Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:07:58 +0800
From: Johnny Kape <johnny.kape@gmail.com>
Subject: The Original Joy, Chapter 8

Before this story:

All rights reserved.

Every word of this story is fiction.  The background of this story is set
to somewhere in Asia, where I come from.  There might be some scenes, some
songs and some social and cultural things that you don't understand.  It is
welcomed to give me a mail asking for anything you don't understand in this
story.  Hope you enjoy it.

Special thanks to my editor, Matthew Templar, and my friend Pok.  They
helped me a lot with my English, gave me many good suggestions, and the
most important, help me decide the title of this story. :-) You can't see
how important this story title is until the last chapter of this story, so
I wish that you all can read on to last. :-)

In this chapter, there are lyrics of some songs.  All the songs in this
chapter are *real* songs published here, so you may not know those songs.
(If you know what songs they are, please do give me a mail!)  I could only
translate their meanings, but wasn't able to make them more beautiful.
I've tried my best, and Matt helped me a lot with this.  Hope you like our
works.

Please feel free to tell me what you think about this story.  I'd be very
appreciated to get your feedbacks.  I'll answer all emails.  Thank you.

--- Johnny Kape <johnny.kape@gmail.com>


The Original Joy -- Chapter 8


When Henry woke up it was already late morning.  He saw that Jay was
standing in front of the window, looking outside in a trance.  Henry didn't
make a sound, just looked at Jay's nude body.

He thought of the night before.  He couldn't believe that such a small boy
could make him lose his control.  However, when he looked at Jay's nude
body, he felt that it was actually not difficult to understand it.
Originally he thought that Jay was created by God to please all females.
At that moment he realized that this small boy was also so attractive to
him.

Suddenly Jay made a deep sigh.

Henry smiled and asked, "Why do you sigh so deeply?"

Jay turned his head around and saw that Henry had already woke up.  He
smiled.

"Morning, Henry."

Jay jumped onto the bed and lay down beside Henry.

Henry hugged him and kissed his cheek.  "So, tell me, why do you sigh so
deeply?"

Jay sighed again, then he said, "If I go back, can I see you again?"

"Have you calmed down now and decided to go back?"

"Can I see you again?"

"I don't know.  I hope you can.  Anyway, I'll join your fan club," Henry
said, smiling.

"I really don't want to go back.  I just want to be with you, like now."

"Me too, but you know that it's impossible."

"I know; that's why I sighed."

Henry hugged Jay tightly, and said softly, "Do you know?  The evening you
sneaked into my van, I saw you on the poster of your concert.  I was really
envious of you.  You have such great talent and conditions to be a super
star.  Even though you are so young, you can touch so many, many people's
hearts.  You can affect so many, many people.  That's your charisma, and
it's what many people who also play music would like to have, but just
don't have it."

Jay listened to Henry silently.  Henry went on.

"Now I know that you have been under so much stress, so much pressure and
in so much pain.  I know that you hope to have someone hug you.  I know
that you hope to lean against someone's shoulder to cry.  But you have to
understand, most people can't see it.  At least before meeting you, I just
envied your successful career but couldn't imagine how much pain you are
in.  However, I still hope that no matter how painful you feel, don't
forget your love of music.  Don't forget the original joy that music brings
to you.  Don't forget that you have such great talent and opportunities to
touch people's hearts.  So, even if I can't meet you anymore, I'll be very
happy to listen to your songs, to see you on TV.  Okay?"

Jay didn't talk.  He just buried his head into Henry's chest.

"Let's have a shower first.  Look, your body is now all covered by my dry
semen."

Jay laughed.  "That's your semen, so I don't want to clean it off."

Henry laughed out.  "If you don't clean it off, I'll be dead if anyone sees
it.  Let's take a shower in turns.  I promised you that I can accompany you
the whole day.  Later I'll take you to a playground, and to another place
in the afternoon."

"What place?"

"I'm off today, so I'll go to a place to play some instruments and sing."

"Oh."

"Want to come with me?"

"Yes."

Henry laughed.  "It's okay if you don't want to play instruments or sing.
But you have to know, I don't have much time to play music so I need to
take advantage of every second."

Jay nodded.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jay wore his cap and glasses and had a brunch with Henry.  Then Henry took
him to an amusement arcade near his apartment.  Jay looked at this place
curiously.

"You haven't been to this kind of place either, right?"

"I've seen similar places from outside, but I've never gone into one."

"Then, let's play now."

Maybe because it was in the morning of a weekday, there were not many
people inside.  Henry took Jay to play each game one by one.  They played
Badger Bash.  Jay took a hammer and hit gophers in a great bustle, and
Henry helped Jay with his hands.  Finally they won many prize tickets.
Then they played air hockey.  After two rounds, Jay finally won the third
round with a beautiful direct goal shot.  Jay exclaimed happily, and Henry
pretended to be annoyed.

Then they played the basketball shooting machine, the virtual bowling game
and car racing games.  Finally they used the prize tickets they won to
exchange for a small teddy bear.

"To you," Henry said when walking out of the arcade with Jay.  "You may
have no more chances to play here.  Keep it."

Jay took the teddy bear and looked at it.  Then he hugged Henry tightly.
"Thank you, Henry.  I haven't been as happy as I am today for a long time."

Henry was startled by Jay's action, but then he smiled, hugged Jay back and
patted him on his shoulder.  "I hope that you can be happy like this teddy
bear everyday.  Are you hungry now?"

Jay shook his head.

"Okay, then let's go to the next destination."

Jay stepped up onto Henry's motorcycle and hugged Henry tightly.  Henry
went back to his apartment to get his guitar, then they went to a pub.

Jay walked into the pub with Henry.  The pub was not open yet; only a few
people were cleaning inside.  They saw Henry and greeted him.

"Is Mr. Hsu here?" asked Henry.

"Yes, in his office.  You can find him there.  Who is this little guy?"
asked a person who looked like a bartender.

"My cousin," answered Henry.  He took Jay towards the office.

"This is the pub where my band used to perform," Henry explained to Jay.
"Mr. Hsu is the boss of this pub.  He is actually a very senior music album
producer.  He made many popular albums behind the scenes.  Do you know
him?"

Jay shook his head.

"He treated us very nice before.  Though we don't sing here anymore now,
when I don't need to work, I usually come here before the pub is open and
borrow their instruments to play.  Mr. Hsu would sometimes give me some
more teaching and comments."

"Oh."

They hadn't arrived at the office yet and saw a middle aged man walking out
from a room.

"Hi, Henry.  Well, who is this little boy?"

"Mr. Hsu," Henry bowed slightly, "He is my cousin.  His parents asked me to
take care of him for a few days, so I brought him here."

Mr. Hsu took a serious look at Jay for a few seconds.

"Won't he be too bored just watching you here?"

"I hope not," said Henry, smiling at Jay.

Jay smiled at Henry too.

"Okay, let's go," said Mr. Hsu.

They went to the stage of the pub.  Henry took out his own guitar from the
bag.

"Did you prepare any song to sing?" asked Mr. Hsu.

Henry nodded.  He started to play a song.  Listening for a few seconds, Jay
knew that Henry was singing "About In Winter".

    At this moment, I have to leave,
    Please wipe away your tears,
    At long night, in future days,
    Please don't cry for me...

Though Jay was used to hearing Henry singing in the KTV, he felt that
Henry's voice was even better when he played his own guitar.  When Henry
finished the song, Jay was about to clap his hands.  However, he heard
Mr. Hsu start to talk.

"Henry, I've told you many, many times."

Jay could hear that Mr. Hsu was talking in a severe manner.

"You can't just sing a lyric song softly.  Before singing, you need to
think about what this song is saying, what this song tries to tell
everyone.  However, you were still just using your voice to sing.  You were
just singing it softly.  You were not singing it from your heart!  Using
this technique, can you sing better than the original singer?  You still
can't understand it, and that's why you can't have any improvement for a
long time!"

Jay heard similar words before.  In his singing classes, the teachers also
told him to "sing from your heart".  Though those teachers were not as
severe as Mr. Hsu, Jay never felt convinced.  He felt that he had already
sung it from his heart, but those teachers were still not satisfied, and
they didn't tell him directly how he "didn't sing from his heart".

"This song is saying that you have no choice but to leave your lover.  You
can not express your sadness, but on the contrary, you have to comfort your
lover.  Do you think that you expressed the constrained and conflicted
feeling?"

Jay felt that Henry had already sung very well.  However, he saw that Henry
just lowered his head and listened to Mr. Hsu's reproof.  Jay felt that
Mr. Hsu was being too hard on Henry.

Mr. Hsu sighed, then he said, "Okay, here is an easier example.  Try this
song, 'It's Destined.'  Think about it: This song is saying that you met a
person for the first time, however you were deeply touched by the person's
purity and naivete.  Have you ever met anyone that touched you so deeply?
If not, make up one!  What kind of person do you think can give you such a
touching feeling?  If you don't make it clear, you won't sing this song
well!"

Henry thought for a while.  Suddenly he looked at Jay.  His fingers plucked
his guitar, and started to read the beginning spoken parts of the song,

    Everytime, when it rains so hard,
    I would think of you, smiling at me,
    Saying, 'Hey!  Glad to see you...'

Jay looked at Henry.  Suddenly he felt that Henry was not only singing;
Henry's eyes were talking to him.  He looked into Henry's eyes, and
listened to Henry singing,

    We meet by chance, We are still unfamiliar
    You told me that, people meet together by fate,
    Just like the breeze, blowing in people's faces,
    So wonderful, so comfortable...

Jay had learned this song, and he liked this song too.  However, at that
moment, listening to Henry singing it, he suddenly felt that he could
totally understand the meaning of this song!  He met Henry by fate, wasn't
it?  It was destiny that made him meet Henry, wasn't it?  He couldn't help
but sing with Henry softly.

    You make me believe that it is all destined,
    As sure as there will be a rainbow after it rains,
    Such heavy rain, we meet like that,
    Your pure naivete touched me deeply.

    There is a child in everyone's heart,
    Who makes it easy to be close to purity and naivete.
    There are billions of people in this world,
    And I miss you the most...

When Henry finished singing, Jay heard Mr. Hsu clap his hands very hard.

"Very good!  Very good!  Henry, I know you can make it!  This is the first
time I heard you singing from your heart!"

Henry still looked at Jay, but then he blushed deeply.  He didn't say
anything.  Jay felt himself blush too.  He had a feeling that, at the
moment, he finally understood what those teachers meant, "To sing from your
heart!"

"Okay, here is another song that should be easy for you.  'Happy By Your
Side'.  Just think of the happiness when you play your guitar and sing!
Just express it!"

Henry nodded.  He thought for a while and started to pluck his guitar
again.  Though it was a fast song, Henry slowed his speed and started to
sing,

    I like to play guitar, I like to hear what my guitar would say,
    Sometimes it would say words of love,
    Sometimes it would take away my worry.
    Take me to the sky, yeah, over the hill,
    Take me to the sky, yeah, it's so happy...

Jay heard the song and thought of his feelings when he had first listened
to it.  He liked to hum some rhythm and made it into a song.  He felt that
this song expressed his happiness about writing songs very well.  In the
middle of the song, Henry sped up and Mr. Hsu started to play keyboard too.

    I wanna be happy by your side,
    I wanna give you all my love,
    I couldn't help myself but sing and dance with you.

    I wanna be happy by your side,
    I couldn't help becoming excited,
    I wanna write a song and play it everyday...

Jay felt that Henry's guitar blended with Mr. Hsu's keyboard very well.  He
felt that he became so excited, just like what the lyrics said.  He
couldn't help but start to dance and walked to Henry, and sang with Henry
together.

    I wanna be happy by your side,
    I wanna give you all my love,
    I couldn't help myself but sing and dance with you.

    I wanna be happy by your side,
    I couldn't help becoming so excited,
    I wanna write a song and play it everyday...

When Henry and Mr. Hsu ended their playing, Jay gave Henry a high-five.
Mr. Hsu started to clap his hands again.

"Good, good!  You started to understand how to sing, Henry!"

Henry and Jay smiled at each other.

Next they sang "Waiting for you" and "Happy time".  Jay felt more and more
happy and excited.  Mr. Hsu also kept praising Henry.

After singing "Tomorrow", Mr. Hsu said, "Good, Henry.  You have made a big
improvement today.  Now you've started to understand how to sing.  Let me
give you one more bit of advice: There will be many difficulties, many
frustrations along the road of playing music.  You need to sacrifice many,
many things.  However, never, never forget the original joy that music
brought to you!"

Though Mr. Hsu was talking to Henry, Jay felt that Mr. Hsu was talking to
him too.  He started to think about it.

"Okay, let's have a rest," said Mr. Hsu.  "Ben!" he called.

The bartender came.

"Get something for the boy to drink.  He just sang a lot very happily."

Ben nodded and smiled, and beckoned to Jay.  Jay looked at Henry.  Henry
nodded.  Jay walked to the bar with Ben.

"Henry, come with me," said Mr. Hsu.

Henry looked at Jay, then he walked with Mr. Hsu with an uneasy feeling.

They walked into Mr. Hsu's office silently.  Mr. Hsu poured two cups of tea
and sat in his own chair.  Henry sat in another chair too.

"Okay, Henry, now tell me," said Mr. Hsu.  "When did Jay Feng become your
cousin?"