Chang sat in her chair unmoving. The words repeated themselves over and over in her brain, but she couldn"t make sense of them."My mom... what?" Chang stared dumbly at him. "What did you say?"
"I know you have a lot to process, but you can do that on the flight over." Jian calmly told her as he lifted her out of her seat, where she sat numbly.
He pulled a large bill out of his pocket and left it on the table. Without waiting for change Jian grabbed Chang"s hand and started hustling to his car, he was stopped short by the weight attached to his hand.
Chang stood there with a stricken look on her face. "Jian that can"t be right. There"s no way, my mom... No this must be a mistake."
Jian kept his face calm, masking the sadness he carried. He bent down and scooped Chang up and continued heading to the car. After securing her in the pa.s.senger seat, he started calling his a.s.sistant to have him book them the next available flight to Sf. He looked sideways at Chang who sat in her seat deep in thought. After making sure all necessary arrangements were taken care of he hopped in the driver seat. He reached over with one hand and comfortingly squeezed Chang"s hands that lay neatly together on her lap.
"Everything is fine, do not overly worry yourself, it"s not good for your health."
Chang gave him a weak smile in exchange for his comfort. How could she not worry though? The guilt from all the time she hadn"t seen her mother began to pile on her. If this was the last time....
"No, I can"t think like that, mama is fine."
"I should let Justin and my boss know what"s going on."
"Already taken care of. You don"t have to worry about anything" He succinctly replied.
Chang tried to think of another topic but couldn"t, so she reached forward to turn on the radio. Every song though made her mood worse and worse until she finally turned it off.
Chang turned her head out the window drying to lose her thoughts in the dizzying blur on the way to the airport.
--
Fairly soon they arrived, since they didn"t have luggage, they only needed boarding pa.s.ses and identification. Chang remembered then about her lost wallet and phone.
"Jian, I lost my ID the other day, I can"t board the plane."
"You mean this?" He reached inside an inside breast pocket and pulled out and old faded tan leather wallet. Out from which he pulled her ID.
Astonished Chang reaches out and grabbed the wallet. "Oh thank you thank you, I was so heartbroken over having lost this. Wait how did you come to have it?"
"In an alleyway dumpster, strangest of places, it"s not like you were actually in there either right?" He gave her a crooked glance.
"What, me, in a dumpster? Hahaha, no way, I would never do that." "I will never admit to that!" "I must have dropped it somewhere and it got thrown out accidentally!"
Jian gave her a grunt in reply, a slight smile tugged at his lips at her denial.
Within a half hour they were boarded and the plane started to take off. Chang looked out the window as LA, became further away and eventually disappeared from sight. It had become special to her over the last year, a safe harbor.
"Goodbye, I wonder if I will ever return again."
She thought of the last time she had seen her mother over a year ago. She had come home to visit, right before she had left for Shanghai. Her mother, Li Hua, had been as healthy and energetic as usual. Equally doting and scolding her daughter who was always travelling and rarely came home to visit. Her mother was a strong figure in her eyes, able to keep carrying on, no matter what. There was no way anything could happen to her...