Chapter 2 - Group

While unable to work without a Social Insurance Card, James received $10 each week as allowance. Fortunately, that was more than enough. He neither smokes nor drinks and shelter and food are provided by the group home.
James frantically used the computer in the group home to search about the accident. Yet there were no helpful information. After he gave up on the search he began to consider his future and eventual return to China.
James spent most of his time diving into the books that were abundant in Greenview library nearby. He is an avid reader and reads just about anything.

One night, as James was returning from the library, he felt a sense of uneasiness. A cat ran past him and turned around, staring at his eyes.
“Hide!” a raspy voice whispered strongly.
Instinctively, James took cover behind a garbage dump.
A group of men wearing sporty T-shirts and shorts approached another group of similarly dressed guys. They looked around. Seeing nobody, they began to make transactions of money and marijuana. James had no idea that they were dealing drugs.
Suddenly, someone from the gang of men smelled the existence of other human. He walked towards the dump. He sniffed around and gestured a few others to join him. Watching him take out a .22 revolver, James breathed heavily.
He slowly tries to walk around the dump to hide behind the dump, but there were no way out without catching everyone’s attention.
“Run!” the same raspy voice whispered again to James’s ear.
James was reluctant to run. Two seconds later, it was too late. A gangster approached him from behind.
“What are you looking at?” shouted a man in early twenties.
James did not know how to answer, but he begged, “Don’t kill me.”

At the same time, the cat jumped out and morphed into a human-shaped character. The figure murmured something as it began to levitate, then, a dozen black balls flew towards the two groups of gangsters, accurately hitting each one. The balls traveled so fast that the gangsters had no chance of dodging them. Instantly, all the gangsters fell.
Then, a black Volvo S80 sedan lurched from the corner, coming to a sudden stop. The black figure took James, threw him into the backseat and got into the car. A black man drove the car speedily.
“Is this the one?” he asked.
“Maybe.” A female voice answered. “The church has been very discreet these days. He might be the ‘one from the east’ mentioned in the prophecy.”


Two blocks away, in St.Peter’s Cathedral.
Father Michael Douglas was reading in his room. A dark figure sneaked into the room, holding a Glock pistol with silencer.
Father Michael sensed the incoming threat, whispered, “holy shield” and quickly turned back. The bullet travelled quickly yet stopped by a layer of force shield, dropping down to the floor. He also summoned a pillar of light rising from below where the dark figure stood.
The figure quickly shifted sideways and quickly approached Father Michael. He stabbed a dagger right through the shield and twisted it firmly.
Father Michael did not stop to wait for death. He turned around and punched the person right in the face.

Chapter 1 - Awakening

James felt that he was surrounded by a warm fluid, floating freely. Yet he could not open his eyes because his eyelids felt like weighting thousands of pounds. Life was draining away at first. Then, he began to let go of himself until he could not feel.

From a dimension far away, a voice said, “Damn it Rosy, why are you waking me up in a bloody hour?”

“Sir, it seems like the reincarnation system has encountered a glitch. Someone has used soul storage device to counter memory formatting.”

“Do you know how many souls were affected?”

“Only one, sir.”

“Oh whatever, try to reboot the system and track down the offender! And tell the tech support that we are downgrading our operating system to Windows XP!”

When James opened his eyes, he was baffled by what he saw. He was lying on a stretcher in a small room.

Slowly, he got up from the bed, and he felt every inch of his muscle ached. He noticed that the room was rather archaic. The bronze bagua given by his grandfather, an amulet with ying and yang and eight ideograms inscribed, was also missing.

James pulled a string on the wall that says “Help.” Shortly after, a nun wearing a habit and a cross came in, and asked, “How are you feeling?”

James knew some English. He thanked the nun and said that he was not feeling well. “Where am I? And where are my parents?” He was dying to know.

“You are in St. Peter’s Hospital in Vancouver. A fisherman found you floating on the sea and sent you here. You have been unconscious for 2 days. We all thought that you were dead. We don’t know where your parents are, you were found alone. I'm sorry. I will be back.”

The nun then said she will be back as she had to report to the doctor.

Meanwhile, James closed his eyes and let his tears run freely. His protective parents had provided great support and sheltered him, and as a result, James was heavily dependent on them. Missing his parents was too much for James to bear. Disoriented, he had no idea what to do.

Fifteen minutes later, the nun returned with two other colleagues, they pushed James to a big room with more patients, divided by white curtains. Then, a doctor came to examine James’s condition.

“What’s your name?” asked the doctor.

“James Li.”

“Age?”

“Sixteen.”

“Okay, let’s do some examination, lay flatly on the bed.” Then, the doctor check the flexibility of James’s limbs and the overall condition of his body, everything seemed to be alright. It was strange to the doctor how his colleague had pronounced James a dead man.

“There are nothing much life threatening, but I am going to give you some Epical, a general healing and energizing drug. You will stay here under close supervision for the next 5 days, okay?”

James nodded. He was still shocked. “How much does it cost?” James still remembered the high cost of healthcare in his homeland.

The doctor grinned, “Don’t worry about it, there’s no charge. God bless you.” After, he walked quickly out of the room.

James was really grateful for that.

During the day, James walked around. Most patients were Caucasians, some are Asian. There were also a few blacks.

While he was examining a painting in the hallway, he was greeted by a muscular white man with tattoos on his neck. “Hey fellow, how are you doing?”

“Fine, thank you, and you?” James automatically responded.

“I’m good.” The man smiled and showed his golden teeth, and asked, “What are you here for?”

“I don’t know. I guess that I was drawn. How about you?” James was being really honest; he thought he must have died from the crash.

“I was shot by a gang member.” He pointed to a gun wound on his arm.

“That must be painful.” James commented. “Sir, could you tell me what day is today?”

The man pointed to a calendar on the other side of the hall and said, “There’s a calendar, why don’t you check it yourself?”

“Thank you.” said James.

“No problem.” the man said and walked away.

The calendar down the hall featured Paolo Veronese’s Baptism of Christ. The old days were crossed out with an X. The first date left unchecked was Monday, June 8, 1998.

“What the hell?” James was mad. He was born in 1994, and before the planecrash, he was supposed to be 4 years old at this time. There ought to be an error. However, it must have occurred to the manufacturer and the person who bought it that the year was wrong.

Nobody, at least no one that he knew of, has got the chance to survive such a crash. He was too alarmed to ask about the plane crash. Therefore, James felt that he must tread carefully to protect himself. He also thought that he might have travelled back to history and gone to another dimension. Either way, James realized that if he tells anyone where he is coming from, he would be regarded as a freak or be taken to an advanced laboratory and become a guinea pig.

In the afternoon, James was visited by a policeman named Greg Williams.

“James, you lost your IDs, is that right?” asked Williams.

“Yes, sir.”

“Where are you from?”

James decided to tell the truth as he is almost certain that he will be treated as an illegal immigrant, “People’s Republic of China.”

“How many people were with you?”

“I don’t remember.” It was true. James didn’t remember how many people were supposed to be on the plane.

“How cannot you remember?” Williams frowned.

“I just can’t.”

Williams did not go into depth and changed the topic, “Do you have any relatives here?”

“No.”

Williams nodded, “You will spend some time here until further notice.” And he strolled out.

On the second day, at around 4 PM, a social worker came later. With coconut brown hair, a red shirt, deep blue jeans, and Trojan sandals, the fashionalbe social worker who was in her mid-twenties seemed very vibrant and extraordinary.

She shook James’s hand and said, “Hi James, I am Mary Yamashita, I’m your social worker. As of now, we ­­have got a hang of your situation. You are likely to be deported back to China, unless you obtain a refugee status here. In the meanwhile, you will have to stay here.”

Will I be able to find my parents if I go back to China? What happen to the “other me?” James thought to himself. It was probably too early. Plus, it was not up to him to decide.

Nevertheless, James was then transferred to a group home established by the same church responsible for St.Peter’s Hospital, situated across the street.

It was the first time James walked out from the St.Peter’s complex. Before he made the cross, he saw two Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their classic red tunic, riding on tall, dark horses. A Land Rover followed the RCMPs while two police cars covered the flanks and the back.

In the back seat of the Land Rover, a middle-aged woman in classy beige Chanel suit and Hermes scarf looked out from the window and saw James with the social worker, crossing the street. She appreciated the diversity of Canada while flipping through today’s The Globe and Mail.

“My Mistress, I think England could at least go to the quarter-finals.” said a younger woman in the front seat.

“Indeed.” The woman took a sip of Red Rose Tea in a stainless steel heat preserve cup.

James admired the fleet as it passed by. Apparently, it was someone of high prestige and power, which is what he was aspiring to be. Yet now, that dream seemed evermore unreachable.

Prologue

Thursday, June 4, 2012. Hong Kong Airport

James aimlessly played Greedy Snake on his electronic dictionary as he waited for his flight, scheduled to depart for America. Luckily, in spite of great objection from his grandparents and the low success rate, his father managed to obtain the immigration papers to America. James’ father was a doctor and his mother an elementary school teacher. They decided to go for greater freedom and better futures.

However, James wasn’t looking toward to living in the new country, as he was accustomed to and truly enjoyed the ambiguities of his homeland. It hurt a lot when he had to break up with his girlfriend, Chi – not that he knew the difficulties of maintaining a long distance relationship, but the girl’s father, head secretary of the mayor of his hometown, had intervened.

James always wanted to be a politician and going to America would change his goals and plans. But he wasn’t worry about his future as his father promised everything will not only work out but be even better.

“Passengers for flight DX360, please come aboard through terminal 3C.” a soft voice broadcasted.

James’s father perked up, smiled, and led the way for the family. Pocketing his treasured dictionary in his backpack, James followed suit.

Though, he had no idea what was waiting for him.

Just when the plane was cruising over Arctic Ocean, there was an expected turbulence. It did not take long before the plane start to shake and lose control.

“Attention passengers, please fasten your seatbelts as we will be experiencing some turbulence.”

However, for some reason, the engines went shut and the plane lost power, beginning to dive down, faster and faster. Everyone panicked. People started to get their life jackets while others pulled out their phones.

Bang. The plan crash right onto an island and exploded.

Creation

Before dawn, there is eternal darkness. Some thing or things were asleep.

When it finally woke up, its soul roared.

Afterward, it felt like making, not for love, but to kill boredom...

There comes the Universe.