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.