting was strained; especially since I didn’t feel I could tell her the entire story, such as the fact that Shen thought the captors could be vampires. She’ d have called us both crazy and demanded that I stay home.Jessica was an aspi
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The red eye passenger count was light so our flight to Las Vegas was fairly comfortable. I took advantage of the extra space and stretched my long legs into the seat next to me. Taking advantage of some downtime in a safe environment, I slept through most of the five hours that we were in flight.Shen sat in the row behind me and took light catnaps throughout the journey. He was too focused on finding Dao-Ming to relax enough to reach the level of deep sleep I’d settled into. Even so, the ability to relax his body and not have to look over his shoulder was a welcomed thing. His thoughts wandered back to his childhood when he and Dao-Ming would talk about their life plans and how they’d intertwine them together. He jerked back to the present when the lights of Las Vegas twinkled in the distance, sitting up straight as I watched them grow larger and larger. When the pilot asked that everyone fasten our seat belts he gently shook my shoulder and urged me awake.
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