Or Is Shayne In China?

As usual, this adventure turns out to be a tale of espionage, deceit and mystery. To our surprise, we talked to Shayne by telephone today, while she, supposedly, is in China. We didn't know you could call a person by mobile phone, when they are so far away. How did this happen? Well, having installed an Internet phone system, we were trying to call various locations, so we tried phoning Shayne's mobile-- just for experimental purposes-- and she answered the phone. Now the odd thing is that, in our correspondence, Shayne has been describing vivid scenes of China and also reporting that she could not draw any more money off of her bankcard.

Looking at her recent statements, there was, indeed, an unexplained hold put on her bank account. The hold was supposedly performed by the university but no dossier number was attached nor was any forewarning ever was sent by the university. I wrote about this to Shayne in an email and I also wrote to the university, but so far no response. (It is my suspicion that the hold was made willy nilly by someone working at the Postbank).

To make a long story short, last Friday, I decided to lend Shayne 700 euro's, which I deposited to her Postbank account to bring it up to about 150 euro's and Shayne's father deposited 500 euro's to her account. But today, almost one week, later, I learn, while talking to Shayne, that she still has been unable to get money and she said to me, "I will ask Ingrid about it." I asked, "Why can Ingrid get the money for you, faster than we can?" I only heard silence. (Afterall, Ingrid had not gone on the trip, I had been told)

But then I remembered the emails I had sent Shayne during the week. I had told her that I deposited the money to her account and she had answered, that it was okay. She was going to transfer money via the Internet into the account. And I was shocked, because I knew she didn't have enough money in her savings account to cover the amount of the "hold."

I was already suspicious about the identity of the person writing back to me. "Could this be Shayne talking?" I wondered.

In an earlier email in which I referred to her long and mysterious disappearance this past year, she wrote to me, "I didn't know that I disappeared in September." I was shocked again.

It was very quiet as we talked over the phone and I could hear no background noises at all. I said, "Are you even in China?" Earlier, she had mentioned that it was 3AM in the morning.
"Are your companions (Barry, Veysel and a new one, Geer--) there?" I asked. "They are asleep." she answered. But then some stirring began in the background and I heard voices talking. "Can I speak to them?" I asked. One of them spoke into the phone and I explained how I had put money into Shayne's account last week but it apparently was not available yet. And he said something to the effect, "Well, money is not such a big problem with Shayne at the moment."

Hmmm. It just doesn't sound right. Why are other people always more knowledgeable about Shayne's circumstances than Shayne or me? Why does she never know how much we do, to try to save her from disasster?

I believe someone else has been writing the emails. And I am not sure I believe she is in China. Because, besides being even able to phone her, the time she mentioned (3 AM) when we called at around 9:45 PM here was too early for Hong Kong. It should have been 4 AM there. When I called, it would have been 3 AM in Peru, Mexico, Jamaica or Nicaragua.

Besides, how did Shayne get through the airport? I would never attempt to use the airport, as so many persons seem to get held up or to disappear there. But somehow, miraculously, Shayne supposedly got through the airport and all the way to China for just 250 euro's.

The other thing is, that last year, when Shayne had "disappeared", money for a cancelled trip to China of about 800 euro's had been deposited to her account. But I did not then believe that the money was for a trip for Shayne. I believed she had purchased a ticket for someone else.

Shayne's In China

Extraordinary as it might seem, my daughter has not set foot in my house, since she disappeared last September. I have tried to keep in touch by mobile phone, but I only received an answer to two calls since her reappearance. And one of those two calls was made to her place of work, The Melkweg. Myself, I am convinced that the service, somehow, just failed to put the calls through.

I visited Shayne's apartment several times, although it was a strain for me to go out on the street in my physical condition, but I never encountered her at home, except once. I had to thump, sometimes using the metal strip of the mail slot, because the doorbell became broken after our first visit. After several weekends of trying and never finding her home, some people in the neighborhood began to oppress me by walking around with mobile phones and pausing along beside me, on the sidewalk, as I tried to thump on Shayne's door. One time, a woman (standing watching with her son) made a comment, then she noticed there sign stating the bell was broken. She made a remark about that and leaned back against a car, to smoke a cigarette. Another time, a woman walked into the door of an adjoining house, smiling, but as I turned to leave, I heard the frightening and fiece growl of her dog, hidden in the hallway.

So imagine my surprise and happiness when I received a phone call from Shayne last week. She said she was going to China. I gasped. I said, "Shayne, you can't go to China." Right away, she warned me that she was in the airport, already through customs, and on the way to China. She said, some Barry (as in "cock and bury"?) was her companion, along with some other guy. She wasn't coming back until 29th of August.

For a whole year, my daughter had not come by the house, I had been incarcerated and both of us, I am sure, had been frightened and had suffer consequences physically, with our health. And now she was on the way to China. I had not one opportunity to talk with her nor to exchange information about what happen to me and to her in the intervening period. I couldn't even know if she were telling the truth. I told Thomas, let's go to the airport and see if we can find her. But he wouldn't consider it.

Over the phone, Shayne and I discussed briefly how we could keep in touch. We decided she might could send an email sometime. A few days later, August 5th, I received an email, to my great relief. They were going to visit Xi An, where all the terracotta figures were excavated. But she said she didn't like the food they were getting. Well, since then, I have heard nothing and I can only hope that their trip is going smoothly and that she will find another computer to send a message from. But now, bills are starting to come in. A hold on her bank account of $800 for some unknown reason. And a bill from a homeopathic doctor, specializing in foot massages.