The whole group didn’t fit in the home’s van, so some of us elected to walk back to the home after the prison visit. A kilometer or so into the walk, the van pulled back around and stopped right next to me. “Jayna, you have to come back to the office and take care of something,” said the home’s supervisor. As there’s very little we volunteers “have” to do, I immediately got a bit apprehensive. “There’s three men at the office who need to speak with you,” he told me as I closed the passenger door.
“Maybe they’re your friends? They pulled up in a white truck,” he said, trying to give me more clues. Now I was starting to get really confused. I didn’t know anyone else in the town other than the people who work at the home/office. The only other people I’d talked to were the cashiers at the grocery store. Who in the heck could be waiting for me?
When we stopped in front of the office, there was the aforementioned white truck. And three Chinese guys standing on the porch. “Nee how,” one said. Although I know he was saying “hello,” in Chinese, I still responded in English. No need to get the guy confused with my ability to speak the language. He still started speaking to me in Chinese. I responded in English that I didn’t understand.
“But you are from China…”
“No, I’m from the US.”
Blank stare. Confused look. “Where?”
“I’m American.”
“Ah…but your family.”
“No. My family is American.”
Head nod. “I own business here, and I don’t speak good English. Need someone to translate Chinese to English. You help?”
“I don’t speak Chinese. Sorry, I can’t help you.”
“But your father. He is Chinese.”
“No. My father is German.”
At that statement, there was a moment of understanding on his face. So I said “sorry” one more time and walked away. I came back into the office to the curious questions of the office staff. In the middle of explaining, old boy walks into the room asking, “So you’ll help?” Uh…no.
The really creepy thing is I have no idea who this guy is. Nor do I know how he knows where I stay/work. The only way is if he sat around and watched me one day. I get the willies just thinking about it.
