Coming Home
© Ak 2007

Chapter 1

As Jessica was pushing a carton into her new apartment, the door of her next-door neighbour opened. A little boy ran out and hid behind her carton.

“STOP RUNNING!!!” A loud voice boomed behind her.

She turned around and saw an angry man with a cane in his hand. Apparently, this man was trying to hit the boy.

“Mister, I’m not sure what is going on here. But if you hit the boy, you could be charged for child abuse.” she said coolly to the man.

The man glared at her and said loudly to her, “Don’t talk to me about laws. I definitely know them better than you do.”

“Come over, Alex!” The man said to the boy. The boy just stood behind the carton without moving an inch. Jessica could see the defiance in his face and caught him making a face at the man. The man looked angrier than before and it seemed as if he was ready to pound at the boy. She instinctively moved towards the boy, wanting to protect him. All this while, she maintained her eye contact with the man, challenging him silently.

Just before she thought he was making a move, a loud sound was heard from his apartment and loud wailing followed. The man turned to rush back to his apartment, but the boy was even faster. The boy had dashed past them.

Jessica thought for a moment and decided to follow them into the apartment since the man had left the door opened in his rush. When she entered the living room, she saw the little boy holding a little girl in his arms. He was rubbing the lower bottom of her head. He kept saying to her, “Hush. Hush. It’s okay, Ashley.” The little girl had stopped wailing and she was just sniffing away. The man just stood there and looked at the two children. His anger was replaced by sadness and helplessness. Jessica could not understand the situation.

Jessica moved towards the children when she noted that the man wasn’t going to do anything. She squatted down next to them and gently moved the girl towards her. She spoke softly to the girl, “I’m Jessica. Is your head feeling painful?” The girl nodded her head and took a loud sniff. “Can you tell me what happened?” Jessica asked the girl gently.

The girl just let out a word, “Pain”. Then, she started crying and kept calling out “Mommy” while she buried her face in Jessica’s bosom.

Jessica looked around for the children’s mother but it appeared that there was no one else in the house. She looked up at the man and said, “Shall we bring her to the hospital for a check-up since she is unable to tell us how she got hurt?”

“Take my car then.” The man said and stepped forward in an attempt to remove the girl from Jessica, but the girl just clung tighter to her.

“It’s okay. I’ll carry her.” Jessica said to him. He just gave her a nod.

As Jessica pulled herself up with the girl in her arms, she noticed the boy was staring at them all this while. The boy moved himself next to her and continued to look at the little girl. When Jessica walked out of the apartment, he just followed next to her. Once they were out of the apartment, he moved forward to press the button for the elevator. No word was heard from him.

Jessica noticed that the man had closed the door of her apartment too when she entered the elevator.

They had travelled in the car to the hospital in absolute silence. The girl had fallen asleep in Jessica’s arms before they reached the hospital. The man finally removed the girl from her arms when they reached the hospital.

The silence continued as they waited for their turn in the consultation area. The little boy sat himself next to Jessica. She took a look at him occasionally and noticed that he was getting dozy. She gently placed her arm behind him and pulled him closer to her. Soon, he was sleeping with his head on her lap.

Jessica looked at the man and the two children. She did not know what to make out of this circumstance. Something was not too right. But she could not put a finger on what was it. Where was their mother? Was this man their father? Why were the children so quiet?

She had dozed off too because the next thing she knew was that the man was nudging her to wake up. The girl was in his other arm. “Is she all right?” She asked immediately.

“Yes, they did a scan and found nothing.” He reassured her.

When he reached out to wake the boy, Jessica stopped him. “It’s okay. I’ll carry him.” She pulled the boy into her arms and got up. She soon regretted it. The boy was much heavier than she had expected but she was not willing to wake him up.

They drove in silence again, back to their apartments. Jessica kept looking out of the car’s window for the whole journey. The thoughts she had at the hospital were coming back to her.

When they finally reached their apartments, the girl was asleep again and this time the man carried her. As they reached their floor, Jessica noticed how expertly the man had balanced the girl on one arm while unlocking their door. He must have done this frequently.

Once inside the apartment, Jessica followed him to one of the bedrooms. She noticed there were two beds in the room. As the man lowered the girl onto one of the beds, she placed the boy onto the other. She watched as he pulled the blankets up on the two kids.

He closed the bedroom door quietly as they stood outside the bedroom. “Thank you.” He muttered to her.

“You’re welcome.” She said to him.

“I’m Jessica Hsuan.” She said and extended her hand to him. He took it lightly and finally introduced himself.

“Louis Koo.”

Louis had helped her moved her remaining boxes from the corridor into her apartment. She was too exhausted from the hospital trip to unpack her things. She just grabbed some clothes and a towel, and had a good shower. Her bed was not ready so she draped a bed sheet over her sofa in the living room and fell asleep there. She was too tired to ponder over her neighbours and their behaviour.

Jessica was woken up by some loud howling. She rubbed the sleep off her eyes and realised that the noise came from outside her apartment. She heard the shouting of a man and a boy. She pulled her dog-tired body up from the sofa. Her neck was hurting from her sleep on the sofa. She dragged herself to wash up in the bathroom.

She was refreshed from her wash-up and she had hoped that the shouting would have ended by now. However, her hope was not fulfilled. In fact, the shouting just got louder. She took a glance at her new wall-clock and it read as 11:30am.

She shook her head and tried to keep out of the squabbling. However, she remembered how fierce the man was at the boy yesterday. What if the boy was beaten up? She thought to herself and decided to take a look.

She stared at the wooden door of her neighbours. She hesitated whether she should be such a busybody. But when she caught the crying sounds of a little girl, she immediately knocked hastily at the door.

Louis opened the door with a powerful swing and he was staring at the interferer. Jessica tried to catch a glimpse of the kids but Louis was basically blocking the whole door. She finally looked up into his stern eyes and asked bravely, “Is everything all right here?”

“NO! IT’S NOT ALL RIGHT!” Alex shouted from inside the house.

“WHY CAN’T YOU KEEP QUIET?” Louis turned around and shouted back at the boy.

Jessica moved slightly into their house. She saw Alex standing on a dining chair, with his arms folded in front of him. Then she spotted Ashley hiding under the dining table and she was crying loudly. She wriggled past the back of Louis to get into the house and she immediately went over to Ashley. She crawled under the table and hugged Ashley close to her. She slowly moved herself and Ashley out from under the table.

Both Louis and Alex were staring at her. Both of them had placed their hands on their hips. She noticed how identical their facial features and body gestures were. It would have been comical if not for the tense situation. With Ashley still in her arms, she asked Alex calmly, “What’s wrong?”

Alex was surprised with Jessica’s question. It was the first time that someone had bothered to ask him what was wrong. Jessica was treating him like an equal. “I wanted my McDonalds breakfast.” He said to Jessica in subdued voice.

“There is no more McDonalds breakfast at this hour! Why can’t you understand?” Louis interrupted in a raised voice before Jessica could respond to Alex’s answer.

Alex was about to shout back at Louis when Jessica quickly asked him, “Which type of McDonalds breakfast do you want?”

“Pancakes” he replied promptly.

“Is it okay if I make them for you instead of you going to McDonalds?” Jessica continued to ask, hoping that Louis would not interrupt them anymore.

“Okay.” Alex responded rather quietly.

“What about you, Ashley? Do you want pancakes too?” Jessica turned and asked the little girl in her arms, who had already stopped crying. She nodded with her tear-streaked face.

“Can I make you some too, Mr Koo?” She turned to ask Louis uneasily.

He had dropped his arms to his sides by now. He was still staring at Jessica; it was no longer with anger but in amazement. “Yes, thank you.” He muttered.

Jessica slowly placed Ashley down and walked into the kitchen. “Do you have any pancake mix, Mr Koo?” She asked once she was in the kitchen.

“No, I don’t.” Louis replied.

Jessica’s brain was spinning for ideas. How was she going get out of this mess? Then she spotted the bread. She opened the fridge and saw some eggs. She popped her head out of the kitchen entrance to catch Alex’s sight and asked him “May I have your help please?”

When Alex walked into the kitchen, Jessica squatted to his level and introduced herself to him, “I’m Jessica. Is your name Alex?” Alex gave a nod.

“I have a little problem here, Alex. There is no pancake mix in the house. But I can still make another type of special pancakes. Would you like that?” She asked him and he gave another nod.

“Will you help me make them then?” She enquired him and he gave her an even more affirmative nod. “Good!” She said in reply and rubbed her hands together.

She took a bowl from the cabinet. She then took a slice of bread from its bag. She placed the bowl firmly over the bread and then lifted it up. She slowly removed the edges of the bread, leaving it as a circle. “Do you think you can help me make circles with the rest of the bread?” She asked Alex again and handed him the bowl. He gladly took the bowl from her and proceeded to make the bread circles.

She gave a little sigh of relief and proceeded to take the eggs out and beat them in a mixing bowl. She then heated the frying pan up over the stove. She went over to take the bread circles from Alex. She coated them with the beaten eggs and placed them onto the frying pans. Soon, there was a plate of golden-yellow bread circles.

She handed the plate to Alex who was still standing in the kitchen, and asked “Can you please serve the pancakes by putting them on the dining table?” He gladly took it from her and marched out of the kitchen.

She opened the fridge and took out the cartons of milk and juice. She noticed that there was no honey or maple syrup so she just scooped some sugar into a small bowl. She then searched the various cabinets and found four matching plates, four matching forks and four matching glasses. She gave the cutlery a rinse. She was about to bring the things out of the kitchen when Louis offered, “Let me help you with some of these.” With that he took the cutlery from her, and she just took the drinks and bowl of sugar. She wondered how long he was standing there.

When she placed the drinks and bowl on the table, she asked politely, “May I join you for breakfast?”

“YES!” the two kids exclaimed delightfully, while Louis muttered a “Please.”

She placed slices of circle breads on their plates and sprinkled some sugar on top of them. The kids happily eat them, while the two adults exchanged an awkward smile and joined them.

It was strange to have French toast at lunch time, stranger that the toast was circle, and strangest that they were happily having lunch with strangers. “Jessie’s pancakes” were borne from this day.