The Silent Girl (Chapter 16)
Written by An Makes and Mei Makes.
*Disclaimer*: This is a work of fiction. Some events may be based on real life, but some events are made up.
Two hours later of impatient waiting. Finally, I had gone to see my uncle Harry. “So, can you help me decorate me and Clara’s room, Uncle Harry?” (I texted and I gestured for him to pull out his phone.)I did my cute eyes, which, weirdly enough, always seemed to make grownups say, “Aww, so cute.” Well, anyways, that’s what my mom says when I show her my cute eyes and Ye Ye let me do the thing most of the time. Unfortunately, this didn’t work with any kids, especially Clara. When I did that once to Clara, she just laughed, and said, “You look so funny!” and I never did it again. Clara did laugh a lot for no particular reason. Thankfully, Clara usually listened to reason, unless she was really angry at you. (Happened a couple times. Even though we are great friends, we do have a disagreement every now and then. Ava says that people living under the same roof every day and every night, have a fight every week at least or so.)
“Sure,” Uncle Harry said, startling me out of my thoughts. “Oh, and can a maid, or someone like that help us,” I texted again, “The maids know a lot about decorating, they practically decorated this whole house!” Uncle Harry smiled, and said, “Of course, one of the maids can help you, I happen to have a maid with me in this room right now, who can help us out!” Then he said something in Chinese that I couldn’t really understand. He seemed to be a lot like a mix of Ye Ye and Nai Nai. Ye Ye only spoke in English and Nai Nai only spoke in Chinese. Sounded something like, “Bla bla bla, Isabella needs our bla, come out, don’t be bla bla bla.” So far, Ava’s plan was working. Maybe I should learn more Chinese after all. That could help me understand what Uncle Harry said or maybe I should just hire Ava to translate, or maybe I should ask Ava if she would offer her services for free. But, if she doesn’t give her services, I can pay her through collecting things to sample! Like, maybe she could observe the patterns in an interesting pinecone I collected, or even an odd-colored rock would be payment enough!
A girl poked her head out of the giant closet. She looked about my age, but maybe she was just short, and looked young. She had long hair, made up of dozens of locks of soft curls. Her hair was the color of a creamy chocolate, and her eyes raven-black. She looked at me and Uncle Harry, and said, “Hi, I’m Mingmei. I can help you, I think.” She said this all very quickly, in a nervous voice, and I could barely hear her, her voice was below a whisper.
“This is Mingmei, and she is the daughter of my personal servant, Chen,” uncle Harry told me. “Okay.” I took a glance at the Mingmei girl, not sure how to approach her. She was my age, and she was a maid, while I was a guest to her service. Well, I didn’t know how to put it. Come on, don’t keep on getting distracted from your mission, I thought. We’re still in this room. I quickly texted, “Let’s go, We have a ton of decorating to do.”
“Uh, where in the world are we going?” I quickly texted. Uncle Harry when we had headed out into the hall. For some reason, we were walking the opposite way to me and Clara’s room. “Oh, were going to the furniture and decor storage dome,” Uncle Harry answered. “It’s where we put all the furniture and decorating supplies for the house. After all, you do need to change the decorations and furniture every season, no?” “You don’t need to change it every season, oddball uncle Harry,” I wanted to text. But I only said it in my head, as not to be rude. What I really wrote was, “Yeah.. right.”
We finally reached the Furniture and Decor room, and uncle Harry grabbed a key from thin air, (another thing I needed to research about) and opened the door. We all walked through the narrow doorway, one at a time, and I noted that Mingmei walked in last. She sure was shy! I looked around the dome-shaped room. All the walls were piled from bottom to top with furniture of some kind, and the furniture was draped with decorations. However, the center of the room left a clear walkway to ladders, also of an assortment. I guessed the ladders were for reaching the higher furniture.
Uncle Harry looked at me and said, “Well? Choose your favorites!” I looked around. “Are you going to help me choose?” I texted him. “Well, I can show you the “girly” section, If you’d like.” “Okay,” I texted. We walked silently to the ‘girly’ section, whatever that was about. Uncle Harry opened the door, and we walked in.
Everything was pink. EVERYTHING. The walls were pink, the food was pink, (what was food doing here?!) even uncle Harry had turned pink! I looked down at myself, and to my surprise and horror, I had turned pink too! “I don’t want anything from this room, please,” I texted uncle Harry in bold letters. “Let’s check out the other stuff too.” We exited the pink room, and uncle Harry turned to his normal colors again, but I was still pink! It’s not fair, I thought. “Uh, how come you're not pink anymore, but I am?” I texted. “Well, that’s probably because you are in a pink mood.” he answered. Huh? What did that mean. Half the time Uncle Harry talked, I didn’t get what he meant.
“It means that you are in a girl mood.” “Boys and girls don’t have different moods. Just cause I’m a girl, what if I enter the boy room, and I turn green! Does that mean I’m a boy!?” I said in my most annoyed voice. Sometimes, I got so frustrated that the frustrated side of me forced the scared side of me to tell my mouth to talk. “After all,” the frustrated side of me said to the scared side of me,”You did read a book about a silent girl who talked more than you do.”But that silent girl didn’t kill anyone.” the scared side of me retorted. ”Oh, you TALKED! YOU TALKED! Get the reporter, the silent girl talked!” Uncle Harry said excitedly, as if I was a baby panda that had said a letter. Oops. I ran out the room, through the narrow doorway, and into Clara’s and my room. Then I jumped out the window.
Aah… How I had longed to feel the hot sun beating against my face, how I had longed to smell the fresh air mixed with the lingering scent of cherry blossoms, how I had longed to feel so free! I was finally out, but I didn’t have enough time to enjoy it. I started sprinting, actually wanting uncle Harry to chase me, to draw attention away from Ava. I then thought of Mingmei but I decided to just hope for the best. I scrambled up the nearest tree, and I climbed pretty high, but not too high for Uncle Harry to see me. What was I going to do? I didn’t want this random reporter to interview me, what if that caused the death of somebody who fainted when they saw that? And besides, it would be a lot of tension to be on world-wide broadcasting news! I sighed, remembering the bird, and I decided that both of us would win. Somehow.
I was climbing higher and higher, when I suddenly heard a voice from above. “What are you doing here?” a voice asked. I recognised the hurried voice as Mingmei. I quickly climbed higher so I could communicate with her. When I got as high as her, I felt for my phone, but it wasn’t there anymore. Opps, I thought. I had forgotten to bring it in all of the excitement. I glanced down the tree and heard uncle Harry say, “Come down Isabella. I have your phone.” I knew this was a trick to make me come down, but it was hard to resist. I was starting to consider when I heard Mingmei say, “We look kind of similar, so if I go down there and get your phone, I can toss it up to you, so that you can have it.” I looked at Mingmei, unsure if I should trust her or not.
Should I risk it? Was this a good idea? Why had Mingmei even wandered up this tree? I didn’t know. Finally, I turned to her and nodded, although I still wasn’t sure. She asked me if she should talk, because she had seen that I usually didn’t talk. I shook my head, no. She started clambering down the tree, quick as a monkey. Wow, I thought. She’s even better than me. I noted to ask her how she climbed so fast, if I could trust her.
A few minutes later, I saw my phone pop up, over my head, above the tree, and to the other side of me. I watched it fall, and, because I wasn’t very good at catching things, I held out my hands. To my relief, the phone fell right into my hands. I shoved it into my pocket, because I didn’t actually need it right now. I made a mental note to thank Mingmei. She was a lot nicer than I expected! Thinking about Mingmei, she was probably in a lot of stress right now… I should probably go help her.
I scrambled down a little bit, but this time I kept myself hidden. I was liking this Uncle Harry guy less and less, and I was still pink! Then I thought That Mingmei wasn’t pink, and I wondered how she had gotten to convince Uncle Harry. Mingmei reminded me of somebody… somebody who wasn’t just somebody… She reminded me of Ava, with her smart plans, and quick antics. The main difference between Ava and Mingmei was that Mingmei didn’t wear airpods! She also reminded me of someone else… that’s it! Malachi! She has the graceful throw of Malachi! And the skill of climbing! That is kind of like how I climb. Also, she was outside, so maybe she gets the pull of outdoors like Hayden. Also, she probably likes bugs and eats snacks like Clara, to. I know this because she was nervously eating some snacks when I first met her. Also, when we were out of the ‘girly’ room, I had seen her telling herself weird jokes. Probably got that from Austin!
I started climbing down the tree again, and I finally got myself to a hidden part of the tree, that was low enough to see what was happening. I saw Mingmei writing on a sketchpad. I guess she never comes unprepared, like Hayden! (Well, Hayden only prepares things for his pranks, but still!) I saw the reporter's mouth move. I cupped my hand around my air, so that I could hear what she was saying better. “Would you please talk, Silent Girl?” The reporter said, annoyed. I smiled, enjoying the fact that this reporter was unhappy. Mingmei wrote something on the sketchpad. I leaned forward, to see what she was writing, careful not to make a single sound. I think she wrote, “What if that causes your death?” but I’m not sure. I was kind of creeped out, though, because it seemed like she knew a lot about me.
“Hey Isabella,” I heard someone whisper. I jumped so high that I almost fell out of the tree! Luckily, there were a few branches below me, so I managed to get a hold of the branch below me, before I crashed into the other branches. I pulled myself onto that branch, and climbed onto the hidden branch. Luckily, Uncle Harry and the reporter were too busy trying to force some words out of Mingmei that they didn’t notice.
Who was that?, I thought. I shivered. Was uncle Harry’s servants trying to take me away? I then heard the voice start laughing and scampering down a little. I recognized it but my thoughts were too jumbled to remember who it was. Then I saw some black hair sticking out and a head sticking out, upside down.
The voice said again,” Hey, Isabella,”. This time it was closer, but whose hair was that long that it went all the way down to me? A head suddenly poked out. It was Clara! I recognized the laugh because Clara was always laughing. Finally, she probably poked her head upside down because we share a bunk bed at home and she is on the top. When we were little she used to always do that and thought it was great fun. I thought it was fun to.
"Did you guys succeed? How did you get here without being noticed?" I texted.
Clara quietly said, ”Oh, my part of the plan worked easily, and Ava and I met at her room later. She also had the bird with her, so we were pretty excellent. As to your second question, he was too busy talking to Mingmei. I am so glad to know that Mingmei was Harry’s personal servant’s daughter. Just if you're wondering, I am 99% sure that she can be trusted. I will tell you why later but I have some super super important news to tell you. Ava was the one that figured it out. When Nai Nai saw Mingmei she actually gasped. Can you believe it? Nai Nai gasped.” . There is also something else. You know Mingmei’s dad? The personal servant? Well, when he came in, Nai Nai fainted and Ye Ye said, “Why are you here Derek?” Are you really even here or are you my imagination?” So weird right?” Clara asked.
"Why would she gasp? That’s weird. Anyway, Mingmei is quite the actor! Reminds me of cousin Ellie!” I texted. “Mingmei must have secrets that she knows but we don’t?” I typed into the hangout chat.
“Hey, there’s someone in the tree!” Someone said. “Oh no, it's Mingmei’s dad,” Clara whispered to me.
“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 wrote.
Clara nervously said, Hi! I am your niece. You are my long lost Uncle Derek. My name is Clara and she is my cousin Isabella.” I helped her hop down the tree, and then I climbed down myself, smiling nervously, and chuckling a bit. “But Isabella is right here.” a new voice said.
Clara turned and started fidgeting with her clothes. Uh Oh. What should I say. When Clara fidgeted, that was her signal that I should try doing something. Everybody was there now and I was starting to get angry.
Fortunately, Mingmei spoke, “Sorry. We ah… did something that we shouldn’t have done. Actually, I did something that I shouldn’t have done. I wanted a sweet treat, so I snuck out, but then I heard Great Uncle Harry coming, and I scampered up this tree. For some reason Isabella came running up the tree, so I climbed higher, because I didn’t know what she was doing, and I was kind of scared.” Mingmei shot a quick glance at me, and said, “Sorry, Isabella. It was a coward of me to get scared of you. But, as soon as I was higher, I felt safer, so I asked you what you were doing here. You climbed higher for some reason. I think you wanted to talk to me better, and Uncle Harry said that he took her phone.”
She shot an icy glare at Uncle Harry. “Why did you do that? It was really mean, why did you want to lure her down? Well, to get Isabella to do the interview, obviously, but why?”
Uncle Harry, looking like a mischievous little boy that had been caught in the act, and was being grounded for eternity. He whimpered. “I’m sorry, but an interview is just what I need to be able to pay my taxes!”
Huh? Why was Uncle Harry talking about taxes? Wasn’t he rich to be able to afford such glamorous and splendid things? This was all too confusing. Enough! I screamed inside my head. I was getting a headache, I wanted to just be alone to sort out my thoughts, to understand the mess I was in. I broke into a sprint, to get away, and so suddenly that Clara said, “Huh? Where did Isabella go? I was about to give her an orange snack, to calm her down!”
Comments
Post a Comment