Stay by Jennifer Silverwood

Author:Jennifer Silverwood
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: SilverWoodSketches
Published: 2013-02-13T05:00:00+00:00

After brunch, Mrs. Nguyen broke Cain’s orders by dragging me to her old Chinatown haunts. Her words gave me, for the first time, a true glimpse into the human condition. Humanity had always been forced to circumvent its past failures. History might have given ample lesson to the present generation. But they were just as ignorant of themselves as their past. Few people in this part of the city cared to learn from the mistakes of fallen empires, however. They thrived off what they knew, hunger, hardship and hope.

Cain’s neighbor had no idea she was teaching me any of this, of course. She was telling me about her past and present, of the family who barely acknowledged her and the husband she had never forgotten.

“Old age isn’t your friend in America, sugar,” she said as we browsed through a vendor laden with meaningless items.

I paid little heed to the paper and coin she exchanged for clothes and jewelry. We had been forced into the back corner of the shop, hidden behind a curtain leading into a musty room. Some things had not changed, apparently. The sort of bartering Mrs. Nguyen thrived on was something I recalled from my human life. Only this time, instead of actual coin they preferred paper.

“Why do your children not visit you?” I asked once we were outside and headed back down the road we came.

Mrs. Nguyen grasped my hand in hers and squeezed. At first I wondered if she needed comfort, but when I turned to look down, she was reaching for the wadded bills she had slipped to me when we went inside the little shop. “Hand it over, kiddo. That’s some of my hard-earned cash.”

“I am sorry,” I said and bowed my head low, afraid I had offended her. Her laughter startled me and her eyes were shining when I met her gaze. I often did things that amused her, beyond my comprehension.

“There!” She laughed and poked my chest with her finger. “That is why they no longer visit. Think I’m too stingy with my money. But they never want to be reminded of how I got my dough in the first place. So I make sure to remind them, of course. See why they don’t want to hang around me?” She laughed again, but could not disguise the flash of pain that filled her eyes, or the darkness surrounding her aura.

Because of this, when we returned home, I let her dress me in the clothes she had bought for me. I let her paint my face with coal around my eyes and lashes. She remarked as I sat on her toilet seat, “What lovely eyes you have, duckie. That why you on the run, eh? You some lab experiment gone wrong?”

“Perhaps,” I replied with a smile.

For a while I listened to the sound of the record playing in the background, my thoughts brewing like one of Seid’s tempests. While Mrs. Nguyen arranged my waist-length curls, I asked, “Have you ever been tempted

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.