She Belongs to Them Both

Chapter One-2

Chinatown, Boston, Massachusetts

“Do not fear the werewolf’s kiss.” Grandfather spoke in his quiet voice. The sound always reminded Megan of waves lapping the shore. His face hovered before her.

A pang shot through her heart and she held her arms out to him, the way she had when she was a little girl. “I miss you so much, Lao ye,” she whispered. “It’s like death.” She leaned forward to embrace him, only to find her arms cutting through empty space.

His face remained, however, smiling, the dark eyes looking at her with gentleness. She watched him, her hand out, trying to touch his graying beard.

“I miss you too, granddaughter.” He smiled. “Do not fear the werewolf’s kiss.”

“Who’s the werewolf, Lao Ye?” Desperation to understand his words gripped her. Grandfather had been her teacher for so long and she’d always struggled to understand everything he’d said. This time, she couldn’t. She tried to embrace him again but his image began to fade.

“Lao Ye!” she cried.

But Grandfather’s face dissolved, melting into the darkness from which it had come.

Meg opened her eyes and gulped for air. She heaved several deep breaths before realizing she was in her bed. She grabbed fistfuls of her comforter, letting the soft material bring her into the present. Her heart still pumped as if she’d been running.

Groping beside her, she found Fluffy and dragged the stuffed bear into her arms. Squeezing the bedraggled toy against her chest, she lay quietly, staring at the ceiling. She’d long ago given up feeling foolish for keeping Fluffy. Perhaps a woman almost thirty shouldn’t still have a teddy bear but one day she’d thought about how Fluffy had been a gift from her parents just before they died. Fluffy was her last connection to them. After that, she couldn’t criticize herself for her attachment to him.

Her dream still clung to her. She sighed, remembering Lao Ye’s face and his words. Tightening her grip on Fluffy, she lay still, letting the pain wash through her. Lao Ye had died six months ago but to Meg, it still felt like yesterday. He’d been her best friend, her father and teacher. The only person who’d been there for her when her parents had disappeared. Her father’s parents had long ago disinherited him for having married a Chinese woman and Grandfather had stood by his daughter and son-in-law. He’d been the one to break the news to her when their bodies had been found after the plane crash in the Brazilian jungle.

At seventy-five, Lao Ye had appeared to have at least ten more years in him. His heart had said differently. Of course, Meg had wished he would live forever.

The full moon filtered through her bedroom curtains. Meg turned, letting the moonlight splash silver across her face. From the angle of her window, she could see the glowing orb in its entirety. It was getting ready to set and shone against the backdrop of the pre-dawn sky.

Since it was almost time to get up anyway, Megan released Fluffy, set him aside and got out of bed. She stood at the window for several minutes, watching the moon. She’d always loved looking at the moon. Something about it was mysterious and wondrous to her, drawing feelings from deep inside. This morning, however, it made her restless, sent a fluttering movement through her stomach. The moonlight must have shone on her during her sleep and mingled with her grief over her grandfather to produce that dream.

Do not fear the werewolf’s kiss.

Still, the words sent a strange shiver up her spine. More accurately, it was the word kiss that was affecting her. A kiss meant a man. It had been an incredibly long time since Ben. She’d thought she was madly in love with him but when he got a job offer in San Francisco and wanted her to move with him, she couldn’t. She hadn’t wanted to leave Lao Ye, especially when he was an old man and didn’t have anyone else to help run the market. Which was why there hadn’t been anyone since Ben. No one understood her attachment to this place. The men in her generation were ambitious like Ben, pursuing careers that might take them far away at a moment’s notice. What guy her age wanted to be saddled with a tiny Chinatown grocery and a homebody of a woman who slept with a Teddy bear and whose idea of an exciting evening was a quart of fried rice and a Bruce Lee video?

Her childhood friend, Danny, had helped her out for many years during school holidays and weekends but after college graduation, he’d gone right to graduate work at MIT and hadn’t been as available. Since he’d met Dave, his soul mate, he also had less time.

She watched the moon another few seconds, then sighed and turned. There was too much to do to be spending time at the window staring at the moon, remembering the past or worrying about the future. Like showering and having breakfast so she’d have time to run through her tai chi before opening the market. Like feeding Mei, who was now mewing loudly for her breakfast and emphasizing the plea by threading her fluffy white body in a path around and between Meg’s feet.

“Sorry, Mei. Breakfast for you first.” She went to the small kitchen and opened a can of cat food. Mei’s hungry cries increased in volume as Meg spooned some food into the cat’s dish and set it on the floor. “There you go, sweetie.” When Mei was happily chowing down on her breakfast, Megan headed for the shower to start the day.

When Grandfather was alive, they shared the burden of running the market. She’d even had time to give evening tai chi lessons in the studio after Grandfather had gotten too tired to teach. Now he was gone. She was running the store by herself, not knowing anyone else she trusted enough to help her except for Danny. Danny was qualified to teach the classes but he’d just earned his doctorate in computer science and was teaching summer school. His partner, Dave, was also willing to teach self-defense classes but he was taking summer classes to begin his master’s degree in social work. They were both very busy.

If she hadn’t been so attached to the place and to the neighbors who depended on her, she might have considered the Boston Development Corporation’s offer to buy, which they kept pressuring her about. Sometimes, the temptation to sell was almost overwhelming, especially since business was threatened by the new Asian supermarket chains that had recently opened ten miles away.

But she wasn’t giving up on her grandfather’s life’s work so easily. He’d loved the children in the neighborhood and gave the older kids tai chi lessons during the summer months when the inner city was boring for them. She intended to resume them as soon as she got on her feet. And so she kept going, with or without someone to help her.