***** Vol.2 Chap.16 Reliving her childhood *****
After the conference ended, May-Ling took an early flight to Chicago, where she boarded a direct flight back to Shanghai. This was her first time in the United States and she enjoyed her time meeting new people and visiting unknown places. Everything was so fresh for her. She savored the friendliness of the people in the conference.
Everything was perfect except for that moment when she felt briefly the dark clouds gathering above her. As the plane took off the runway, there was a foreboding feeling in her. As the ground rushed past her, there was a sense of déjà vu in her subconsciousness. She did not understand that nagging feeling. So, she just closed her eyes to rest. A host of images flooded her consciousness. The PA system on the plane crackled, but all she could hear was a slow dirge playing over and over in her mind.
…
She remembered after her parent’s funeral; her grandpa took her back to her parent’s home. Placing a big cloth in the middle of the room, he told her that whatever she wanted to bring back, she could put those items in the cloth. Actually, that was hardly necessary. As they walked into the house and looked around, not much was worth taking back. Her parents owed nothing and owned nothing. They lived a frugal and Spartan life and had only a few things. Most of the time, they had their meals in the clinic. So, the house just had a few pots and pans. Their home was a one-room apartment. May-Ling slept on one side of the room on a straw cot. Her parents slept on the other side on top of a tatami. They had no beds. The tatami and the straw mattress were all they had to keep away from the dampness and the coldness of the floor.
Several neighbors came by expressing their deepest sorrows and gratitude for what her parents had done for them. They brought food and fruit baskets for them when they came. In return, Grandpa Chen gave away the furniture and anything useful in the house. It did not take long before he gave everything away in the house. They then cleaned up the place.
As they were cleaning the house, they found an old journal near the corner where her parents slept. She remembered seeing that old book and her father writing in that journal now and then. Naturally curious, she opened the journal to see what her parents wrote about it. The writing was sketchy. There were many big words on the pages. After flipping a few pages and not understanding what was written, she tossed it aside and continued to clean the other parts of the room.
“May-Ling, take the broom and sweep up kitchen. We are about finished here,” he told her.
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“Sure, Grandpapa.”
With the broom, she swept the floor. Again, she came to the journal. She stopped, picked it up, and flipped through it. Nothing made sense to her in the journal. So, she tossed it aside again and kept sweeping the floor. Funny that the journal kept appearing before her. Grandpa Chen finally caught sight of the journal.
“What is that?”
“An old journal, I think.”
“Let me see.”
She picked up the journal and handed it to him. He opened the first page and recognized readily Lon-Lai’s writing. What was surprising to him was that a sentence was recently added to the first page. Without doubt, it was in Lon-Lai’s own handwriting and the writing was fresh. He read aloud.
“Please pass this journal to my daughter if anything should happen to me.” It was signed by Lon-Lai’s own signature.
“Well, May-Ling, you are the proud owner of this journal passed on to you by your father.” He handed the journal back to her.
“Thank you, Grandpapa.”
She opened the journal up again. Though she could not read the entire sentence, she could recognize her own name and the date next to her father’s name. To her surprise, it was dated only a week ago, as if he somehow knew that something bad might happen to him. Of course, being only twelve years old, she had no capacity or comprehension about what this journal was all about. She thought perhaps the journal carried the chronological history of her family. Perhaps it was a tradition of her family to write things down and now it had fallen to her shoulder to be the guardian of this family history and to add to the journal. She thought it might be the records of major events of her ancestors and their genealogy. Anyway, it looked important. So, she took a couple of old newspapers and carefully wrapped the journal up and placed it with the rest of her clothes to be taken back to her new home. To her, this was now worth everything in the entire world because this was a gift from her father, the only link she had with her parents. This was all she had to remember her parents by.
As they were cleaning up, they also found a small matchbox. He was about to toss that out but heard a tinkle when the box was dropped to the floor. Grandpa Chen opened it up and found almost ten rmb inside. From that point on, he revisited the garbage pile and carefully sorted through all the garbage. To their surprise, they found more coins hidden here and there.
It took the better part of the day to clean up the house. So, Grandpa Chen decided they should spend the night in the house because they still had to clean up the clinic the following day. It had been a long day, beginning with the funeral process in the morning. They worked hard to clean the house in the afternoon and all the way into the better part of the early evening. The neighbors had brought more food and Grandpa Chen invited the neighbors to come and join them for a feast. They all had a sweet time enjoying the food brought by all the friends and neighbors dropping by to say goodbye. Most of the neighbors were quite subdued and sorrowed over what had happened. They came and chatted quietly among themselves and with Grandpa Chen. Then they left quickly and quietly, except Mrs. Lu, who came and worked the crowd, chatting with everyone.