Page 14 - AAEPC Kaleidoscope Magazine Vol.4

“I... do... not... quite understand you, what do you mean???” Teresa asked cluelessly.
“I came back to tell you how much I love you from the very second I saw you! Yes... the stewed-cher- ry romper, the silky and straight black hair, the perfect eyes, lips... I can go on and on about the first time I saw you.”
Teresa stares at him blankly, as if the whole notion of love foreign to her. She jolted and tried pro- cessing his words again, she was confused as to what he was implying. Was he saying what she thought? About love? And her?
“I...what, you saying? I work only for tip.” She tried explaining in her broken English.
He came closer to her and held both of her hands as if he was afraid that once he didn’t hold tight enough, she would fade away. The bottle of oil in her hands slipped away from Teresa’s fingers and scattered.
There was a pregnant pause between the two, when someone knocked to ask if everyone was fine af- ter the loud glass stimulated their ears. “I sorry, I sorry...” Teresa said to everyone whilst rushing out the door, without even glancing back.
Upon reaching home, the first thing Teresa heard was “You nasty bitch, it’s 2 AM, who did you open your legs for today?” shouted A-Ba. She looked at him and for the first time, swore back at him, “If that’s what you want this bitch to be, I sincerely won’t let you down.” She added in Cantonese,“Auh yi ka tsan hai jouh kai pei lei thai! (I will now really become a chicken-girl and show you)”. In a frantic rush, she moved around taking whatever she owned and stuffing it into her duffel bag. And within minutes, she left behind all that she had.
Present...
Teresa entered the room, found the foreigner waiting for her on the king-sized bed and remained numb, as if foreign to feeling any emotion. The “guest”, as the brothel liked to address their custom- ers, tried to make a conversation with Teresa but soon realized that she is the type who just satisfies the man’s sexual desires, nothing more, nothing less. Shortly, after the session was over, the guest grabbed her hand and left her a brand new $500 note, one which was probably freshly out of the ATM machine as her tip alone.
She stared at the tip she had received and almost relived the vivid memory of when she heartlessly showed A-Ba the tip she had received from her first ever guest at the brothel. “How could I possi- bly be so cold-blooded? When other children gave their parents contentment, I gave mine a deadly heart-attack, one which took his last breath away from him.” She thought to herself while a drop of her tear landed on the note, making it soggy and used now, like her.
Taking the long route home, she spotted Michael or someone exactly like him walking towards the opposite direction of the same street she was walking on. Delighted, she tried taking a step towards him, took a few steps more almost enough to stop him but herself stropped. “Do you even deserve to have a felicitous life? When you took every ounce of happiness and peace from A-Ba and never even turned back to see one last glance of Michael?! Do you even deserve a slight ounce of happiness?”
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