Stephanie & Xander

Chapter 15

We're on San Francisco; well, because we're planning to get to San Francisco International Airport so we're almost back to Sacramento again. But, there's no point going to airport when we don't have passport. That's reality. We still decide to stay here anyway. I don't know, it's not like lingering around here would help us get our hands to some passport or something. But, yeah, there's no point driving around aimlessly either.

The most important thing is to have the passport, next, money, next, not get caught. To comply with all of these necessities, we figure out we should stay in San Francisco. We decided the place by suggesting and then finalize the decisions with rock-paper-and-scissors. I won so we're in the center of Grant Avenue and Stockton Street. Guess what, yup, Chinatown!

I think more than Downtown, Los Angeles; Chinatown is more of a land of opportunity. Chinese are very business-minded. I think some of them will happily hire us to tend the shop or work to money launderers. I heard they pay well. But, that's a dangerous job even for Xander.

But before work, we must find a place to stay. It wasn't really hard. They're happy to make business with us. Xander has sold all her earrings a day ago to buy a phone worth $80. We had run out of Silver. I feel sorry for myself. She handles everything from travel, lodging, income, and money-keeping. Most of the time, she's also the one to protect us.

We found an apartment we could stay into for a week or two in Stockton Street. The landlady is a tough obese woman with foul mouth and unbelievably affectionate personality. She would call us 'bastards' or 'assholes' then hug us squeezing the soul out of our mundane bodies. She owns a Chinese restaurant named 'T3 Chinese cuisine' on the ground floor and we're renting a room at the third floor. I've seen her throwing punches to awful eat-and-runs when she catches them. She's quite creepy.

And... she's not Chinese. She's Vietnamese. I can't tell the difference.

She lives with his son named Tuan who is unfortunately a good-for-nothing who only thinks of drinking and eating and hitting on women. He looks like homeless so he couldn't find girls lately and he whines why. And, his mom keeps on telling him to get a job but he just won't listen. Ironically, his name means 'Man of Obedience'.

I've kicked him once on our first day for hitting on me and Landlady Thuy was very pleased of me and she couldn't stop embracing me for the whole day. She told me that someone has to beat sense out of his worthless son and because of my kick; he was staring at nothing for hours. I think I beat the soul out of him though.

I also learned some time that the name 'T3' comes from Thuy, Tuan and Tian which is the name of everyone in the family. He could've changed it to T2 after Tian died but she thinks it should've been a tribute to him so she kept the name.

On our second day, Xander is very eager for morning. It's only seven and we've used all our energy travelling the other day even though she's the one who drives.

I wake up and she's on the desk putting on some lipstick. I always thought that lipstick can fix a woman's minor issue. But for Xander, damn, she looks like she just ate a living chicken.

I don't know if makeup just doesn't suit her or was it because she don't know how, "Why bother? Lipstick can't grow you a vagina."

"I have a vagina." She says, unfazed.

I sit beside her and watch her put it on. I can't watch her. It's just a lipstick. I've never worn lipstick in my life but I at least know how to put them, "I swear, Xander, you don't need makeup, you badly need plastic surgery."

"Keep talking and you'll need a neck protector." She warns, still trying to put it on,

I rub it with my palm and it got muddled on her cheeks. She looks like a clown... from horror movies, "Damn..."