Sep. 27, 1995
The semester was going well so far.
I’d even managed to chip away at Mei’s shell a little bit when I asked for her help with a geometry assignment. She seemed willing to help, eager even, but her shyness was a difficult hurdle to overcome. Mei was hesitant to speak much, as if she had an allotment of words per day and was afraid of using them up. But her obvious fondness for math eventually overcame her reticence, and soon she was explaining the lessons more effectively than Mrs. White ever had, in my opinion, using a piece of graph paper and ruler to draw out neat polygons and write down formulas as she explained. I sensed what might have been jealousy from Laura since she’d always taken it upon herself to help me with math over the last couple years. But this was a nice catalyst to be able to bond with Mei. Not only did what she show me make sense, but I thought she might actually enjoy sharing her knowledge.
At lunch that day, Hannah was telling Laura something I was barely paying attention to, but I noticed Mei was quite interested.
“…my cousin Jessie,” Hannah was saying. “She’s only thirteen! And she ran away from home last week.”
“What happened?” Laura asked. “Is she all right?”
“She is now. The cops picked her up two towns over at a Greyhound station. She was planning on taking a bus down to Miami. Isn’t that crazy?” Hannah shook her head, red curls tumbling around her face.
Laura reached over and patted her friend on the arm. “That’s good she’s safe now. What was she thinking? Was life at home that bad?”
“Last time I talked to Jessie was back in June. She was pretty bummed… She hates her stepfather and said life at home sucks pretty bad. I thought she was just blowing off steam, but then she went and actually ran away like that.”
Their conversation quickly turned back to mundane topics, and I didn’t think anything more of it after that.
***
After classes let out for the day, I stayed in front of the school for a couple minutes to talk to Marty, a kid from my English class. Mei was waiting for me a short distance away. She didn’t like to delay going home, but I think she also preferred company on the walk. I could tell she was growing a bit agitated at the wait, though.
“All right, see you tomorrow, Marty.” I turned to Mei with a smile. “Ready?”
Mei nodded.
Laura was hanging out with Hannah after school, and Mike had to get home right away since he had family in town visiting, so just Mei and I were walking that day. She had actually offered to let me borrow one of her Macross mangas, which shocked me, but I was also touched. I accepted and flipped through it at lunch for a minute. When I tucked it into my backpack, I made sure she saw I was taking good care of it, being careful not to bend any corners. She looked pleased at the care I showed, and I could tell offering it to me in the first place had been difficult for her, for in addition to her extreme shyness, she was normally fastidious about her possessions.
When we made it about a block from school, a car pulled up beside us, an old, beat-up white Camry. A guy in his forties was behind the wheel, scruffy-looking, with a soiled ball cap pulled low over his face.
“Mei,” he called. “Get in.”
Who the hell is this guy? I looked questioningly at Mei, who had her chem textbook cradled against her chest in a defensive posture. She had a backpack but always seemed to be carrying something in her hands, maybe to conceal her habit of fidgeting and flapping her hands sometimes.
“I’m walking her home,” I said, hoping the guy would get the hint and go away.
“Get in,” he said more harshly, ignoring me.
Mei was trembling, so I put a comforting hand on her arm. She flinched but didn’t pull away. I knew she didn’t like to be touched, but I didn’t know how else to reassure her.
“Look, she’s not getting in the car with a stranger,” I said firmly.
The guy looked at me for the first time. “I’m Mei’s uncle, sport. Who the hell are you?” I was getting creepy vibes from the dude and didn’t want Mei to go with him, but if he really was family, I had no business butting in based on a bad feeling.
“I’m a friend.” I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not, but Mei clearly wasn’t comfortable around the guy.
“Go on home, friend,” he said icily. “Mei, I’m not going to tell you again.”
“Is this guy your uncle?” I asked her.
Mei’s eyes sought mine, pleadingly it seemed, and she gave a tiny nod. She took a deep breath then gave another, more decisive nod. She opened the car door and got in the front seat with the shady-looking uncle. He took off before she even got her door shut all the way, the tailpipe farting a puff of blue smoke. The car had Nevada plates. I read off the number and gave it to Tina to remember.
I had a bad feeling about the guy but didn’t know Mei or her family well enough to intervene any more than I had. She had acknowledged him after all, but the episode still didn’t sit well with me, especially since the date of her disappearance was fast approaching.