Mei Lei

She took Wang's chair, sipped the wine and started talking, "My father was contracted to distribute the same goods your father distributes, only in Europe. His youngest partner wanted me for a bride and when father insisted on the marriage I ran away from home the day after I graduated. I ended up here in Hong Kong and answered an advertisement and began working for our host. I moved into his house and for lack of a better word was ore or less adopted as an citizen of Great Briton, I have traveled to the Chinese mainland many times to set up production for the various products Mr. Wang makes. The same goods that your father distributes are being sold in Europe but under a different brand name. The same with the fishing equipment but in a different color. The European rods are brown but the reels are the same color, black.

"My mother died when I was in college. He will take me back to England, by force if necessary. I am already listed as insane. I am to be taken into custody and retuned to the family home as soon as possible. I will be given an examination, declared sane, marred to Haston Cavorti, made pregnant and keep under watch until such time I can be put away where I can cause no damage."

I was hooked, whatever she wanted I would do, "Since you are an adult, do what I did and tell your father to piss off."

"I fear that he won't be so quick to let me escape."

"And how do I help you avoid this fate worse than death?"

"Marry me."

My heart rate went off the scale and I took a deep breath, "How will that help you?"

"The sanity hearing will then be held in your state of Mississippi and you can arrange for publicity. You are my best chance to live my own life and stop running."

"I don't have the money for an expensive legal fight. I only have about $25.000 in the M and P bank."

"Mr. Wang has paid me well and I left England with some money safely stored away in a secret bank account in the Bahamas. Once we are wed, that money will be at your disposal. I believe it will pay for the lawyers as you call them."

"Okay, let me see if I am looking at this correctly. We marry and go to my home. We see that your father knows where you are, he comes to have you declared insane so he can take you back to England."

"Exactly."

"So as soon as you are safe, we divorce and you can do whatever you wish, is that it?

"Of course not, marriage is until death do we part. I am really an old fashioned girl. Besides, I love you, but I am not a virgin. Take me as I am."

"That means we will share a bed and all that entails."

"Yes."

"Forgive me, but I am very leery of Greeks or English bearing gifts. What assurances can you give me that you are telling the truth?"

"I have newspapers from England, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia that contain the advertisements. And Mr. Wang will vouch for me."

"Let me see the newspapers."

She reached over and pulled what I thought was a window sash. In seconds the door opened and the butler entered,

"How may I help you, Miss Hightower?"

"In my room there are several newspapers on my dresser, please, bring them to me."

"Yes, Miss Hightower."

She and I sipped the very good rice wine until he retuned. There were thirty two newspapers with the same advertisement appearing every six months. The papers were from the countries she had mentioned.

She waited as I read every notice before she spoke, "I am dependant on you. Without you, I will eventually end up back in England married to man I cannot stand and I will be a slave to him. Please, help me."

"We need an agreement. I don't have much but I want it protected."

"I will sign and have notarized anything you want."

"That will be done at the American Consulate."

"Then you will do it?"

I was out of my mind in love/lust, "Yes."

Suddenly my arms were full of a woman with kisses raining on my face.

The agreement between Eve, Mr. Wang and me was short. They underwrote my mail order business and promised to provide for any losses I might suffer due to the marriage. The fun part was the trip to Oakland. We took the freighter that delivered my father's and my merchandise. It was three weeks of getting to know you and I really got to KNOW her. I was busy but not too busy to notice that she asked a lot of questions about how the ship operated and about the engines.

With a bigger bankroll, Eve and I decided to advertise KingFisher's Sport Shop on television by sponsoring bass tournaments. As soon as we hit Oakland, we flew into Jackson and Rebecca picked us up. On the drive to Oxford, everyone had news. Mine was the advertising, Rebecca's was that business sales were still holding firm this late in the year and people were requesting wrapped Christmas gifts, Eve's news was shocked me, she was carrying my baby. Rebecca pulled off the road and they had a hugging and crying fit. Eve and I moved into my sister's small house and looked for a house of our own. Two weeks later we transferred to a two bedroom nest less than a block from Rebecca.

I did have a talk with my bride, "What happened?"

"You were at me four, five and sometimes six times a day. It was wonderful and I loved it and you planted the seeds deep. I am hoping for a boy who will be due in August on or about the 20th. I want to name him Wade W. Waters."

"There will not a Big Wade and Little Wade. If it is a boy, He will be named Joseph Waters."

Hell, I was 26 and she was 24, it was time for me to have a son.

There was a letter to her father inviting him to come to America and prove her insanity. He never answered. The back in the Bahamas sent one point three million to her.

In 1974, I placed or won five tourneys for $95,000 and the business grossed just over one million and we cleared $187,421.20. My daughter was born on August 25 and was named Gwendolyn, for her mother, Rebecca, for my sister Waters. She was Gwen from day one. The family moved to a two story four bedroom house on 10 acres of land just ten miles east of the Oxford city limits. Along with the nursery, we build a 150 by 300 foot warehouse with a 50 by 50 office space. The WobMin in six sizes was selling at the rate of 1000 a day. In November and after the tourney was put on hold for the winter, I wanted some different plugs.

"Eve, can we work on a deep running walleye plug? I want appeal to more than just the bass fishermen."

"Wade, Gwen keeps me very busy with beast feeding, diaper changes, baths and playing with her. But I will give you some of our alone time."

She wasn't much help or maybe she was just letting me be the lead in the thinking and the carving of the prototype wood models. Most she was there now and thm and spent most of her time with Gwen.

It took us, actually me, six weeks but we had two baits. A three inch with almost flat sides round bait and a three quarter inch long metal lip that made the plug dig to ten feet depending on the speed of the retrieve. It shook like a dog shitting peach seeds. The second plug was four inches long with a one inch metal lip that could dig to 20 feet with small piece of lead just forward of center. Both metal lips were on a 45 degree angle from the center of the plug. In my three field trials they hammered the walleye, along with some deep bass. I wanted them in production in four colors with contrasting streaks along the body.

I laid them the eight prototypes on the table and her face broke into a smile, "They have such beautiful colors. What does the metal blade thingy do?"

I stared at her, picked up the baits an left the house. Twenty four hours later I was in Mr. Wang's sitting room. I was mad as hell.

"You bastard! You tricked me. There no father looking for her. There was no idiot wanting to marry her. What was she, a Seventh Wife? No wonder she wasn't a virgin because you fucked her. Lucky for you the baby is white or I would kill your sorry ass."

He just looked at me for several minutes while I struggled not to beat the shit out of him.

"Before you married her I asked her to write you a letter so that when you asked, it would be ready for you. You are angry but you must read her letter. Then you can do as you please."

He opened the drawer in the table at this right hand and placed a small box on the table. "Please read this and hopefully you will see why she wanted to marry you," he left the room.

I looked at the box. I was hurt, angry, very mad. They had tricked me in this marriage but I had to know WHY.

To my husband,

You have discovered that I lied to you. I am not what I said I was. I know you are hurt and I hurt for you.

My father was a drunkard. Sober, he was a good engineer and he worked for Mr. Wang. He was a fisherman and did created the WobMIn when I was eight. As the alcohol was killing him, he gave me to Mr. Wang on my tenth birthday in hopes that when he died I would be accepted as a mistress on my sixteenth birthday. I attended school with the Wang Chu children for one year before my father died. I consider them to be my brothers and sisters as I consider Mr. Wang to be my father. Fortunately, Mr. Wang also considers me to be his daughter.

I lied to you about my virginity. That was broken by a hairbrush just before we were married. Oh, god, how that hurt but it was necessary as you would have doubted a 24 year old virgin. I loved you since the first time I saw you as you arrived in the Wang Chu House household after saving Dou Wei, but Mr. Wang convinced me that you weren't ready for a wife. So we waited until you were older and more agreeable.

That was the only fraud we planed. Mei Lei and Kei Bei were just young girls in a strange land doing what they could. Neither one wanted to marry you. I know they drove you crazy but their father and I admired you as you handled them as well as you did. The bar thing wasn't planned but it was wonderful the way it worked. You turned your back on the pair of them and your family when they refused to hear your side of the problem. Dou Wei was instructed to go along with whatever happened. You, my husband, were so wonderful, I want to run to you and comfort you but it was still too early.

I read every letter Dou Wei, Mei Lei and Kie Bei sent to their father and only Mr. Wang stopped me from flying to Mississippi and ripping thier faces off. I cannot tell you how many nights I cried myself to sleep because of the way you were treated. But it had to be that way, you could ot be allowed to fall in love with either of them.

As I write this I am planning to become pregnant with your child on the boat trip home. I hope for a boy but I know you will love a girl just as much.

I fear that the truth, when you find it, will force you to put me out of your house and your life. Please do not do that. You can treat me as a mistress, or a sometimes woman or as a slave, whatever you chose, but I will never leave you of my own free will. I want your children and I will do anything to stay as your wife. I love you.

Evelyn

The same butler brought me a flask of ood Kentucky bourbon, I got very drunk and woke up in a bed with a pounding head with my wife beside me. She was still as beautiful as the first time I saw her and my heart did the same flip flops as it did on that long ago night.

"After we clean you up and eat, can we go home and raise our daughter to be as good as her father?"

"Yes, Eve, we can but raise Gwen to be as wonderful a syoure too."

~oOo~

My two sons and one of my daughter s are the ones that operate KingFisher's Sports. I am the chairman of the board. There are two more daughters that will be added to the company roles when the twins graduate from Ole Miss. In 2009, we grossed almost 700 million dollars by way of KingFisher's Wholesalers with 120 brands of clothing and 50% of all the rods and reels sold in the States and Europe under 124 different brand names. That doesn't include the KingFisher's Sport Shops that we franchised as they are on separate books. We cleared 80 million. We got into fly fishing after Eve I and Gwen with a college student as nanny made a trip to Montana in 1974. Mr. Wang died of a heart attack in 2007 in bed with his Third Wife, a very young sixteen year old gift from his nephews in Mainland China.

We are using container shipping now and with prior proper planning trucks can be loaded directly from the cargo ships and carry the right containers to the right customers. It saves time.

Wang Dou Chu and his many cousins makes 42 different brand names of fly fishing equipment and all kinds of specialized outdoor clothing and gear for fly fishing. My wife and I are expecting our first grandchild in less that a month. It cannot get here any too soon. My dad and mother, still living in Small Town, and I finally buried that hatchet on my fortieth birthday but things will never be like it was before. Oh, well. My older bother died in a car wreck and Mei Lie's two sons run the three large warehouses in Oakland. Mei Lei moved in with us as aunt to my children and to help Eve and I handle the coming death. .

Eve has terminal cancer and together we are planning for her passing. I am dying inside but for her I am pretending to be strong. Every day she is weaker and each day I tell her how much I love her. She wants to see her granddaughter before she passes And she wants me to find another woman to warm my bed but that will never happen. She says she has someone picked out but I keep telling her not to brother. I love her too deeply to ever consider any other woman. Now and then, I still fish the Big Black River with the same old rods and reels I used way back when but it is for the sport and I return everything to the river.

As I have heard a thousand times: Life goes on. Just not for the love of my life. How will I go on without her? I want to die and be cremated with her but she won't allow it. Mei Lei is calling me for supper so I must go. I wonder if the two of them are planning for me and her to...

~oOo~

I reply to all emails with a return address.

Say what you will as I have a very tough skin from stating my efforts to write on LIT. I learn when readers tell me what I did wrong r how to make it better.

Lay on Macduff, and damn'd be he who first cries 'Hold, enough!" Macbeth act v scene viii

How the hell did he write all those plays and other stuff with a damn quill dipping into an inkwell? I guest that was better than making funny marks in clay tablets and waiting for a couple'a hundred to dry.