Canon Chapter 21 - Laughter in the Rain

Chapter 21 - Laughter in the Rain

“My pleasure!” With his free arm, he reached behind to close the door and locked it as Quin willingly allowed him to taste the sweet strawberry flavor lip gloss on her lips as the background music grew louder and louder. Nobody does it better …

That was for sure, Quin thought. Nobody, not even her husband! If only! Quin sighed when reality hit. Oh, but make no mistakes, Fei looked just as handsome, slick, and cool as James Bond, especially with his Trilby-style hat and the sunglasses. Well, that was how it began, because Fei always looked very cool to Quin. So she was able to play along with her husband until he answered her first question, which brought her back to reality with a thud.

“Is that really you? You finally came!” Quin noticed Fei caught on to how she was posing as one of those seducing female characters from James Bond’s movie encouraged by the song that was playing from her radio. “The spy who loves me?”

Fei played along and did his best to give his own rendition of James Bond. “Yes, it’s me! Fei, Tsui Fei.” Then he took off his hat and put it on his wife’s head, but it ended up dropping to the floor.

Quin could not help but laugh at his attempted rendition of 007, as well as his clumsiness, but she thought he should have kept to the character’s name instead. It was so like Fei to goof up and Quin could tell her husband no longer felt cool anymore.

“Sounds more like Tsui Hai!” (除鞋差唔多-take off your shoes) She stepped aside from the entrance to let him in. He picked up his bags and entered his weekend home in Baltimore for the very first time. They hadn’t seen each other for 10 days. As soon as the door closed, they fell into each other’s arms and Quin thought perhaps she was able to fast forward her fantasy to where it ended before reality set in.

After their initial passionate kiss, Fei whispered into her ear. “There’s something I need to do desparately. I practically died on my way here.”

Quin only had to take one glance of his face to know what he needed to do. She gave him a devious smirk and flicked her index finger on the tip of his nose. She pointed him to the open door at the end of the hall. “It’s a good thing I have two bathrooms, there is a smaller one in the en-suite if ever you have an emergency!”

“How did you know?” With a breath of relief, he entered the bathroom.

“Well, I remembered there was that time you said you almost died holding your pee for more than 18 hours.” Quin sat by the dining table and continued to chat with Fei. “I guest this time wasn’t so bad, you only had to fight traffic for three hours to get here.”

“This time is worst. I had to hold it in for both!” Fei told his wife from the bathroom.

Quin jolted up like a speeding bullet, dashed forward to turn on the bathroom ventilating fan and then shutting the door immediately. “Ewww….Yuck!”

She could hear Fei’s bouts of laughter coming from the bathroom, he was also making loud intentional sounds to let her know how relief he was feeling. “You’re such a dog! This is your first time here! Is this your way of marking your territory? Bringing your pee and POO here?” Quin had to spell out the latter as she found it too grotesque to alliterate.

“Hey, it’s an honor to you!” Fei called from the bathroom.

“How’s it an honor for me?” Quin couldn’t believe they were actually having this conversation. She was beginning to wonder if this was a normal topic of conversation for married couples. Fei didn’t seem to mind at all.

“Well, for starter, it is attracted to you only. When you are around, it seems to come naturally.” Fei continued to explain. “Just like all the shit I was holding inside me in my past, I could only open up to you.”

Quin thought about his analogy. “So are you saying you were a piece of shit back then?”

“I was just full of it back then! And you were the dumping ground!” Fei laughter grew contagiously louder, even Quin was laughing.

“Well, just remember to flush it to the sea. I don’t want to see, smell or hear of it please!” Quin reminded Fei. Then she proceeded to pick up his bags that were still sitting by the entrance way. “I’m bringing your bags to the bedroom! You can shower first if you want.”

Fei came into the bedroom as she was hovering over the side of her bed folding some of his crumbled clothes she took out from his bag. He hugged her from the back and decided to test out the bed with her. Knowing there was a good chance their playful pushes and shoves would lead them to physical union, she put her hand against his mouth when Fei was about to deepen his kiss. “Mmmn….. Go take a shower! I’m hungry for dinner!”

“Ouch!” Fei pretended to be hurt. “You rather have dinner than me?”

Quin comforted him with a quick peck on his lips. “I’ll have you for dessert!”

Satisfied with the prospect, Fei got out of bed to go to the shower. When he noticed a box for an inflatable twin size air mattress, he was curious. “What’s this?”

“That’s your bed. As you can see, I only have a twin size bed.”

“That’s all we need!” Fei hinted by flashing his eyebrows. “With me on top, it’s like one person!”

Quin caught his grin and started blushing. Moments later, from the bathroom, her husband serenaded her again with one of the songs he sang for the proposal. Life was sweet and colorful once again. She couldn’t ask for a better way to being their lives as husband and wife.

Quin was in the kitchen warming up the first meal she had prepared for Fei as his wife before his 007 rendition arrival. When Fei came out from the bedroom after he was done with the shower, he saw a Mah Jong like table in the middle of the living room. On the table were two Chinese bowls, two pairs of chopsticks and two Chinese spoons. Oddly enough, there were also two tall crystal wine glasses with a bottle of champagne. Amused, he called out to Quin.

“Is our dinner theme supposed to be East meets West?”

She appeared from the kitchen with a dish in each hand. “Ha ha, very funny! Can you please help me bring out the pot that’s on the stove?”

“What are we having?”

“Your favorite!”

Excitedly, Fei entered the kitchen and lifted the lid to the pot that was supposed to hold his favorite food. “Plain Congee?! You made me come all the way here for plain congee?”

Suddenly Quin appeared next to him. “Are you saying you don’t want to eat it?”

Fei was startled. He didn’t know how to respond until he looked into his wife’s dancing eyes and quickly apologized for what he just said. “Oh no, my darling wife, I will never say no to your food. I will eat whatever you cook, even if you just cook two bottles of mineral water.”

He put his arms around her and led her out of the kitchen and sat her down at the so-called MJ style dining table.

And so their journey as a family began in this little somewhat ‘Charlie Brown’ kind of apartment. Though his weekend home was nothing like the one they left behind in Hong Kong, he liked it because it was warm and cozy, and because Quin was here with him.

Fei played the CD he created for her as they enjoyed dinner and sipped champagne. Though he teased her about the plain congee, he was glad to taste Chinese food after not having any for nearly two weeks. After dinner they watched a movie and had their dessert. Then the weekend approached and Quin took Fei to explore John Hopkins campus and the places she was familiar with. Then Fei took Quin to discover many parts of Baltimore. Though it was raining, it was a very happy weekend. They were a happy couple, walking hand in hand, laughing in the rain with the one they loved.

As the FBI training progressed through the rest of the month, the members of Section 7, which Fei belonged to, had bonded well and camaraderie was felt among everyone. Fei was the youngest, and the rest were on average 41 or older and were mostly married men with children. They all knew Fei had just gotten married and so they often offered him sounding advice which he took in stride. Quin had been extended the invitation to join them whenever they had outings in Washington DC and she had accepted most of them. Fei was very happy and proud to have his wife with him because she was easy going and she had a way of making everyone comfortable around her.

The end of the 6th week training approached and the 203rd Session of the FBI NA was on their way to enjoy a big weekend in the Big Apple also known as New York City for a program sponsored by NYPD. It was to be a whirlwind weekend, and the program was a combination of training, sightseeing and fun for everyone.

It was Fei’s first time in the city and there was no word to describe how he felt about the size and intensity of being there. It had to be experienced. He was beyond grateful for this opportunity. He bought some souvenirs for his superiors, Chi Shan and Yau Sir. When he came upon the Central Post Office, he picked up a big box of chocolates for his team at Central Station and mailed it back right away.

When he came to The New York City Ballet, he thought about Chin Chin. Reading about the founders of the NYCB, Fei remembered the times when she told him how she had always wanted to be trained under the world greatest ballet masters. This was one place she had dreamt about coming. Being in the hall, Fei wished she could be here to realize her dreams. Then something from the gift shop caught his eyes. It was a figurine of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker.

Quin took this opportunity to tag along so she could visit Megan who lived in New York. When Fei and Megan for met formally for the first time, he remembered right away that she was the friend Quin was with when they ran into each other at the theatre in Hong Kong almost a year ago. She was also the friend whom Quin stayed with during Christmas last year. Today, while Fei was in training at the NYPD, Quin and Megan decided to have coffee at the famous Café Lalo, the one in ‘You’ve Got Mail’. Quin had mentioned to Megan being here was an item on her bucket list. So since Quin didn’t get a chance to come here last Christmas, Megan decided they should meet here today.

“I’m so happy for you!” Megan made a toast to Quin with the coffee cup in her hand. “So how is married life going?”

“So far so good!” Quin smiled sweetly and sipped her coffee.

As they were chitchatting away, two men in black suits approached and stopped right in front of their table. One of the men took off his dark sunglasses and flashed his badge at Quin. “Hi Mrs. Tsui?”

Quin looked up and nodded.

“We are from the Federal Bureau Investigation. There’s been an emergency regarding your husband and we need you to come with us immediately!”

Quin dropped her coffee cup at the sudden news.

Ending Song - Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sedaka

Chapter 22