***** Vol.2 Chap.32 The bomb shell exploded *****

With all her belongings in tow, May-Ling thought once again she would walk to the other side of the lobby. New people are pouring out the International Arrival gate. The public address announced another international flight had just landed.

Just then, she spotted an acquaintance rushing in through the street entrance. It was Doctor Wu from the Medical School. He seemed to be looking around for someone. Of course, she was happy to see a familiar face and walked up to him. She figured he must be here to welcome some honored guests from abroad as guest to the Medical School.

“Doctor Wu!” she shouted.

He turned around and saw her, feigned a smile, and waved his hands at her. Hurriedly, he headed towards her.

“Doctor Chen! How are you?” Doctor Wu took her hands and shook them enthusiastically.

“I am fine. I just got back from the United States and am waiting for Haw-Ting to come and pick me up. Are you looking for someone?”

“Yes, you.” He replied.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell me that Haw-Ting put you up to this? How did he get a hold of you?”

“I will tell you in a minute. In the meantime, I have a cab waiting at the door. Is this your luggage?” He pointed to the bag that she was holding.

“Yes.”

“Do you have any more?”

“No, I travel light.”

“Let me help you with the bag.” He took the bag from her. “Shall we go? The cab is waiting outside.”

“Please lead the way. I will follow you.”

They pushed their way through the thickening crowd. Once outside the entrance, they saw that there were even more people standing and waiting outside. There were taxis everywhere. An angry policeman was arguing with a taxi driver, trying in vain to get him to move on from the curb.

“Ah, here is our taxi,” he said.

The angry driver saw Doctor Wu and ran to the back of the taxi to open the trunk. This annoyed the policeman even more, who demanded that the taxi driver move the vehicle immediately. The driver simply ignored the irate policeman. He helped May-Ling with the luggage. Quickly, he jumped into the taxi and sped away, leaving behind the irate policeman shouting all kinds of profanities after him.

“The train station?” The driver turned around and asked.

“Yes, please.”

As soon as they were on their way, May-Ling turned to Doctor Wu. Before she could even say a word, he held out his hand and stopped her.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“May-Ling, I am sorry to be the one who has to tell you the news.” He said slowly, without a smile.

“What happened? Haw-Ting! Something happened to him. Tell me he is OK.” Her heart stopped.

“May-Ling, I am sorry, but there had been a terrible incident at the clinic.”

“No, tell me he is OK.”

“Unfortunately, I cannot, May-Ling.”

“No!” she burst out in tears. He took out a pack of tissue paper and handed it to her. She accepted it with a nod.

“Tell me, what happened? Tell me Haw-Ting is OK? What happened to him?” She turned to face him and grabbed his hands.

“I am not sure I know the entire picture…”

“Please tell me he is ok and tell me what you know.” She begged him to tell.

“From what I gathered,” He continued in his most solemn yet sympathetic tone, “one patient came in for the weekly treatment …”

“That must be Jar-Li. He comes every Monday morning to see me. Please go on.”

“I am not sure. But a lot of patients came in that morning. Apparently, this patient got tired of waiting and broke into a temper tantrum. When Haw-Ting tried to calm him down, but the patient picked up the brass urn in the waiting room and hit Haw-Ting over the head. The force of the blow crushed his skull into pieces…”

“No, this thing did not happen. Not with Jar-Li, not to Haw-Ting. No, No….” She sobbed uncontrollably.

“The patient then left the clinic, and no one knew where he disappeared. No one knew where he lived, either.”

“What about Haw-Ting? Where is he now?”

“May-Ling, I am afraid there is nothing we can do for him now. From the force of the blow, his life was over at that instant. There is nothing that any of us can do for him.”

Stunned, she held onto his hands and would not let go.

“I am so sorry, May-Ling, so sorry.”

She tried to turn her head, but seemed to have lost any control of her body. She was numb all over, strangely divorced from her body, and not sure where she was. While Doctor Wu comforted her as best as he tried, she heard the words, but she did not comprehend them. Rather, she did not want to believe what she had just heard. Things like this just did not happen in real life. These existed only stories you read in a novel. How could this happen to Haw-Ting? How could this happen to her? No, this had to be a mistake. He played a joke on her. She replayed the words repeatedly in her head, yet in her mind, it was too difficult to accept what she had heard.

Doctor Wu said nothing and just let her hold his hands.

“Are you sure that Haw-Ting did not put you up to this?” she asked hesitantly.

Denial.

“This is not a joke, May-Ling.” He said in a calm but serious tone. “I would never take part in such a cruel joke.”

She nodded. But she did not want to believe what she had heard. If there was anyone whom she trusted, it would be Doctor Wu. Both professionally as a colleague and as a close friend, he had always been there for her. Deep inside, she knew he was not joking.

But reality was too hard, too harsh, too sudden, and too inopportune to accept. She and Haw-Ting had been such a good team. She thought they were soul mates forever. He had wanted to start a family. She had resisted all this time, using work as an excuse. But after putting him off for so long, she wanted to have a child as well. She had finally decided that time was right and was going to tell him when he picked her up as a homecoming surprise to him.

“May-Ling, are you OK?”

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not hear Doctor Wu talking to her.

“May-Ling.”

“How could this happen? How could this happen?” she mumbled.

“May-Ling, I don’t know.”

She was still sobbing uncontrollably. The original pack of tissue paper was long gone. Doctor Wu asked the driver to stop at a neighboring store. He ran in and bought a big box of tissue paper.

Haw-Ting was gone? This could not be. No, there was no way that this would happen. We have done nothing to anger the gods. I have given as much as possible to the Temple of Heaven. I have supported the monks generously, to the best of my abilities. I have gone to the temple regularly to pay my respect to the Buddha. No, this must be a sick joke. But then I knew Haw-Ting. He would never think of playing such a cruel joke on me.

No, this was not right. No, this did not happen.

“Doctor Wu, tell me again what happened?” She was in utter denial.

“May-Ling, I have told you everything already.”

“Please tell me again, then.” She pleaded in despair.

“May-Ling, everything I’ve told you is true. Right after the incident, one of your nurse helpers called me and I arrived at the clinic within the hour. I looked over the situation and I attended to Haw-Ting myself. Yet there was nothing I could do for him by the time I arrived.”

She leaned her head on him and passed out.