Please Be My Daughter-in-law

Chapter| 2Jace

  My heart beats in anticipation. Todays the day! I'm gonna tell Hana how I feel about her. Any day my parents are going to arrive to take me back home, and I don't want to let this chance slip by me. It feels like yesterday and at the same time a lifetime ago since we met.

That day when I was feeling at my lowest and all I wanted to do was escape. Somehow I had found myself at the beach. I didn't even notice when the sky darkened and began dropping buckets of water. The only thing that disturbed me from my thoughts was that strange girl.

At first I thought she just wanted to ask me out, like several other girls had done when I first arrived on this island. Much to my embarrassment all she had wanted was the doll I was sitting on. The embarrassment still burns me to this day. What happened next is what changed my life forever.

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  Dropping my head I was already being swallowed once again by negative thoughts. The girl's intrusion, though annoying, was surprisingly a refreshing reprieve. To my surprise she still hasn't left.

She speaks again. "You seem like a visitor, so I'm just gonna let you know. Storms on the island can get pretty bad, so you should head back to your vacation house or whatever, as soon as possible."

Just the thought of going back to that empty place makes me feel sick. "I don't want to..."

"What?"

Why is she so persistent? "I don't want to go back!"

"Okay, so what are you going to do? All the shops are closed, and there aren't any places around here for you to take shelter."

"I'll just stay here, don't concern yourself with me." It's none of her business. I prefer the feeling of the heavy rain and the sound of the crashing waves, over the empty feeling and deafening silence of that villa.

Something drops on my head surprising me once again. Then for the first time I can make out the silhouette of this annoying girl as she grabs my hand and tries to pull me to my feet. I'm so surprised that I ended up standing. She pulls me along behind her across the beach.

"What are you doing?"

She looks back at me, but all I can tell is that she's a good bit shorter than me. "Don't make me an accessory to murder! If you die here, I'm gonna feel guilty for the rest of my life."

That's the craziest thing she's said yet. Actually I think that's the craziest thing I've heard in my life! And for some inexplicable reason, it makes me kind of happy to think that if I died there, there would be someone who would still think about me for the rest of their life.

She gets onto what I assume is her bike, and points to a small bar that sticks out the back of her bike. "Get on."

I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I find myself wanting to go with her. So without complaint I get on the back of the bicycle.

It's only now that I'm sitting on the back of the bike while she struggles to peddle, that I realize just how bad this storm is. The rain pelts heavily against us, but for some reason I don't feel as wet as before. The occasional street lamp does little to illuminate the darkened streets. It's amazing how she seems to know where she's going despite that.

My mind feels foggy, and I'm suddenly feeling very tired. I stare at the back of this strange girl who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Aren't you too old to be playing with dolls?" It's the first thing I've said in our twenty minute ride so far, and I have no idea why I ask that.