House of Aunts

Chapter 10

 "Uh... I went to the toilet. I had to go," I said, shrugging.

Aunty B raised her eyebrows.

"Remember that the plants are your responsibility, OK?" she said. "Some plants are easy to care for, like these, but soon, I'll want to teach you how to care for the others." I nodded. We finished watering the plants, and we walked back inside.

I stumbled into the house and at that moment, it felt like a lightning bolt had struck through my head. In that vision, I saw Aunty Jinx quarrelling with Aunty Lianyu.

"I told you to tell her already. This wouldn't have happened if she knew!" the vision was fuzzy, but it was clear that they were in the living room.

"Why? What for? This knowledge is cursed. She will know that her father is–"

"And then she can learn who she really is!"

"What would be the point of that? She will know that he's–" the vision cut off. In the next moment, I saw that Aunty B had caught me.

"Ruyi? Ruyi! Are you all right?" I was seated on one of the chairs in the living room now, and there was a cup of tea on the table.

"Y-yes. I'm fine."

"You almost fell, and then when I helped you up, you didn't say thank you. Your eyes were–" she gestured to find the words "lost looking." She said.

"Oh. Sorry Aunty."

"Don't be sorry. I'm glad you're OK. Because, well, if you're not, then I don't know what I'd do."

There it was again. All of my aunts said this.

"But Aunty, I'm fine now."

"Are you sure? You don't need to go to Aunty Lianyu's clinic?"

"It's closing soon, anyway, and she will be home."

Aunty B sighed, and went to the kitchen to make dinner.

"You'll be ok, right? Rest for a while, then do your homework. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen.

Good. That meant that I could explore the trunk in the attic. The chest seemed to call out to me, like it was magic. The words on the trunk had to mean something. They looked like they were in Chinese, but they looked like some weird ancient drawings that I had seen on TV. I wondered if I could find out more–I had a phone, right? I could google it. Which is what I did. I wrote in all the strokes and I had to try several dictionaries, but finally, I found out what the words meant.

The words were "yuan fen", meaning fate.

I remembered that my aunties had talked about yuanfen, especially when they were talking about their pasts. But all of that was whispered amongst themselves. I knew that my aunts had lives before me, but imagining them was really difficult. Whatever I had dreamt of them happened in the past, but I found it so difficult to connect these visions to the present. I was so used to them wearing normal clothes, like t-shirts and shorts, which was so different from their robed selves in my dreams.

But I was getting sidetracked. Yuan fen. The box was somehow connected to who I was, and I wanted to open it. I needed to open it. I needed to know who I was.

At dinnertime, all of my aunts and I sat down again. This time, it was pig's organ soup, which Aunty Blossom didn't like–she was vegetarian, but there was a separate side dish of tofu and mock meat with her. It appeared that all of my aunts had something to say to me.

"We spoke to your teacher," Aunty Lianyu said, "and she won't be so insensitive to you anymore."

"Okay," I said. I didn't know how to feel about that.

"Don't you think you're protecting her a bit too much?" Aunty Jinx asked.

"Oh shush now."

"But Ruyi is going to be ten years old soon. She will not need as protection as much anymore. We have to teach her that sometimes, people will treat her differently because of stupid reasons."

"Fair, but–"

"I know you want Ruyi to be safe, but it's better that she learns to be safe," Aunty Qin said.

Aunty Lianyu was so taken aback by this that she practically slammed her chopsticks on the table and stopped eating.

"Anyway," Aunty Seven interrupted, "what do you want for your birthday? Maybe we can throw a party?"

Oh! A party! I'd been pestering them for one but we hadn't had one since, well, I was kindergarten. It was because of the bullying. I remember it like it was yesterday. One boy had shoved my face into the birthday cake after Aunty Blossom had taken away the candles. I remember my face, plunging into the whipped cream and chocolate, trying to gasp for air. I think I must've flailed my arms about–and in the next minute, I was spitting out all the chocolatey bits and crying.

But if I had a birthday party, it would be different this time around, wouldn't it? There would also be cake! And presents!

Aunty Blossom, Aunty Seven, and Aunty Jinx shared a knowing look. I wondered why they suddenly allowed me to have a birthday party, especially since the previous one had gone so wrong.