Bianhua Ch. 06

"Mom and dad will have started breakfast," Alana said. "Best come in and join us."

"Let me put Stormy in the pasture," I said. "He's most likely worked up an appetite and can graze for something to eat."

"You ran like it was the most important thing in the world," Alana said. "I personally did not think you would be able to complete the three miles."

"I know I am not as fast as I used to be," I said, "My muscles will be reminding me about that all day. Based on the time I averaged about six minutes a mile. When I left China both my adopted father and I could do in just over four."

I led stormy over to the pasture, unbridled him, and let him join the others that had been left outside overnight before coming back to greet my future wife.

After a few good morning kisses, we walked hand in hand towards her parents' house.

"Mom and Dad want to know if it's possible to have the sacred six over for a dinner while they are here," Alana said.

"They have received clearance to attend," I said. "It's being billed as a cultural event. The feds have not disclosed their schedule and won't until they are in the air. The Chinese are sending a news team to cover them so everything has to be manipulated very carefully."

"Why will it have to be handled carefully," Alana asked?

"In China, the media is state-owned," I explained. "Those not in front of the camera are not what most would expect. Some of them will be Chinese agents working undercover. They could be assigned to handle espionage, counterintelligence, or acts of terrorism."

Alana stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at me. Looking into my eyes she said, "Are you implying that just the fact that the sacred six are coming may have put their own lives in danger?"

"With the Chinese government, anything is possible. My adopted father, the master would have taken the possibility into account," I said. "Weighed it out before making any decisions. I now believe he would take any risk to protect the one he considers his son."

"Do you think your father will be pleased with the man you have become," Alana asked?

"My father will see the accomplishments in my walk in life," I said, "before drawing any conclusions. Then and only then in private he will explain his thoughts."

"I'm looking forward to meeting him," Alana said. "I expect I will find you're a lot like him in your approach and thinking. You always figure every possibility out before deciding anything. I have learned that you seem to be able to make things easier when you do that."

"Your right," I replied as we approached the side door. "Dave and I began to plan to develop the land the iron ore mine is in for housing. I will be setting aside two lots for the building of Fen's and Suling's homes."

Alana's eyes got wide and bright as she asked, "Are you starting to come around to the idea that Suling and I are going to be sister wives?"

Knowing what she was hoping I replied, "No final decision will be made until I have had a long talk with my adopted father. After all, it's a life-changing decision that cannot be taken lightly."

When we walked into the kitchen a few minutes later Alana's face was glowing. Ian looked at his daughter and said, "Someone received some good news this morning."

"I broke the news to her that I wanted to build a quarter-mile track beside the barn next spring," I said. "That way if Alana wants to, she can get back into competition with toby who she has been training."

Alana when she knew her parents were not looking mouthed nice save.

With her parents' permission, we unhitched the horse trailer and headed off to pick up Fen before going to visit Suling. Alana as usual was snuggled right up against me. I thought the four of us needed to discuss a few things. Fen would be helping at her father's Chinese restaurant and was looking forward to us getting there.

As we were leaving, I took out an unsealed envelope and placed it into Ian's hands saying in private, "Please put this into your safe until it's needed."

He saw that what was written on the outside said last will and testament.

"You're more concerned than you show," Ian said in response as he laid held it in his hand because he wanted to join his wife in seeing us off. We both waved as we drove off.

Ian turned to Bonnie and said, "I'm pretty proud of those two. With what Dirk is facing it would have driven most couples apart. Yet it is drawing them closer than I could ever have imagined."

"Alana told me that they would face what would seem to be a situation that they could not overcome," Bonnie said. "I had to demand that she should try to explain but she said she couldn't because she did not know what it was. I was worried until she said it was their timshell moment."

"Timshell, I haven't heard that word since I was about six years old," Ian said. "My mother's grandfather used to say it a lot."

"It's eighteenth-century English," Bonnie disclosed. "It is a bible-based blessing and means "thou mayeth overcome. "

On the way there, Alana explained a few things. At their senior high a new teacher had transferred in along with a few new students. What both Fen and she had noticed was that these ones seemed older and more mature than most of the students. What had caught their attention was the fact that they were all of the oriental descent.

Both agreed that there was something else going on because during lunch they could be seeing checking the student population out as if they were looking for something.

"Does there seem to be one or two that these ones seem to gravitate to?" I asked.

"Funny that you should ask," Alana said after thinking for a few. "Until you asked, I would not have seen it. Two students seem to have developed a close relationship with the new computer science teacher."

"These two same students are the ones that the new students seem to gravitate to him at times," Alana explained.

"Sounds like you may have discovered a chain of command," I said. "Try to learn if they are speaking Cantonese, mandarin, or English with the teacher."

********

A few minutes later Bonnie brought Ian a cup of coffee into his home office to discover him holding a legal document with tears in his eyes.

"What brought that one," Bonnie asked.

"Dirk asked me to put this in our safe," Ian explained. "Curiosity got me, so I had to take a peek. It's his will and the background information in case something happens to him."

Bonnie in shock sat down in the chair not knowing what to say she just looked at her husband and waited.

"He's left most of it to our daughter or us if she should die," Ian said. "With provisions that will take care of the needs of Fen and Suling for life. We knew he was making a good living, but I had no idea of how much he is already worth."

"And I was worried about them as a couple taking on too much debt," Bonnie said. "Dirk's parents must have left him a nice nest egg."

"Dirk was smart when he set up his restoration company," Ian said. "He retained the right to the process they use and gets a monthly fee from the corporation each month that they use it. That alone is worth over two hundred thousand a year. The loans he got from the state and the federal government to set it all up were interest-free."

"Once the garbage from New York City began to arrive the corporation has been in the black and is now sitting on over three million dollars alone in liquid assets," Ian said. "From his parent's estate, he inherited ten million from a trust his Mother's grandparent's had set up which had been managed by an investment firm in the big city."

"I know that Dirk does not spend much money yet has always paid his employee's top dollar," Bonnie said. "In the time we have known him I have not heard of one of them quitting. Growing up he lived very frugally. I learned from Alana that during his time in the temple he slept on a bed of bamboo on a stone floor so a lot of things that we take as normal he sees as a luxury."

"Our daughter told me that she had to explain to Dirk by showing him a few acquaintance's homes when they were designing their own to get him to see that what he saw as overdoing it was the acceptable norm in our society," Ian said. "That's when I realized that no matter what they would make it. Our daughter learned to be tighter with her money and Dirk learned to find a new normal."

"When they built their home," Bonnie said, "I could not see the reason behind what they were doing. I fell in love with their home when we saw it completed. If there is paradise on earth, I think they have created it. The pond outside the side of their home and the landscaping that gives them complete privacy."

"It takes a rare man to bring a vision to reality," Ian said. "Watching the transformation of what was barren and wasted space into something that everyone associated with it finds pride in says it all. From their home, you can see it all. We now see deer, elk, birds and other animals coming back to the area because of its changing environment."

"For years you hated what had been done," Bonnie said, "to that area of land. I knew that day we learned what Dirk was doing in the area that you were interested in what he was doing."

"To be honest Dirk scared me. I have never met anyone so focused and sure of himself," Ian explained. "To learn that he leads by example showed me the true nature of the man. I never thought I would meet a man who loved what God had created more than I did. If I had not given my word to Dirk, I believe Alana and he would be already married."

"What? Best disclose what he asked of you," Bonnie said.

"Dirk asked me not to give them my blessing for an early wedding," Ian said, "Because he wanted the problems associated with his parents resolved first because he did not want to make Alana the youngest widow in America."

With the tears flowing freely and in a broken voice Bonnie responded, "Dam Alana said that Dirk looks at the consequences of what could happen and plans accordingly. Based on what we have learned these last few months I would have to say I agree with his thinking."

To be continued