Huang Mengxi

    Chapter VI

    Nothing in the world is like the brisk fresh air of a fine Saturday morning. Even without Ms. Davis to wake me up, I was up early. I opened the window to let in the cool air, and a cheerful breeze blew through my room. The neighborhood was still in slumber, despite the merry singing of a mockingbird in a white cedar across the street.

    Ms. Davis was watching TV when I walked into the living room. The kettle was boiling. She turned the TV off and hurried to the kitchen. Mom wasn’t up yet.

    I went to the front door. A black kitten was wandering around an empty milk bottle by the stairs and quickly scuttled away once she saw me. I stood there for a while and breathed in the morning air that had swept over the lawn with the morning dew.

    After breakfast, Ms. Davis went jogging while I wandered around the neighborhood. Usually, I wouldn’t waste a minute on anything else if I had the TV all to myself, but I felt like taking a morning walk more than anything. I went across to the laurel in the yard. The height of the house made a perfect angle so that only a portion of the nascent sunlight was streaming across the yard and the lower part of the tree was still engulfed in dark shade while the upper branches were basked in golden light. Inch by inch, as the sun moved up, the scope of its stretch gradually reached out, brightening up the fair white blossoms, as if inquiring gently about the mystery enclosed in its frail petals. I looked at them, remembering the fairy tales mom and Ms. Davis used to tell me, and as I thought about it, I wondered what kind of fairies would live in an Alexandria laurel.

    Then I decided to sneak around the house to the backyard and see whether mom was awake. There was a slight gap in her lilac curtains. I stood closer to the window on tiptoe, my nose almost touching the glass, and I had a partial view of her printed bed. I didn’t see her at first, so I moved a little until I saw her, sitting at one edge of her bed with her back towards me. Her long, smooth hair fell like a waterfall on her shoulders. Then she stood up and opened her teak wardrobe. I walked away.

    I spent another hour examining the Alexandria laurel. When I returned to the house through the back door, Ms. Davis was cleaning the blue Mini Cooper in the garage. Mom was just about to leave. She saw me come in and walked over to kiss me on the forehead before she quickly turned away, walked out to the front porch and closed the door.

    (To be continued)

Huang Mengxi (黄梦曦) is a senior student at Shenzhen Middle School. She is fond of literature, especially English literature. She became interested in psychology a few years ago and started interacting with children with autism and other mental illnesses.

This serial story is based on the experience she had while volunteering at a local psychological hospital and participating in other charity activities. It tells the story of a teenager with Asperger syndrome who observes the adult world from a special perspective and struggles with the ideals of love and affection.