Chapter 2 – The Calm and The Storm

"Hurry," said Mao, "There's a storm approaching."

Mei watched as bright sunlight and light blues yielded to darkening clouds far out on the ocean horizon.

Their house was out of the marketplace on a sloping hill. They ascended each step together, as they did since they were much younger.

Inside the house, Mao shut the door behind them. Mei took the basket from Mao and placed the bread on the kitchen counter.

"Where have you been?" a woman's voiced scratched.

"Oh! Mother," exclaimed Mei, almost dropping the basket. She turned to catch a glimpse of her stepmother in the archway. "I didn't see you there."

Their stepmother was cruel and cold-hearted. Her hair was thick as a fist of straw and dark as a crow's feather. Her face was set in a constant frown that pulled her skin tight over her cheek bones. Dark, beady eyes stared frigidly out from under thin, drawn-on eye brows. Her lips were as thin as two needles with a speech just as sharp.

"Stupid girl," she muttered. "Where's your sister?"

"I'll go find her, Mother."

Mei left the bread and basket on the counter, rushed past the mother, and scrambled upstairs. She turned into the room she and her sister shared.

"Mao," she whispered, "Mother wants you."

The older sister sat at their vanity and brushed her long, silky hair before gathering it into a bun atop her head.

Mei looked around the room. "I thought Father would be here," she said with unease.

"He'll be home soon," Mao responded. She thought he would have been home earlier, also.

Their stepmother acted lovingly towards the father and extra tender to the sisters when the father was near. However, when their father was gone, she cursed at Mao and threatened to beat Mei.

The stepmother called from downstairs,"Mao? Where are you?"

Getting up, Mao responded, "I'll be right down, Mother." She glided past her sister and down the stairs.

Alone, Mei sat on her sister's bed. She heard indiscernible yells of voices coming from below, growing louder. She didn't realize she was crying until she saw tears run down her own reflection's face. She wiped them away with the sleeves of her kimono.

'Our stepmother makes Father so falsely content,' she thought to herself. 'But how could I ever ruin his happiness?'

The shouting had quieted down to an eerie stillness, followed by the slam of a door. Sensing something wrong, Mei exited the room and descended the stairs.

"Mao?" she called. There was no answer.

"Mother, do you know where Mao is?"

The stepmother was in the kitchen preparing a lunch for Father.

"No," said the stepmother nonchalantly. "She's run away, the brat."

"What?" cried Mei. She froze, standing motionless in the living room. The clouds were becoming darker, and lightening could be seen far across the ocean.

"Where is she going? Is she coming back? Why?" Surely this must be a cruel joke, she thought. Or Mao will return in a few minutes, perhaps she just needed to cool her temper.

"Don't ask so many questions, it's very unattractive," spat the stepmother. "She didn't even say goodbye to you. How awful of a sister."

Mei's eyes widened with a new uncertainty and her mouth fell agape, speechless. 'My sister is gone!'

"Why did she leave?" she questioned again, finding her voice. "What did you do to her?"

"Excuse me?" yelled the stepmother, turning from her work and approaching Mei. "I was only trying to help support this family! I thought that maybe your lazy sister could get a job!"

"She helps Father!" Mei corrected, still in a shock of her sister's absence. Mao sews for Father, when his arthritis becomes too much to handle a needle and thread.

"A much better paying job opened for tonight, and I just thought she would like it," she said repulsively.

Mei noticed the distaste in her voice.

"What job?" Mei felt an angry pressure building in her throat.

The stepmother returned to fixing a plate full of food for her father

"I only suggested that they needed a new girl down at the tavern. I assumed she was into those dirty things, seeing how she is rather sluttish."

Mei began to feel a sickness build in her stomach. Her throat felt horse, and she could feel something urging to be said. Though less audible than a whisper, she spoke.

"Monster."

The stepmother paused and turned to face her again.

"What did you say?" she threatened.

"Monster!" Mei said, with more force, and still growing. "You monster! You've ruined my family!" She yelled with all the years of bottled feeling of helplessness and hatred towards the woman in front of her.

"How dare you, you ungrateful child! I'm helping this wretched family!" the stepmother yelled back. "…and it seems I overlooked you." Her voice became peculiar.

Mei's anger faded and was replaced by an increasing dread.

"You're not that pretty," she began. Mei watched her eyes graze over her. "But I'm sure some drunken sailor would take you down at the tavern."

Mei lost her voice again. Her face flushed and her heart pumped in her ears. Thunder crashed from over the ocean.

"We still need the money. You'll take your sister's place," she ordered. "Don't try to do anything stupid, girl!" she warned. "Your father is having enough trouble making ends meet. This is the only way you can truly be helpful to your family."

The stepmother moved closer to her ear.

"If you tell him of this," she continued. "I will say you chose to do so on your own. You wouldn't want to shame your father like that, would you?"

Mei remained motionless.

"Would you?"

She shook her head 'no' and shut her eyes, causing tears to emerge and be flung off her face.

Suddenly, the door opened and Mei's father entered.

"Hurry upstairs and get washed up, my sweet!" The stepmother pasted on a false smile as quick as a wink and with her bony hands, ushered Mei to the staircase.

"Hello, darling!" said the father. "How are my girls today? I was almost caught in that storm!"

Father was older than middle aged and wrinkled from worrying about money. His head was balding but his smile was warm and there was a shine in his black eyes, so unaware to the cruelness of his new wife and the unhappiness of his daughters. In his arm he carried some cloth and thread from his shop for Mao to sew into clothes, which he set down on a table.

"Oh, we're wonderful darling! You go get washed up, too, so you can enjoy your lunch."

Mei ran upstairs and shut the door to her room. She fell onto her sister's bed and let out quiet sobs that gave way to a tear-stained face and a shaking body.

Thunder rumbled, rolling across the town. Dark, bruised clouds gathered and heavy droplets of salty rain began to fall against the earth.