Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 09:38:38 -0800 (PST)
From: Stephen Aramburu <aramflag@yahoo.com>
Subject: Power of Love Part 5

Same-old, same old.  The usual disclaimer about being underaged applies.
This is the fifth section to my story.  I correct something I said earlier.
This story is based on actual people and the secret love they share, but
starting from section 5, a lot of the events in the story will diverge
farther and farther from the truths of their lives until it eventually
becomes 100% bullshit fiction.  The location of the story has been changed,
as well, something I didn't mention earlier. (Sorry) Any comments, email
me, Stephen Aramburu, at aramflag@yahoo.com.

The next two or three chapters will be a little bit different from what
you've read so far.  It goes into in-depth detail of the characters' lives.
Wang Zequin will be stepping down as narrator for an indefinite amount of
time.  Enjoy.


	The sky dumped torrents and torrents rain onto the earth beneath it
and 8-year-old Wong Yecheng stared blankly out of the hospital window as he
recalled the shocking events of that day and the day before.  There he was,
alone in the waiting room.  There wasn't anything to see outside the
window...just the sight of summer showers drenching the beautiful town of
Bradenton, Florida.  Yecheng stared straight in the direction of the
Bollittierri Academy of Tennis, where he had been going through his usual
routine just hours earlier.  He couldn't see it, though. He wasn't staring
at the rain...he was zoning out into his own world.  He refused to believe
what was happening...his mind didn't want to accept the reality that was
unfolding before his eyes.  He will never forget what happened that
night...
	It was really late at night...almost midnight.  Yecheng stared into
his bedroom ceiling, unable to fall asleep.  He could hear his mother
coughing violently in the room next to his.  He tried to repeat his
father's words in his head in order to reassure himself that his mom was
going to be alright.
	"No problem, your mother just has a little cough.  She'll be fine
in a couple of weeks."  Again.  "No problem, your mother just has a little
cough.  She'll be fine in a couple of weeks."  Again.  "No problem, your
mother just has a little cough.  She'll be fine in a couple of weeks."  But
deep down, Yecheng knew otherwise.  His mom didn't just have "a little
cough."  Over the course of the last few weeks, his mom coughed so
violently that she would often vomit blood and pass out.  Her condition
fluctuated violently.  She would stay at the hospital for weeks at a time,
then come back seemingly fully recovered and put on medication to stabilize
her condition.  Few days later, she would, once again, start coughing, a
little bit at first, before she went back to vomiting blood.  Doctors
couldn't clearly diagnose her problem.
	Yecheng hadn't been allowed to see his mother for the past three
months.  At first, he wasn't sure why.  But when he did catch a glimpse of
her, two weeks earlier, he nearly fainted.  In a wheelchair, she sat, pale
and extremely skinny...a shell...no...a corpse of the bubbly woman who used
to make him dinner and kiss him good night every night...the mother who
would often tell her how proud she would be when she was an old lady and
saw the many trophies Yecheng would win as a professional tennis
player...the woman who would often fantasize with Yecheng about what a
great grandmother she would be to Yecheng's future children.
	Now, his mother was back home from the hospital with his father in
the next room, but his father wouldn't let him see her.
	But what his father didn't know was that there were cracks in the
back of Yecheng's closet, through which Yecheng could look into his
parents' bedroom without being noticed.  Through these cracks, Yecheng has
seen many things.  One time, he saw his dad in bed with a woman...while his
mom was in the hospital, suffering a living hell.  Yecheng knew that he
needed to see his mother...but he was too horrified to see what she had
become.  Doctors said that her condition improved dramatically so he should
just take their word for it.
	"No!" Yecheng thought.  "I have to see for myself!  I have to make
sure!  Dad can't see me so I can't get in trouble!"
	Having said that, Yecheng bounced off his bed and crept into the
closet.  It took him a while to navigate through his clothes into the very
back.  But before long, he was there.  He peeked through the cracks
connecting to his parents' bedroom.  It took a while for his eyes to adjust
to the bright lights that shone into the cracks.  Before long, though, he
could see the events of the entire room.  There was his mom...lying in bed,
asleep.  A smile cracked itself onto Yecheng's face.  She looked much
fatter and much healthier than she did the last time he saw her.
	"Guess the doctor was right," he whispered to himself.  "Guess
there is nothing to worry about."  Yecheng looked closely into his mother's
face.  She was smiling...her face plump and bubbly.  She slept like an
angel...without a care in the world...just relaxing atop the nice, comfy
bed.  Then, there was his dad, lying peacefully by her side.
	At that moment, the clock went from 12:59 to 1:00 A.M.  Yecheng's
dad got out of bed and opened the cabinet, directly above the invisible
cracks.  He took out a glass of water and some pills.  Yecheng recognized
the pills...they were the medicine that the doctors prescribed to his
mother.  Then, his dad did something that surprised him.  He took out a
green box and poured the green powder into the glass of water and blended
it in.  Before long, the water became crystal clear...as though nothing had
been added into it at all.  Yecheng squinted his eyes to see what the small
text on the box said...
	"Retro...no...Rap...no...Rat Poison!?"  He couldn't believe it.
Why would his dad put rat poison in the water...that his mom was going to
drink!?  At that moment, everything became clear to Yecheng.  All the
events of the last few months came together into an obvious reality that he
was too blind to realize...all the coughing and the vomited blood...and the
months spent at the hospital and his dad not allowing him to see his mom.
This wasn't some unidentified illness that his mom caught!  It was his dad!
His dad had been poisoning his mom!  His dad had been killing her!  But
why?  That was the only part he couldn't figure out.
	After a while, Yecheng saw that his dad had turned to his mom.
	"Honey," he said tenderly.  "It's time to take your medicine!"
		"Oh...what time is it?" his mom said...creeping out of a
peaceful slumber.
	"Baby, you know what the doctor said...we have to get you healthy
again," responded his father...in the most convincing tone.  God!  Why
hadn't he ever won any Oscars?  So shameless and so believable was
Yecheng's father...as if he actually cared.
	"Alright..." said his mom...convinced.
      Tears flooded Yecheng's eyes.  He couldn't believe what he was
witnessing!  He was actually going to do it!  He was actually going to kill
her!
      "Bitch!" he whispered.  "What did mom ever do to you!?"  Yecheng knew
what he had to do.  He had to get his ass out of the closet and barge into
his parents' room and tell his mom the truth...tell his mom what a sadistic
piece of shit her "husband" really was.  But he was too petrified...not by
fear, but by utter shock.
      "Mom...don't drink it," he begged softly.  "Please...don't drink it!
Please!"  Too late.  His mom swallowed the pill and drank the water.  Then,
she started coughing violently and vomiting, while his father just stood
there watching.  Yecheng couldn't take any more.  He bolted out of the
closet, sobbing.  His dad called the hospital hours later.
      In the waiting room Yecheng stood as the doctors desperately tried to
save his mom's life.  Yecheng looked out the window.  The rain was pouring
itself onto the ground.  He chuckled bitterly.
      "I'm such a pathetic coward," he thought, laughing at himself.  "I
didn't even have the guts to save my own mom!"
      Sadly, the doctors were unable to rescue his mother from the brink of
death, this time, despite hours of trying.  She was pronounced officially
dead at 9:00 A.M. the very next day.
      At the funeral, Yecheng stood by his mother's grave.  He didn't
cry...he was too angry and too sad to cry.  He looked over to his left.
Amidst the many mourners stood his father...his arms squeezed tightly
around another woman.  That was something that Yecheng was never going to
forget...how his dad just slaughtered his mother right in front of his
eyes.



      I know...a bit of a dark, depressing chapter.  I'm having sort of a
writer's block right now.  I want to write one or two chapters dedicated to
Wang Tiangang and his past love, but I couldn't think of anything at the
moment.  If any of you have any ideas, please email it to me at
aramflag@yahoo.com.  Thanks a lot.