| Fan Fiction |
by DTLCT
Ray sits on the railing waiting for Kevin and Mandy to show up. Where in the world are they? Don’t they know that he has been waiting here for the last 20 minutes? He fans his hand back and forth, trying to shoo away the heat. Although it’s a bit chilly today, but Ray’s impatience has radiated heat around him. Then he hears a voice behind him speaks. He smiles, recognizing the voice, but doesn’t turn around at all.
“Do you know how dangerous it is at this time of the year to be sitting around there?” The girl questioned him in a half authoritative tone and a half teasing tone.
“If you know me, you wouldn’t say that,” He said casually, finally turning around to face the girl, but is still sitting on the railing.
“Come on,” She urged. “Get off there. I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Get off first.”
“Tell me first.”
“Ray…” Her stern expression apparent on her face.
Ray hops off the railing finally. “All right. What’s going on?”
She looks around. “Kevin and Mandy aren’t here yet?”
“No. If not, I wouldn’t have to sit around and count seagulls.”
She gives him a look. “It’s December. There are no seagulls around right now.”
“Okay then.” He throws his hands up in defeat. “I guess I was imagining them.”
She smiles lightly. “At least you’re still able to joke.”
“What else am I supposed to do, Jess, if I don’t joke?”
“How about helping me with something?”
“Sure. Why not? I don’t have anything else to do anyway.”
Jessica leads Ray over to a table in the middle of the café so he wouldn’t have the itch to hop on the railing again. She pulls out a folder from her handbag and lays it on the table.
“Don’t tell me you need me to look over your writings.”
“No. But you’re closed.” She takes a pen out from her handbag before opening the folder to reveal its contents.
Ray could see that it contains several pamphlets of some scenery. He blinks twice before he looks at Jessica. “Jess, don’t tell me you want me to go on vacation.”
“If you want to come along.”
“What does that mean?”
“No. I need to go to several places to do an end of the year piece. It’s a Christmas theme. I thought I ask everyone’s opinion on where would be interesting to cover such a theme.”
Ray takes two pamphlets out from the files to compare first. He looks at one and then switches to the other, tapping his feet as he examines it. He looks like he’s deciding on a life or death matter. His face grows so serious, Jessica breaks out in laughter. He looks up from the pamphlets. “What’s so funny?”
Jessica refrains herself. “You look like I just asked you which method you want for your execution.”
Ray scratches his head. “Come on. I thought I would give it a serious thought since it’s going to be an important issue. Or are you suggesting that you don’t want my help?”
Jessica grabs his left arm. “Of course I want your help. I was just kidding.” She gives him an encouraging smile.
“All right then. Since you seem sincere enough, I’ll help you.”
Jessica wants to laugh again, but she stops herself since she knows that Ray’s taking her work serious. While he’s looking at the other pamphlets also, she orders two cup of tea for them.
“You’re not going to Macau,” Ray blurted out suddenly.
“Who would I anyway? I mean for such a theme.”
Ray tosses out the pamphlet of Macau as he browses through some other ones. When he’s done, the waiter comes back with their drinks. It seems a long time, but it has only been five minutes. Ray’s top three choices include Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Hainan Island. After he’s done, he grabs his cup of tea to drink while Jessica’s putting the pamphlets back into the folder and into her bag. As Ray sets his cup back down, he glances at his watch again.
Jessica puts a reassuring hand on his hand. “Don’t worry. Probably they got delayed by traffic.”
Ray nods and grabs hold of Jessica’s hand.
They sit in silence, waiting for a little while more. Then they see Kevin and Mandy walking towards them, hand-in-hand. As they’re closer, Ray and Jessica could see that Mandy is holding a package in her right hand. When they’re in front of the table, they let go of each other’s hand. Kevin settles down next to Jessica while Mandy walks towards Ray and sits next to him.
“Guess what?” Mandy asked with a smile, her attention focused on Ray.
“What?” Ray asked casually, tapping his feet at the same time. “You won the lottery so that was the whole delay? You had to go claim the prize? Then you made a detour home to hide the money?”
Kevin laughs. “Where in the world did you come up with that?”
Ray looks at Kevin, annoyed. “Maybe it was because I’d been sitting here like a duck the past half an hour or so.” He throws up his hands in the air for emphasis. “Of course I have time to think up of all these possible stories that could cause your delay.”
“You got a creative imagination then.”
Mandy puts the package she’s still holding on the table. “Could you guys knock it off? I haven’t finished yet.”
“He started it,” Ray blurted out, still tapping his feet.
Mandy gives Ray a look. “Ge…”
“All right. What’s going on then?”
Mandy pushes the package towards Ray. “This is for you.”
“What is it? My birthday passed already.”
“No. This is your Christmas present.”
“What?! You spent half an hour plus just because you’ve been looking for a gift for me?” Ray’s face shows definite guilt for keep making sarcastic comments. He grabs the package and weighs it in his hand, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s from Dad.”
Ray drops the package slightly on the table. “Oh.”
“You made it sound like you don’t want it.”
“It’s not that.” He licks his lip real quick. “Aren’t we having dinner with him sometime around Christmas anyway?”
“He just wants to give it to you now.”
“All right then. I wouldn’t say no since it’s another gift after all.”
Mandy smiles, knowing he wants to open it but still pretends to not care that much.
“So, what else did Mr. Cho say?” Jessica asked.
“He said that he have to go on a Business trip later this week and won’t be back until the end of next week. So we were lucky to catch him today.”
Jessica smiles.
Ray is still eyeing the package while taking another sip of his tea. He switches tapping his hands on the table instead of tapping his feet on the ground. “So…are we heading home now?”
“I guess. Unless you want to sit around here and enjoy the breeze.”
“Very funny, hon.”
The four of them get up. Jessica goes to the stand in front to pay while the other three wait for her in the parking lot. When Jessica comes out, they all get into Ray’s car with Ray and Jessica in front while Kevin and Mandy sit in the back. Kevin and Mandy had taken a Taxi earlier so that’s why they’re going in Ray’s car now. Kevin speaks up when Ray has already pulled out of the parking lot and into the street.
“So….what should we do Christmas this year?”
“Since I found my sister and reunited with my so-called dad, let’s do something big,” Ray said.
“Grand gathering?” Jessica asked.
“No. Something more than that.”
Jessica suddenly remembers something. “What about your mom?”
“Let’s invite her out here to enjoy the holidays with us.”
“What if both of your parents meet?” Kevin asked.
“I’ll take the chance.”
“Are you going to tell your mom ever?” Jessica asked. “Come on. I thought you said you would like six months ago.”
Ray wrinkles his face. “Oh come on. Give me a break. Like it’s easy. It’s easier if I go to Guangzhou and meet up with Mandy’s relatives.”
They stay silent after that, knowing too well that they shouldn’t push Ray too hard on this matter.
“I wonder if Jacky will visit us for the holidays,” Mandy said out of nowhere.
Kevin shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. Cops don’t get breaks, you know.”
“I know.”
“But I’ll ask Tim later.”
Mandy nods.
“Talking about Jacky, I wonder if Jan’s going to visit us too,” Ray said excitedly. “Have you call her lately, sis?”
“No. Last time I called was a month ago.”
“Maybe we should cook something up.”
Mandy could see Ray’s mischievous face lighting up. He’s probably juggling between possibilities of how he could set Jacky and Jan up right now.
“I swear I don’t know how in the world he could have failed. I mean how hard is it to tell her?”
“It wasn’t his fault totally,” Kevin said, feeling the need to defend Jacky.
“Yea,” Mandy agreed. “After all, Auntie was sick at that time, Jan has to go back. Jacky can’t distract her with something else.”
“We don’t know that,” Ray said doubtfully. “It was his words. We weren’t there, remember?”
“Maybe it’s not the right time yet?” Jessica suggested.
“Oh come on. You sound like my mom now.”
Jessica gives him a sideway glare.
Ray pretends he didn’t see. “We should definitely do something. How about work some Christmas miracles?”
“If you can.”
“Are you challenging me, Miss Hsuan?”
Jessica smiles. “Maybe.”
“How about each of us try to think up of something and then we’ll meet up later to vote for the one that would have the highest chance to succeed and go with it?” Mandy suggested.
Ray nods. “Nice, sis. I agree. I don’t think that all our brains put together would lose this time around.”
“Or we could try all of it?” Kevin said. “I mean each couple tries to help them. Whichever method is the most effective wins and gets to choose the location for our celebration for New Year.”
“Not a bad idea.”
Jessica smiles. “You guys sound so eager.”
“Of course.”
“More like you couldn’t get over it that even your ‘pep talk’ didn’t motivate Jacky enough to be brave about it,” Kevin exposed Ray.
“How could I get over it? I mean you got my sister to go out with you, right? So how come Jacky failed?”
At Ray’s words, Mandy turns a bit pink.
“Ge…”
“I was just using it as an example. Not teasing you.”
At about the same time that he said those words, Ray parks into a space in front of the building. They’re lucky that they get this spot. Maybe it’s because they’re one of the people who come home early today. When they head for the entrance, they meet Wallace.
“Hey!” Wallace greeted them. “Whoa! Why is everyone wearing black today?”
“You’re wearing black too,” Kevin said.
“Just for the record, my jacket is gray, not black,” Ray jumped in to clarify.
Wallace smiles, knowing too well of Ray’s defensive nature.
“Kevin and I went to see my dad today,” Mandy explained.
Wallace smiles, nodding his head. “The future son-in-law meeting his future father-in-law?”
“Kevin knew him ages ago, man,” Ray reminded Wallace.
“Official meeting.”
Ray nods. “Sounds decent enough. I’ll let that pass.”
Wallace smiles, his eyes glinting with mischievous sparks still. As they’re walking towards the elevators together, Wallace is about to throw some more teasing words towards Kevin and Mandy, but Ray speaks up first.
“We just thought of an interesting game while we were on our way back. Want to join in on the fun?”
Wallace turns his attention to Ray. “Oh? What is it?”
Ray begins to explain to Wallace what they talked about earlier in the car while they wait for the elevator to come down.
Wallace stares at Ray with cautious eyes when he’s done. “Wow! Seems like you’re not giving up, huh?”
“Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“It’ll be even more fun when Jacky finds out that we’re doing all these.”
“It’s not just a game. It’s about his happiness too. He’ll be so touched of what we’ve gone through for his happiness that he’ll thank us in the end with tears glistening in his eyes.”
Wallace wrinkles his face. “Have you been watching too many fairy tale movies lately?”
“More like he’d gone to Disneyland quite a few times to live the magic,” Kevin said.
The others laugh at that time, except Ray. He turns to Kevin with his usual annoyed look. “Hey! That wasn’t funny.”
“Tell it to the people who were laughing seconds ago.”
They all get into the elevator at that time. Kevin remembers to hold onto Mandy’s hand as the elevator door closes. Although her fear of elevators is 90% gone already, but Kevin just wants to be safe.
“Oh yeah, I need to go talk to Tim later,” Jessica said.
Ray turns to Jessica. “What for?”
“Just asking him about something.”
“Reporters’ business?”
Jessica nods.
“So…back to the game…are you guys serious?” Wallace asked.
Ray turns to Wallace. “Of course. If it doesn’t work this time, I’ll pay for everyone’s New Year’s party.”
“You’re really determined to make it work this time, huh?”
“Of course.”
Wallace smiles. “Maybe it’s not that easy. What if they both found someone else already?”
“Bet you a meal they’re still single and miserable.”
Wallace smiles again. “What if they’re not miserable?”
“You know what I mean.”
Wallace extends his right hand out to Ray at that time. “Fair enough. Let’s shake on it then.”
Ray shakes hands with Wallace to seal their bet.
They stay silent and wait for the elevator to arrive at their level. When the door opens, they head towards the left where their apartments are.
“Oh yeah, still up for tonight’s movie night?” Ray asked.
“It’s getting boring,” Wallace said.
“How about we cancel the movies and just discuss more about our plans?”
Seeing Ray’s mischievous smile, the others couldn’t help but smile. But they must agree that it’s almost Christmas, so they need to plan ahead.
“Oh yea, don’t forget to call Annie and Cyndi.”
“Cyndi’s coming over later,” Wallace said. “No need to call her.”
“Almost forgot. Miss Wang is Mr. Huo’s girlfriend. How could I forget?”
Kevin has been fidgeting with the keys and trying to open the door while the others are still talking. Now he’s done so he focuses on the conversation again. “Make sure Mr. Lam doesn’t tag Annie also.”
“That too.”
The two guys say their goodbyes and promise to meet back later in Charmaine and Mandy’s apartment. Wallace and Mandy unlocks their apartment and go inside also.
“Later then,” Wallace said before he goes in.
Mandy smiles before going into her apartment.
*****
Quite a few things have happened these past six months. About three months ago, Kevin made his move and asked Mandy to be his girlfriend before she gets too familiar with this place and might decide to socialize with some neighbors. It’s also because he learned from Jacky with what happened. He doesn’t want to hesitate and let his chance slip or let other obstacles get into his way. Ray and Mandy have been closer to Mr. Cho although Ray’s still torn between his parents and is often in conflict. It’s also the reason why he often makes sarcastic remarks regarding his father. It’s somewhat a façade for his guilt towards his mother. On the other hand, Wallace and Cyndi are even closer to each other now. They’re always hanging out with Vincent and Alyssa as well as socializing with their neighbors. The Zhao family is also mending their relationship and learns from what happened when they let a conflict between siblings made them vulnerable to the enemy. Frankie is still trying to pursue Annie but still go back empty-handed each time. She still hasn’t forgiven him for what happened. Kenneth Ma gave up in trying to pursue Joey since he already knew too well he won’t win. Kenneth Chan and Ricky are still working like usual at their newspaper place. Kenneth Chan is taking it slow with trying to be friends with Joey instead of rushing matters like how Ricky persistently urges him every now and then.
© Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Re-posted: Wednesday, October 14th, 2009