| Fan Fiction |
by Chandra
Ron watched her leave and made no move to follow her. The chaos of her mind was too turbulent. A boiling mass of agony, confusion, and uncertainty. He knew she was thinking about her mother’s situation and finding a solution to this misfortune.
Ron remained where he was for a long time, his head down, and breathing deeply to get through his sorrow. To get through her pain. He felt his heart twist in a knot of melancholy. The event of three nights ago rushed back to him as he was doing nothing to stop the woman he truly loved.
___
The moonlight, brighter than Ron can ever remember, lighted his way along the path, as dark shadows spilled on the yard. He had been waiting outside in front of her house for endless hours and yet she never appeared. Suddenly, before his eyes, he saw two figures. Ron immediately stood up from the swing and approached them.
In the background Ron heard the owls calling to each other. Their mournful hoots echoed in the distance. And when he was only a few yards away, he was stunned to find a figure leaning into a male’s body, looking peacefully. Nothing in his experience had prepared him for this. Because it was impossible to see such a scene. And Ron Ng won’t allow it because he couldn’t bear the sight materialized in front of him.
There was something so intimate about the two of them being alone together under the moonlight. It scared Ron; and his blood was boiling with jealousy as he ran toward them.
___
As Raymond and Tavia walked out of the car, Raymond could see how deeply she was troubled by her mother’s condition. Mr. Su, her father had gone to the hospital after the dinner and had requested him to give his daughter a ride home.
“Are you upset because your mother is sick?” Tavia was amazed at his ability to instantly grasp her deepest, innermost feelings.
“You’re not less a person if you do, Tavia. It’s not something to be ashamed of. Everybody feels guilty because it’s not happened to him or her but to the person they love. At first, it’s grief because their loved one is in pain, but then it becomes guilt and they blame themselves.”
Tavia unexpectedly gazed at the man beside her. Despite his arrogance and cold attitude, he seemed to surprise her each moment she spent with him. Tavia sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, and she was surprised at herself for being so comfortable and at ease with him. Perhaps in mind, she had already acknowledged him as a companion.
“Aren’t you scared about losing someone you love so deeply?” Raymond didn’t answer immediately, and Tavia listened to the sounds of the night as she waited.
Raymond wanted to shake some sense into the poor woman or girl, in which he did not know her exact age. However, he knew it was futile for she won’t listen to him because they only met. She thought herself to blame for things she had no control over, but he knew she had to come to that knowledge on her own. It wasn’t her fault and therefore she shouldn’t blame herself. The realization had to be more than intellectual; it had to be in her heart, her soul, and she had to experience it herself to come to that conclusion.
Tavia suddenly heard rapid of footsteps approaching behind her and Raymond, but she didn’t bother to look around. The sound of heavy breathing followed, and in her peripheral vision, she saw that a man crouched roughly at her side. Tavia raised her head, and they faced each other. The light cast by the headlamps was dim. But she would have recognized him even in darkness, and the ability seemed mutual.
Time stopped. The world dropped away, simply disappeared. For a moment no one spoke. His face was in shadows, but Tavia could still see his eyes. His furious and jealous eyes seemed to pierce her, and she almost felt herself shaken by the unexpected rudeness she saw in them.
It felt as if a decade before he spoke. Ron merely looked at her, ignoring the man stand beside her. His intense gaze bored into hers, but Tavia couldn’t identify the implication of his look; a message that wasn’t deliverable.
When finally he did speak, he sounded like a stranger. “I waited for you.”
Before Tavia could protest in words, Raymond who felt the hostility in the air and quickly began to saunter toward his car.
“I’ll go now Ms. Su. I’ll see you soon.” He turned and walked to the door, but after he had opened it, he stopped. “Just so you know,” He said calmly, looking at Ron, “During the time of grief, a man should be there to comfort his woman.”
The door swung shut behind him. The vehicle was already pulling away.
Tavia stood dumbly and mutely for a moment, after which her angry feet of its own accord carried her to the front door of her house, and her hand irritably reached out and opened it, ignoring the man behind her. She thought his behavior awhile ago was rude and intolerable yet she didn’t bother to convey her opinion and contemplated that he should figure it out himself.
__
The days flowed past Ruby without measurement. Now, Ruby came to understand life from the perspective of experimented animals. She was poked and prodded almost every minute as if she hadn’t felt no pain and the body didn’t belong to her.
Electrodes on her chest sent her heartbeat to a monitor. Its incessant beeping kept her from sleeping and it was constant reminder of her reality. She felt hot and dried out. The doctor and nurses gave her antibiotics and she broke out in a rash. Then afterward the doctor would pronounce that the condition was allergic. She began to swell and the nurses drained fluid from her tissue. They gave her pain medications that made her feel groggy, like she were floating somewhere in the ocean. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t think clearly.
Later that night, Ruby began to cry gently, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. She had always prided herself that she had no regrets in life, but she had them now. She had buried those sentiments deep down in her heart and now the whole chapters had surfaced from nowhere, until it seemed so full that it suffocated her lungs and she couldn’t breathe.
She had thought that the past was no longer with her and yet she had never realized she was still haunted by it. And the only name that tasted bitter in her mouth was her baby, an infant that was not a year yet, and it had to suffer her mother’s deed.
“Rain, where are you?” She wept in the dark night, remembering her child’s innocent smell.
Unbeknownst to Ruby, outside her room, her husband cried in silence as he witnessed the scene in front of him. It had been three days already. Her physical condition had gotten worst and so were her emotions.
__
Rain felt so happy. The feeling lingered, as she walked down the hallway toward Bosco’s office and wondered if this was the magnificence of her life. Bosco had helped her find a job here and she can’t believe she was so lucky to have a job at the hospital, at the front desk counter.
Rain listened to someone’s footsteps follow behind her, and her lungs contracted with the wretched, queer feeling that always preceded a full-scale attack of fear and terror. She had no idea how to fight it. She was afraid if there were some mental patients running around the hospital and if she was unlucky, she might be the victim.
Her heart beat rapidly as Rain turned around. To her relief, she saw no one. However, on the right side of the hallway, she noticed the door of one of the rooms was opened. Peeking inside, she saw a middle-aged man sit on the bed and stare unblinkingly straight at her.
The man was clearly waging some sort of internal battle – and a piercing one. His eyes flashed a range of emotions so rapidly that Rain could hardly register them, and he seemingly began to speak several times, only to abort the effort at the last second.
Feeling sorry for him, Rain entered the room. And as soon as she did, she regretted her action because he flew toward her.
“Ruby, Ruby….” Rain struggled beneath his hold. She prayed that someone would come and save her. She did not know he was an insane person.
Behind her, another young man sprinted into her direction. He positioned himself between Rain and the insane man, and moments later, he soothed the frightened man and put him back onto the bed.
Finally, his body relaxed. His eyes became distant, and then the man turned away from Rain and the stranger altogether. When he spoke, his voice was stilted. “I thought you’re my Ruby. You look so much like her.”
“I love you, Ruby.” He spoke his last words before he calmed down. Then his eyelids closed.
Next to his bed, Rain heard the steady beep of the heart, the monitor turning into a loud whine. She stared, astonished, at the screen where the sharp peaking line had gone flat. The room erupted into a violent whirlwind of activity. Rain shrank against the wall, feeling useless and out of place, while doctor and nurses rushed through the doorway. Rain trembled as the room seethed with medical urgency.
Rain stood there a long moment, stunned. Her eyes gazed at the young man who had released her from a man’s grasp and insanity. She later learned that his name was Jimmy Li.
After Jimmy had cooled down, Rain had found out that he was a doctor, Raymond Lam. She pitied Jimmy’s circumstance after she had listened to Raymond’s tale of the unfortunate man. Rain swiped at her tears as she thought about his life and how pitiful and miserable it was for him.
“Rain! Are you all right?” Out of nowhere, Bosco bolted through the doorway, skidded to a halt beside her and gently took her in his arms.
“I got here as soon as I could. What’s going on?”
She dissolved into tears again, pressing her face into his suit coat to muffle her sobs, she didn’t know why she cried for a stranger, yet she felt sad for this man.
“I'm here. It's okay. It's alright.” Bosco said over and over, stroking her hair until her tears slowed and her body stopped trembling.
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Chandra
06. 05. 07