Prologue
I run across the street, not brave enough to look back. I keep running against the cold wind and rain while feeling the water absorb into my sneakers. The hood on my jacket is completely useless in this weather so I let it fall off my head. I keep running until I come to a sudden stop between two very old apartment buildings. I turn around slowly, but once I’m facing the other direction, I realise there is no one behind me.
Chapter 1
I casually walk through the front door and take off my soaked jacket, shoes and socks. I can hear my mother making dinner in the kitchen, so I slowly make my way to the stairs to my bedroom. I only get up 3 steps before my mother realises someone is in the house. She knows that it’s me, but she always asks who it is. I guess she’s hoping it’s my brother.
“Clementine, is that you?” she called out in suspicion, “I was wondering whether you would come home or not.”
“Yes mother, it is me,” I reply to her slightly visible head, peaking out to see who it was.
“Good, you’re in time for dinner. Go clean yourself, and then come set the table and pour the tea.”
I finally get to my room, and I sit on my bed to rest for a moment. Once I catch my breath from the shocking previous events, I go to the bathroom to get ready for dinner. I roughly splash water on my face and dry it with a small towel. I change into comfortable clothes and brush my wet, messy hair. I look at my tired expression one last time, and then go downstairs. My mother is pouring the rice on a medium sized platter while I take out plates for both of us. My stomach grumbles loudly in the silence, startling my mother out of her daze. I look at her with a sheepish grin and cock an eyebrow at her. I sit at one end of the table while she sits at the seat beside me. My mother looks at the seat in front of her, which is where my brother used to sit whenever he was home.
My father died when I was 7 years old and when my brother Lin turned 11. Lin went into a sort of ‘depression’, you could call it. He slept over at friends’ houses often, and had started to have girlfriends. He was never romantically involved with girls before father’s death, and mother and I were shocked when he first brought a girl home. He was 13 then. As we grew up, Lin became extremely distant with us. Now he’s never home. His room is still untouched, his clothes are still gone, and mother is still complaining.
At our silent table for two, I stare hungrily at the rice mother is serving herself. I decide to pick up the pork and vegetables while waiting. When mother finishes with the rice, I take my own portion of rice and put it in my bowl next to my soup. It’s a typical Chinese dinner at my house. My mother is very religious, and she wants me to hold on to our culture as well. I don’t mind having my mother depend on me, with the fact that my brother has not stepped into this house for months.
After eating, I take our dishes to the sink and rinse them off. I skip upstairs after bidding my mother goodnight and turn on my laptop. I sit cross legged on my bed with my laptop on my lap, and Google search Buddhism. I have recently become more interested in my religion, and I am curious to know more. I spend hours researching every night, hoping to find something interesting…Something worth believing.
In my family, I was always known as the curious one. I lose interest in things if they aren’t different, spontaneous or dangerous. It has gotten me in trouble before and I’m always reminded that ‘Curiosity killed the cat’. It’s a phrase I’ve heard multiple times by multiple different people. I look back at the screen of my laptop. Everything they mention is extremely religious and slightly annoying. I sigh deeply and push the laptop off my lap.
I am frustrated and tired, but my eyes won’t close. The rain against the window keeps reminding me about the incident. What scares me is that I was so sure he was running behind me, but when I turned around, he was gone. Gone! Vanished! Poof! It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened either. It was one of many encounters with strange men. Strange Chinese men, might I add.
I look out my window and stare hopelessly at the rain beating on my window sill. After a few minutes of confused, frustrated and disconnected thoughts, I gaze determinedly at the laptop in front of me.
If curiosity killed the cat, the cat died nobly.
