Huang Mengxi

   Continue from Chapter XIV

    Along the journey, Dr. Brown kept on entertaining mom with his usual charm. The rest of us were silent. The whole time, I was thinking about the spooky nightmare I had the night before.

    There were fewer people at African Park that day than usual. We walked past a few sites clustered with people and picked somewhere between the foot of the hill and the central lagoon under a big, wide swamp tree. Ms. Davis went to buy some orange sodas. As we were setting the picnic up, Dr. Brown said that Harriet and I should walk around the park. The proposition was thoughtful to all parties and was keenly accepted.

    There were more people by the central lagoon than in other places. Some were paddling small boats on the water. A group of young people was playing baseball in the meadow by the woods. Harriet was silent. She nullified my attempts to start a conversation, but I didn’t persist since I was distracted by my nightmare. I didn’t want to mention it to anyone, though, especially Harriet.

    We sat on a bench by the lagoon where there was a light breeze coming from the center of the water and watched the pigeons pecking on the sidewalk or hovering around the tourists.

    “How about we bring the food here and eat by ourselves?” Harriet asked.

    “What about Ms. Davis?”

    “She can join us,” Harriet said. “What do you say?”

    I didn’t like the idea of us eating alone with her at all. I let Harriet make the call.

    When we returned, the picnic was ready, and the three of them were playing cards on the mat. Mom asked us to join them. Harriet told them about her plan. Ms. Davis emptied a smaller lunch box and put some sushi into it. Harriet picked up an orange soda from the basket and some napkins and we left with Ms. Davis.

    Mom had made the sushi, and it was divine. After we finished, Harriet and I walked around the lagoon and Ms. Davis went back to join mom and Dr. Brown. There were now more people in the park and our seat by the lagoon hadn’t been empty for long before someone else took it. The breeze sifted through the branches of the willows and the oval leaves were floating in the air. I saw Dr. Brown walking in our direction. He didn’t seem to notice us, and I didn’t greet him. Harriet saw him as well, but didn’t greet him either. After he walked past, Harriet suddenly grabbed me by the arm and whispered, “Come. We need to get back.”

    “But your dad is going toward the opposite side…”

    “I know,” she said quickly. “That’s why we need to get back now. Immediately.”

    Before I had time to figure out what it was all about, we saw mom and Ms. Davis at a distance.

    “Oh shoot. I can’t believe he’s already done it!” Harriet cried out. “Andrew, your mom is crying. You should go to her.”

    I hurried towards mom. Ms. Davis was by her side. Mom saw me and wiped her eyes. As I came close, she held me into her arms.

    “Oh Andy, I am so sorry. Mom has been silly and made a very big mistake.” I could feel her arms shaking and I knew that she was sobbing. I didn’t know what to do so I turned to Ms. Davis. She shook her head. “She was already like this when I got here. I begged her to tell me why, but the only words she said were ‘I am so stupid, I am so stupid.’”

    I was startled by my own calmness in handling the situation. I left mom to Ms. Davis and found Harriet sitting under another tree with her face in her hands. I sat by her. As she looked up, there were tears all over her face.

    “This… is … all… my fault...” Her voice was trembling. “I was too scared of him to tell you. I am so sorry. God I thought this time would be different… It’s all my fault…”

    I waited quietly to let her finish.

    Then she spoke, with every word squeezed out of her teeth, “If he was once the best parent in the world, now he is a complete jerk.”