2009年的第一篇英语小故事,用法和时态错误挺多,正常正常,总不长进就不好了。
Many errors or misuse in tense or grammar. Hopefully it can be improved in the foreseeble future.
Sex . Conviction (Part I. Lost in stormy night)
Qi had full finger prints taken twice. The first time was for student visa application at the American Embassy in Guangzhou. The second set, however, is a much heavier one, a routine record taking for a person charged with felony, a capital crime, a brutal premeditated murder…
Qi was 23 when he left Guangdong for Chicago to pursue his academic advancement. It’s more like a joke to Qi, when he thought about it later on. He never liked what he studied in school. Environment engineering, what is that? Qi often asked himself. Of course, he knows well about the subject of environment engineering. He did well in his undergraduate education. He was considered as an excellent student with a brilliant future, at least according to the norm or the “golden” standard set by those mundane faculties.
Lan is a smart and pretty woman. She was but will never again become Qi’s girl friend in China. She said she loved him. She said she wanted to be with him the whole life. She did a lot for him. She gave herself to him. She escorted him to the Baiyun Airport before Qi departed Guangzhou for U.S. That’s the last time they saw each other, even though that’s not what Lan had planned. Qi liked Lan. He did what she asked him to do. He thought Lan will be the woman to together build a family and have kids and so on…
Sometimes, things can change so fast, so unexpectedly, almost impossible to predict. The change or the turning point in Qi’s life took place at a stranger’s place, at a lonely night, the 37th day of Qi’s new life in Chicago. He worked very hard in his graduate program. However, the language barrier, culture difference, and the loneliness developed an erosion effect in Qi’s mind. He felt painful, he wants intimacy, he needs something so raw so deep…
It’s a raining night, downpour actually. The whole city seems like the bottom of a dishwasher, flushed by the rotating wild water streams driven by strong gust, wet, messy and a little bit chaotic. Qi called Lan 9am in the morning and she said she’s going to a local bar in F street of Guangzhou with an old friend for a birthday celebration party and she said she missed Qi and asked him if he missed her too and he said yes.
That raining night, in Chicago, was particularly unsettled for Qi. Where he lived is a two bed-room apartment he co-rented with another Chinese student, a boy student, more precisely. His roommate belongs to flamboyant type and always dresses himself in a fashionable way. He has a Chinese name of course but prefers Qi and other people call him Richardette. There is no Richardette in dictionary and it’s not that easy to pronounce either, but Qi is OK with it and he sort of likes his roommate and feels that younger boy was always like a happy bird. A raining night, thunder pounding the window pane from time to time, Qi suddenly wants to get drunk.
“Richardette…?” Qi crossed the dim living room and walked to the front of Richardette’s bedroom and knocked at his door.
“Richardette? Wanna have a drink together?”(it’s talk in Chinese, of course) Qi asks again when nobody answered.
“Hey, what are you doing in there?” Qi still didn’t hear any response, but he could see that the top window at the bedroom entrance has some light flicking, appearing like from TV or computer screen, but there is no sound coming out. Richardette is in the room. He has headset on and concentrates himself, his body and the lonely soul on some video stream on the internet. He couldn’t and does not know Qi was knocking the door.
Qi gave up knocking and grabbed his umbrella and left the apartment. He wanted to buy some beer or inexpensive fruit wine and he wants to get drunk. But, that raining night, Qi’s life changed, changed forever. Or that change might be his destiny.
“Hello, young man?” A wide Mercury pulled over to the curb with rain water splashing toward the pedestrian road. A Caucasian male at his 30s rolled down the front window and yells at Qi, “hey, dude, you need a ride? ”
Qi stops and stares at the man and his car and the surrounding. The wind is strong and the rain got Qi quickly soaked and he couldn’t even hold the umbrella steadily without tight grip. Qi hasn’t fully reacted before the man begins to ask again, “it’s raining like hell, bro, where are you heading?”
“Zebb Mart, to buy something.” Qi responds plainly and hopes the guy would disappear.
“It’s right on my way, com’on hop in and I could give you a lift.” The man insists. Rain keeps blown in his wide Mercury and he looks so sincere.
“OK…all right. Thank you a lot.” Qi approached the car and got in. That wide Mercury started its engine and left the curb like a wobbling old lady, and then swam into the watery dark street, and robbed the meek innocence of the world.
“What are you shopping for, so late, such a damn weather?” The white male asks. He has fair looks, with a unique style beard, but trimmed very well.
“Something to drink. ” Qi says.
“Hahaha…” the man laughs loudly, “now I see a desperate guy for water hole, ahaha…that’s cute.”
Qi didn’t get amused. He is quiet and doesn’t know what to say.
“hey, I like drinks too. A big collection, actually. Wine, beer, spirit, a lot of them. You want to join me?” The man gives a quick offer.
Qi didn’t fully understand what the man was trying to say but roughly knows it’s an invitation.
“Probably not, it’s…”Qi hesitates but is interrupted by the 30ish man.
“Hey, don’t be shy, it’s just myself at home. Com’on, it’s no big deal, I can drive you back afterwards…” the man stops at the traffic light and glimpses at Qi, and jokes, “you are not worrying I am a Kung-fu master, are you?”
Qi laughs.
“Hey, where are you from, by the way?” the man asks.
“China.” Qi replies.
“That’s what I thought. I love China. I love chopsticks too”. The man officially starts the ice-breaking.
…
That night, Qi got drunk. What happened that night is not just his being drunk. A lot more has occurred at that Caucasian male’s residence, and this 30ish white male actually is not the only one living there, or at least, other than Qi, there are two other visitors, and they are all males. One white male, skinny, is also in his 30s. Another one is a darker skin chubby man, and Qi couldn’t figure out what’s the origin of that person.
Qi woke up next day at that residence. He is on the floor of a big room. Apparently that’s the place where he fell in sleep last night. He feels a little headache and disoriented.
“Want some coffee, sweet baby?” the skinny male asks, with a bathrobe on, sitting on a loveseat. Qi could see the tattoo on his legs, and that tattoo looks so familiar, like the one he has seen somewhere.
Qi is a little bit confused and got up and tries to figure out why he was lying on the floor. He stood up and walked around and the cling-cling sound of his trouser belt made him realize his pants were unbuckled and his underwear were not fully pulled up. Later on, he figured out a lot more about what had happened at that stormy night, at that residence spilling liquor, violation and sinister…He was driven back from that unfamiliar place to a unfamiliar bus stop, with some dollar bills stuffed in his hands by that Mercury driver. Dizzy, fearful, still disoriented, Qi boarded the bus and got off at the city center.
Qi dares not to tell anybody about that experience. He felt ashamed.
Two months later, Qi had anonymous test for HIV. It’s a swab test, painless and fast. The test mirrors his worries. It’s positive. Qi became another potential AIDS patient. However, the test result didn’t incur much fear or sadness. Or very likely those fear and sadness have already been overcome by hatred and self-disgusts arising from the internal struggle Qi has had since that horrible 37th night of his new life in Chicago.
Qi began to plan something. Something destructive but he felt right to the point…
It’s a comfortable night in the early fall season. Qi strolls along the street where he was picked up on that rainy night. He has been strolling along this street many times already. He has a mission. And, that October night looks so lucky to Qi but it’s also truly disastrous. When the same Mercury pulled over again, and after the same Caucasian male struck a little chat to Qi, Qi was so relieved he saw the guy. He always worried that guy wouldn’t be bold enough to pop up again, at least in front of him. Qi approached the car, got in. Everything happened so fast, shockingly fast. Blood, blood, and blood, it’s everywhere, and it has covered that heinous crime, that darkness, but also exposed another monster, and extinguished the hope people ever had for Qi.
......
(Part II. devil’s game)
The killing occurred on that October night, along that small alley, was witnessed only by the blinking turning signal light of that wide Mercury. Qi pulled himself out of the car, gave that Caucasian male a last stare, then turned around and walked away, trembling, a little shaken, moving forward as if he was drunk, and almost hit the street lamp at the street corner.
None-pretension sometimes betrays people’s will to seek truth. A police patrol car drove by but didn’t at all notice Qi and his erratic steps. But devil is always gleeful when people’s ordinary lives get spiced up, and the open car door of that wide Mercury anxiously waits for people to look into at the front seats on which the pile of wet soulless flesh seemed like a twisted muddy doll.
“Oh, shit”, a sudden squeaking braking sound, the police car stopped cruising. The officer frowned and titled his head trying to get a better look at what’s inside of that Mercury. “Dispatcher, this is Officer Leo, CP587, there is suspected assault at…” Soon, the quiet alley was swarmed by five or six police cars. It’s like a vanilla ice cream squirted with some hot melted chocolate, the whole street got excited.
“What happened?” Richardette sits at the breakfast table organizing his meal boxes, seeing Qi come in with the face and front of jacket stained with blood.
Qi didn’t respond, or he probably didn’t even hear Richardette’s voice. He was being deeply obsessed, isolated, and no much different from an autistic person. Qi walked toward the window, sat in the sofa, and rested his head on the soft cushion, with eye lids shut and breathing quietly.
Richardette stopped playing with those meal boxes, he didn’t make any noise, just watching from behind, also obsessed, and trying to understand what’s going on. The window glass looks like a partial-exposed film, hanging in the dark night sky, with Qi’s exhausted but peaceful face combined with the simply decorated living room plus Richardette’s confused expression sneaking in from the far background.
The apartment is deafening silent…
......
Part III. Before hunting starts
Both naked, pale but youthful, covered by the soft night light and immersed in the vacuum of inhibition and resistance, Qi and Richardette bind each other, centering in the room, with the rest of everything slowly turning and rotating…
…
“What are you going to do, then?” Richardette strokes Qi’s shoulder line, asks gently.
“Don’t know. It’s over, anyway” Qi says, with a little sigh. Then a flash of worry, “you will be OK, right? I don’t want to get you infected”.
“Don’t worry…” Richardette’s gentle response filled with calmness. “…We didn’t do anything.”
…
A morning dove flew by, then comes back, flaps wings and lands herself carefully at the red-brick window sill of Qi and Richardette’s apartment. She curiously looks inside the room and self-narrates sentimentally. Qi watches this grey and blue visitor, as if she could understand all his minds, even though it’s just a small bird flying from nowhere. He turned around, slowly pulled his arm from beneath Richardette’s head, sat up, the golden sun rays cutting through the window glass and stopping right there when they touches Qi’s eye lashes. Outside, it’s going to be another beautiful day, with the air bleached by the temperate sunshine.
Xrime Daily, bundled together with commercial advertisements, were dropped at each front door in the quiet-no-more city communities, with people’s drowsy sleepy eyes harshly stung by the insatiable thirst for money, trade and ambition. Those newspapers never miss a single bloody cut-n-run, and punctually deliver to couldn’t-be-duller subscribers those event depictions seasoned with arrogant but filthy imagination, triggering a tiny shock to their indifference which is like a thick layer of grease tar having all the animated human thoughts coated and sealed.
On the front page, it’s a handsome man’s portrait with him wearing a rose-red tie and baby blue shirt, next to a headline with big size characters---Financial Advisor Michael Trudel Stabbed to Death. In that picture, that handsome man smiles and looks attractive and refreshing. The black word “Death” like a crow, with claws clenching the frame of that picture, tells people it’s another too-young-to-die decent man full of promise.
Homicide investigation team got another case to run, apparently. But this one will not let them grilled by public dissatisfaction too much. In other words, this is not a tricky case, at least judged by the crime scene. The perpetrator left dozens of finger and palm prints in the car, and the murder weapon was there too, a Chinese brand kitchen knife…
- posted on 03/29/2010
Part IV. fly, birdie, fly
“Mom…ma, don’t worry about me…” Qi covers the phone receiver, choking with tears running into the deep sadness and hollowness. He tries to control himself, “ma, I didn’t take good care of you…”
Richardette stands behind, also with moisture in his eyes but he manages to hold the emotion, looking apart from the phone booth, watching far away toward the murk skyline. A hawk circles around over a patch of woods where the city cemetery is located. The despair took away all the vivid colors the beautiful autumn evening used to have, and left the bleak existence in all helpless minds.
The payphone next to the bus stop at Jade Gargoyle, a local Chinese travel company, is where Qi says farewell to his family before his long haul run-away trip. Qi’s family was not aware of the true nature of that phone call, and Qi didn’t tell them much. He usually does not and would not. To reduce the chance of being caught, Richardette suggested him avoid taking any transportation that may check the personal identification. He gave Qi his own credit card, and $700 cash. There was no big suitcase to carry. They both had no idea what would be the next and if ever they would see each other again. And, the biggest twist is that, they both ignored the potential grave consequence of their daring plan.
“You take care yourself”. Qi hugs Richardette tightly, and again he bursts into tears.
……
A pair of Chinese international students, two naïve young men, with completely different background, two could-be strangers if they had not shared the apartment, two characters coming from two distinctive environments and belongs to different perhaps-never-merge spheres, however, at this moment, seemed inseparable. Their mutual trust, the fresh but firm friendship, or maybe something more than friendship, dispersed in the fading twilight and dispelled the fear, the cowardice and the urge to predict.
Qi’s ticket would bring him to an unfamiliar city in west coast after an over-night traveling, and there, he would board another Chinese-run long-haul bus and head to another new city deep south. He would not be able to take shower, to have a good night sleep, to have a warm Chinese meal. He would not know where the destination. But he wants to be free, so much, so badly, even though he knew his freedom could have an early end.
......
Part V. little boy’s seashell
That’s the most pungent perfume Qi ever sensed, if it is fragrance at all. There is this mid-aged woman sitting next to him in the bus to set off from Chicago. She has a nice figure and an eastern European accent. From the first moment she got on the bus, she claimed the queen’s title already. It seemed to her that all other passengers were all from the fifth world nations and people begged her to be their travel companion.
“So dirty…oh…disgusting”, “doesn’t the driver know the bus should be on schedule?”, “stupid”, “so cheap”…She is full of complaint and prerogative comments.
Qi would not like this type of person and would have thought about moving to another seat if possible. But that day, he did not, just because of some tiny objects on the lady’s sleeves. Several seashell like decorative buttons on her clothing let Qi have some precious flash-backs.
……
“Why don’t they swim like other fish?” Qi asked his mother about the shell fish, while she was reading him an encyclopedia book on ocean creatures.
That’s more than 15 years ago.
“They are too soft and they don’t have fins, but the shells protects them from being attacked by other fish”, Qi’s mom tried to explain.
“Why don’t we grow shells too, to protect us?” Qi asked quite innocently.
“Because you have papa and mama, and we will protect you”. She replied.
“But who will protect pop and ma?” Qi’s question was tainted with a bit concern.
She kissed his head gently, “My dear baby, good boy…” She didn’t answer the question.
……
“Mama, this is for you, to protect you” Qi handed his mom a little pack with wrinkled paper wrapping.
Inside the pack are six seashell-like buttons. Qi skipped two snack-sessions at school and saved the money for those buttons. He wanted his mom to be protected as well.
……
It is the lifeless objects on the eastern European woman’s sleeves that made Qi had a very warm feeling toward her. Interesting, the clueless buttons canceled all the differences the two passengers could have from each other and brought them relatively close.
“You want to take the window seat? It’s more comfortable” Qi says to that lady.
“Oh…” she didn’t expect this polite and friendly gesture and was left blank for a second, “You sure?” She asks.
“Yeah, if you want” Qi says, checking the lady’s beautiful blue eyes and looking for something familiar.
“Thank you, it’s very nice of you” She accepts. There is a smile coming across her face and she is much more relaxed, and that smile made her look very amiable and effeminate.
She dozed off one or two hours into the bus driving, and a few times she unknowingly rested her head on Qi’s shoulder while being asleep. Whenever it happened, her brown hair gently brushed the right side of Qi’s chin and neck. He loved the feeling and this intimate touch made Qi felt as if many wonderful moments got revived and then sweetened his blood stream with the delicate tea olive.
......
Part VI. brotherhood in test
“Hi, sir, I am detective Abdul, from the metropolitan police department. We are here for an investigation. Does [key hole] live here?” a big guy showed up at the front door of the apartment. He has dark complexion, black hair, sharp nose, seductive but piercing eyes, all the intimidation was disguised by his budging pot-belly and slight mid-east accent. He obviously mis-pronounced Qi’s name (Huang, Qi) as some common house item.
“No! … Oh, no, well, yes, key…Qi, he went out.” Richardette can not keep his composure. He expected somebody one day would come to knock and then rampage the whole apartment. He knew it’s going to happen and had practiced many times how to respond and what to say, but all those prepared statements were all wiped out by the police officer’s sudden appearance.
“I am afraid we have to go in take a look, hope you don’t mind.”, Abdul thrusts a search warrant to Richardette, and didn’t really wait to get a yes or no response but entered the apartment directly, almost shoveling Richardette aside. Following the detective are a couple uniformed police officers, one man, one woman, seeming all armed and fully equipped.
Qi stepped aside and looks deflated and scared. He suddenly felt he’s going to faint and turned around trying to walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water.
“Stay where you are, sir!” one uniformed officer yells at Richardette.
“Take it easy, George.” the lady officer talks to the male officer, and then walks toward Richardette, with her notepad in hand. Richardette almost peed in his pants and was absolutely stunned by what’s going on, and, at that moment, the current, past, real or imagined images mixed with sound, all began to play in his mind in a juggling fashion. He began to cry.
“Are you OK, sir? …sir, are you OK?” the lady officer asks, while trying to stay at the safe distance from Richardette.
“All right, sir, what’s your name, sir, what is your name?” she begins to do her job.
“Richardette.” Richardette is almost like whispering, sounding weak and detached. The originally soft-spoken young man now can not even scare off a bunny rabbit.
“I am sorry, could you say that again, and spell it for me, please?” The lady officer asks again.
“Richard, and e-t-t-e, Richardette.” He seems pacified and talks a bit louder.
George, the male officer, chuckled when he heard Richardette spelling his name, and then stopped himself with a cough and throat clearing.
That scornful laugh upsets Richardette and interestingly, pumps him up with some courage, “It’s my nickname, my official name is Yang Yang, Y-A-N-G, and two words spells the same.”
“How long have you been living here”… “What’s the relationship between you and Qi”… “Has he told you anything unusual recently”… “When is the last time you saw him”…She asked Richardette many questions. And this time, Richardette answered all his questions very smoothly, a lot more calmly, and his previous preparations now kicked in.
“May I know what all about?” Richardette pretends to be lost and curious.
“Qi is now a homicide suspect”, the lady officer paused, chekcing Richardette’s response and his eyes, then continues, “If you see him, contact us immediately and try not getting close to him…here is our contact phone number.” She hands Richardette a card, “and try avoiding media contact too.” She adds.
“What do you study, kid?” Detective Abdul asks Richardette, while looking around in the living room.
“Psychology.” Richardette answers.
“So, you know what we are thinking, don’t you?” Abdul jokes a little bit, throwing a wondering look at Richardette, with the airs in his eyes less seductive but more piercing.
“Perhaps, all bad, I guess.” Richardette is really beginning to sound a lot stronger.
After police officers left, Richardette stood there still for a brief moment, and then approached the window and tried to see if there were any police car parking outside and wanted to watch them leaving. When his eyes were fixed to drive-through of the apartment building, somebody began to bang the door and it startled Richardette somehow. He went to the front and opened the door, and was shocked at what he saw…
---to be continued
- RE: Sex . Conviction (穷途)posted on 05/05/2011
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