That Math Girl (Chapter 8)

 

 *Disclaimer*: This is a work of fiction. Some events may be based on real life, but some events are made up. For translations of the Chinese, see the Translation section at the very end.

I walked over to the snack room to eat the rest of the blueberry dessert that was actually called “The Blue Crescent”. The Blue Crescent was some kind of really fluffy and creamy cake of some kind that was shaped like a Crescent moon. It was as blue as the bluest sky, but the only thing that Ling Ling would tell me was that there wasn’t any food coloring or those kinds of things. The blue color was natural. 

As I had anticipated, there were only 2 pieces left. I quickly gobbled them up. I think that Ling Ling has to whip egg whites into the batter to make it seem so much, but is actually barely anything. One time, I ate 2 of The Blue Crescents in one sitting! I can usually at least eat one, even though they are pretty big. Now, I only had to find Ling Ling.

“Ling Ling! Ling Ling!”, I yelled, hoping that Ling Ling might be there. She might be around, spying on me. I wasn’t sure what I would do if she wasn’t there. True, they had given us each a bell to ring for the servants, but I didn’t want to use the bell at all! I hated all of those princesses in fairy tales. You know, the ones that dress up in the scratchiest dresses ever. Bleh. Bleh. Horrible. Okay, I guess I do pity them a little, but I don’t envy them one bit for all the dresses in the world. Bleh. Anyways, I felt like a princess in my great uncle Harry's house, and I hated that feeling. 

 “Hi. I am sorry, but I don’t know where she is.” a shy voice answered, to my surprise. Huh? Who was that? I suppose it might be one of the servants. That word brought a shiver down my spine. It sounded just as bad as a slave. Another shiver down my spine. Had I accidentally rang the bell? Oops, if I did. Uh, oh. Did the person, who I had recognized as a girl, that the voice belonged to, hate me because they thought I was just like those horrible princesses in fairy tales? Like, the princesses that treat everybody below them like slaves?

I decided to try to stay casual. Maybe she wouldn't have such a negative idea of me if I stayed casual. Maybe, she could help us with our plan without even knowing.I hoped my way of staying casual would work. I wish Ava was here, she would know what to do. But, I guess I had to solve my own problems, too. “Oh, hi. I’m Clara Lee. Who are you?”, I said. Would this work?

“Oh, hi, Clara. I’m Mingmei. I, um, am a, um, a s-s-servant.” she said and walked out of some kind of hiding spot. “Do you know where some snacks are? I, um, am kind of hungry and I, um, am a privileged servant, I suppose. I, um um um. C-can you b-bring me to your sister A-ava? Wait, can I b-be f-f-friend-s-s with you, Isabella, and Ava?” This was a weird girl. One minute, she wants to know where the snacks are, the next minute, she wants to see Ava, and the next minute, she wants to be friends with us. Isn’t it weird that she named all the people in our mission or is it just because we were the only girls? Before I could speak, Mingmei spoke again, “I a-am m-my, I mean y-your great uncle Harry’s per-personal servant’s dau-daughter.” 

“Okay. We can all be friends, but can you bring me to Ling Ling? I like to eat snacks too, and I wanted Ling Ling to make me more of The Blue Crescent. I’ll bring you to Ava later and you’ll probably meet Isabella soon. She’s really good at art and wanted to decorate our new empty room!  I decided to stick to eating because I am HORRIBLE at art. Like, really horrible. Isabella told me that she was going to  ask Uncle Harry and a servant to help her.” I said. “Maybe you can help her later.”

 I paused to breathe and think what I should say that wouldn't reveal too much, and then decided to say, “ Isabella would be so happy because she loves company. Don’t mind that she won’t talk. She’s just afraid she’ll kill someone else too. She thinks it’s her fault that her father died when Covid-19 was a big problem. Then, my dad died. I'll tell you the story some other time. Oh, you seem to have Ye Ye’s spirit. He’s my grandpa. You might meet him sometime, but he’s probably in the wood carving room on the fourth floor.” I said.

 I couldn’t believe I was telling Mingmei this, a complete stranger! It was probably because I sensed Ye Ye’s spirit in Mingmei. I didn’t know why, but I felt like I had known Mingmei my whole life. When I was young, my father used to tell me about his other younger brother, who had a daughter who was about Isabella and my age. Maybe that was Mingmei? It couldn’t possibly be, right?  Even the thought that Uncle Harry would treat his grand nephew, niece and great-grand-niece like a servant sent even more chills down my spine. Another thing that confused me was that his younger brother had died. How could he have come back to life? I mean, I know people had come back to life in The Holy Bible, but there was still someone in the tomb. (Ye Ye checks all of the tombs for all of his sons every week.) And besides, wouldn’t Mingei have still lived with just her mother’s side of the family, without us? Maybe she could still visit and everything, but maybe they didn’t want to visit us? Everything was so confusing.

As we walked to wherever Ling Ling was, we chatted. “You know, my grandparents and Uncle’s on my dad’s side had all died when I was a young child, so we moved. We used to live near the medical school that my dad went to school at. You see, my dad was the youngest, so he didn’t finish becoming a surgeon until he was 35. Unfortunately, that was because he had been doing something else because he thought he was supposed to get some other degree. He married Mama when he was 30. I was five when my grandparents and uncles on my dad’s side died. I haven’t seen the bodies before, but my dad’s old friend told us about the funeral. That so happened to be the same year that my dad had finished school.”, Mingmei said, and sighed. 

We walked the rest of the way, silently. That was fine with me because I was confused. How could Mingmei turn out to be my cousin, if her grandpa had died? Also, how could she be my cousin if both of my only uncles had both died? I mean, she could be some long-lost cousin, who had a dead father, but that was unlikely. After all, her mom or dad was my uncle’s head servant. I was confused, but I guessed I’d just stick to the plan and then ask Ava for advice. Okay, let's focus, I thought. 

This was harder than the little mysteries that the moms had made up. They had made up ones for us to do when I was about 9, though they had stopped a year or so ago. I used to really enjoy them. Unlike me, Ava had thought they were too “kiddish” because they weren’t real mysteries. That was probably because she was all into “grownup stuff” and couldn’t be bothered with “kiddish stuff”.

We finally arrived in the exercise room and found Ling Ling working her muscles, using weights. “Hi, Ling Ling! I was wondering if you could make some more of The Blue Crescent dessert. I’m sorry I ask you so often, but I won’t ask you again if you don’t want me to again. Please.” I pleaded. I secretly hoped that she would make it again, but it was more important that my mission, well our mission, would work like a charm. (Obviously, that’s probably not going to happen.) 

“Okay. Don’t worry Clara, you can ask me whenever you want. Well, don’t ask me again in the middle of the night. I mean, come on, really, you probably shouldn’t do that again. I’ll go right away.” Ling Ling said, cheerfully. Yay!! The embarrassing moments were over. Now, only the fun stuff was here. Oh, about the time I asked her in the middle of the night. She was going to let me ask her again. Phew, all of the embarrassing moments of the experience were all over.  

Back at the time when I asked her in the middle of the night, I was really hungry, you see, so I went down the stairs to find something to eat. I, um, asked a sleepy Ling Ling to make some Moon Crescents for me, and she had agreed with a yawn. I had waited and waited and waited, for what seemed like forever. Finally, she had finished! I had munched on it, but while I had been eating, I had promised myself that I wouldn’t ask anyone else to make some food in the middle of the night. 

“I’m going to go to the snack room now, okay?” Mingmei said. I nodded and we parted. Mingmei to the snack room and me to see how Isabella and Ava were doing. I found Ava in her room with the bird in her closet. We talked about what had happened in our part of the plan. Ava had found the bird without meeting a servant or anyone else, so, I guess Isabella’s side of the plan worked. We put the bird in the little attic above Ava’s room. (Each bedroom had its own attic) Ava told me that she had been planning on doing that but she wasn’t tall enough. We locked the door firmly behind us and hoped that the bird wouldn't poop too much or make loud sounds. Or somehow come out. 

“Let’s go to the snack room. I’m starving and you can meet our new friend Mingmei. Mingmei is Uncle Harry’s personal servant’s daughter.” I said. We speed-walked over to the snack room to find Mingmei already in there. Ava, Mingmei, and I started eating some hot potato soup for lunch. Well, actually, we had missed lunch because of all of the poop, so we were eating it all now. Ye Ye and Nai Nai soon arrived with some potato soup of her own. 

As Ye Ye Nai Nai sat down, Nai Nai looked around the room. Nai Nai had always been a curious person and she liked to know everything around her. She locked eyes on Mingmei and Mingmei’s face turned white. What was going on? Nai Nai let out a loud gasp and her hands started shaking. She dropped the soup and it broke into large shards. Ye Ye had his eyes locked on Mingmei too, and Mingmei’s face had turned green. I was surprised that Nai Nai didn’t clean up the soup because Nai Nai was the best house cleaner in the whole state! Instead, she locked eyes with Mingmei again. Nai Nai had never gasped in all of her life. How could she have suddenly gasped. Ava and I almost jumped off of the couch and we almost spilled some of our soup. Well, Ava almost did, but my soup was already empty. Mingmei’s face started to turn red and then purple. Her eyes were fixed on Ye Ye and Nai Nai and her soup was untouched. Finally, to my surprise and horror, Mingmei’s face turned as black as her hair. (I assure you that Mingmei’s hair was very much black.)

Mingmei quietly said that she had to leave and then left. Why did Mingmei leave? Anyways, Ye Ye started eating his soup and Nai Nai came back to her senses. A new figure came in and started walking, but stopped in the middle of his step. Then, Nai Nai fainted, head first. She could have broken her scule, if not for Ye Ye. Ye Ye had somehow caught her just in time and somehow also still had his eyes on the man that had just come in. Ye Ye set her on the couch again and continued not to eat his soup. What was going on? Ye Ye Nai Nia were doing this without a word from either of them, and Ava and I didn’t dare to speak. We had never seen Ye Ye Nai Nia like this!

 “Ba Ba! (Dad) Is it really you? Where is Paul and Danniel?,” the man said, his face brightening. “Or did they both die, like Nabal said.” “Why are you here Derek? Are you really here or are you my imagination.”Ye Ye asked the man. Derek laughed and said, “Of course I am really here, father. Just pinch me.” 

Ye Ye got out of his chair and pinched him. Then, Ye Ye smiled and said, “Nabal told us that you and Xiaohua had died in a car accident. He said the baby, Mingmei at the time, had almost lived, but hadn’t actually. Unfortunately, Danniel died when there was Covid-19. Nabal had told us it was nothing and we had believed him. Paul recently died of cancer. Nabal had told us that it was nothing and we had believed him again. I shouldn’t have believed him. Oh, and you know, Isabella, she doesn’t talk, I mean she won’t talk, I wish she would, but no matter what, she thinks that it is her fault that Danniel died. I wish I hadn’t trusted Nabal. Then, this wouldn’t have happened. I am so sorry.” 

Ava and I realised that we were supposed to leave and leave Ye Ye, Nai Nai, and Derek to their own talk. We went to the bathroom to talk. We thought it would be much more safe because we were pretty sure Uncle Harry didn’t have cameras pointing at people who were in the stalls. We decided to split up. I would go and check on Isabella. Ava would go spy on Ling Ling just in case. She wanted to make sure that Ling Ling was not going to make any phone calls or leave the kitchen. If she did, Ava would continue to follow her. We would use our phones to keep in touch and share each other with the latest news if we had any.

I went over to our room and slipped in. Surprisingly, Isabella wasn’t there. As I was about to leave, I suddenly heard a buzzing sound coming from my phone. I pulled it out, expecting that Ava had found something. Instead, I got a hangouts chat from Isabella, well, it was from Isabella’s phone, but it was from Mingmei. How did Mingmei get Isabella’s phone?

 I started reading it, “Hi Clara! It’s Mingmei. I’ve got news that you’ll probably want. By the way, you know those old people who came in while we were eating? Well, they're my grandparents. Anyways, like you said might happen, my-your Great Uncle Harry chose me to help decorate. It was all going pretty well, until Isabella got offended by Harry and she talked. Does she talk that often? I thought she was silent. I was up in a tree and Isabella started climbing up. I got scared and went up higher up the tree.” Mingmei wrote. She went on to tell me a little more.

I carefully walked outside and looked for the big oak tree with a very low branch. I soon spotted the oak tree and saw Mingmei and Uncle Harry underneath. I walked to the back and climbed up. I saw Isabella and climbed a little higher for the fun of it. Then I did a little show, just to make Isabella a little little bit scared. I mean, I wasn’t trying to be mean, but I do think that a little and harmless prank will be fine. Ha! Ha! Isabella jumped so high that she almost fell out of the tree. Well, I mean, it wasn’t that good. Would if Isabella had fallen out? Opps. Maybe I shouldn’t be so much of a prankster, but then, Isabella does have that tree house that she won’t let me in. Okay, I have made up my mind. I am not going to endanger our plan, BUT I am going to do a few VERY HARMLESS LITTLE planks. To cheer you up and to not get you to call me a prankster, I am going to add a few clues, like laughing. Hmm, maybe that’s too big of a clue. Fine. You can have it your way. I’ll keep that clue. 

When Isabella didn’t figure out ANY of my little pranks, I finally stuck my head out upside down.   “Did you guys succeed? How did you get here without being noticed?”, Isabella said after she had finished thinking about what the most important questions to ask me were. (At least that’s what I think that means. Maybe you can ask Isabella if you really want to know. I filled Isabella in on all of the news but then, someone said, “There’s someone in the tree.” someone said. I immediately recognized the voice as Derek and I warned Isabella, so we would be prepared.

Isabella nodded and then wrote, “I have an idea. Say in the most casual way Hi! I am your niece. You are my long lost Uncle Derek. My name is Clara and she is my cousin Isabella.” I nodded and we climbed down. I was very nervous. Why did Isabella have to be The Silent Girl? I kind of wish I was her right now. Humph, I thought. I fidgeted my way down and hoped for the best. Why can’t I be Ava. Ava was always so calm. I am rarely as calm as her, but I guess everyone is different. 

I repeated what Isabella said to say and then somebody commented that Isabella was already here. Uh oh! What did we do?

Come back later to read more of "That Math Girl" and don't forget to check out the rest of my blog!!!!