AN-The plot thickens! I hope that you enjoy!

Chapter Six - But That's Impossible!

18:02 p.m.

Tobey ran and ran, trying to reach Wu's Garden as quickly as he could. He was exhausted from his long day and all the twists and turns he'd had, but he managed to arrive there in twenty-five minutes and went in, sitting down in one of the booths to take a rest. Mr Wu looked over from where he sat at the kitchen table when the Buddha chime tinkled softly, so he walked over to see if anyone had come in. When he saw Tobey sitting in one of the booths, he shouted, "Oh, there you are! Where's your girlfriend? Where the hell have you been all day?"

Tobey panted as he looked up at Mr Wu, managing to get out the words, "Oh, Mr Wu, I need to..."

Then he passed out, his head on the table. Mr Wu was shocked out of his mind by this, and his secret gentle side came out for once. He ran to get Tobey a glass of water and an icepack and sat beside him. He put the icepack onto Tobey's sweaty forehead and waited for him to wake up. Tobey came around about two minutes later, and just said, "I need to ask..."

"Not now, sonny. Drink some water. It'll make you feel a lot better. I'll cook you something if you want me to," he said and Tobey shook his head. He felt sick to his stomach, as he had eaten too much at Eunice's apartment earlier and everything he'd thought earlier had come to an end that made no sense. It was all so confusing! He'd felt no connection to that picture earlier, and he really looked nothing like Lucy or Rachel or Eunice, so was what he had learned earlier a lie? Was Kong Li even his father? The woman who'd he'd thought was his mother had dated Mr Wu, so maybe... no, that'd be too weird! And he looked nothing like Mr Wu or Barney either, so that couldn't be it. He drank some water, which made him feel better immediately and said, "Thank you, Mr Wu."

"It's all right, sonny. Now, do you want to go to bed? I'm afraid my mom's not here at the moment as she's out looking for you, but I can look after you if you want?" he asked and Tobey shook his head as he felt a bit better already.

"No thank you. I'm fine now... I just ran here for a long time without stopping, so I could ask you a question," he said and Mr Wu raised his eyebrows. Tobey wanted to ask him a question? Why? He should really see what he wanted.

"Okay, then, sonny. Ask away."

Tobey took a deep breath and asked, "Mr Wu, can you tell me about Barney's mother, please? I need to know about her so I can be sure about something."

Mr Wu's eyes narrowed in confusion, "Why do you need to know about her? Hannah Chow Ma wasn't anyone special!"

Tobey was definitely confused now. "Who's Hannah Chow Ma? I thought that Lucy Song was Barney's-"

"Lucy Song? Oh no, definitely not! She was my girlfriend after Barney's mother left me. I first dated Hannah Chow Ma for five years before she left me for a girl she'd met at a bar-"

"Barney's mother was a lesbian?" Tobey exclaimed in shock.

"Yes, she was. It turned out that she'd never loved me, and after Barney was born on the fourth of June 1991, she left. She left me behind to look after our son and I haven't seen her since. My mom and dad helped me a lot the first three months, but then Mom disappeared in September 1991 and no one knew where she was. She didn't return until October the next year, and by that time I'd started dating Lucy Song. I'd known her for years, as she was one of my only friends at school along with a Bradley Yee and Jessica Luo... who, now I think back, looked a lot like Sid and Sue... and we all often hung out together. She was one of the popular girls at school, but she didn't like being popular at all. She was sweet and kind and caring, and she was secretly a real nerd at heart. It turned out that she'd fancied me for a long time, but I was so sure that she'd never love me back that I started dating Hannah. I was eighteen at the time I started dating Hannah, and Barney was born when I was twenty-three. I was a very young father, I must say, and so many people thought that I'd made a huge mistake. But I didn't. I loved Barney to bits and I always have, though he does annoy me sometimes when he dreams about becoming a wrestler or won't do as he's told. Lucy and I started dating in late August 1991, and we were a great couple, I like to think. We had so much in common and we just understood each other, and she was the only friend I had left after losing touch with Brad and Jess in college. She was also a great mother to Barney, as she adored him and spent many hours playing with him and caring for him while I worked. I know he still remembers her somehow as I always hear him talking about her, but I can't bring myself to talk about her now. It was so horrible when she died as I thought that we'd be together forever, but-"

"What do you mean? She can't be dead! I'm sure that Nana said-"

"I've already told you that Mom wasn't here when I was dating Lucy! She came back six months after Lucy died, and she was shocked out of her mind when I told her. Lucy Song is dead, Tobey. I know because I was there when she died... we were walking in the park with Barney when she suddenly clutched her chest and her breathing went funny. She fell to the ground and she passed out suddenly, shaking horribly before going completely still. I noticed that she wasn't breathing so I quickly used her cellphone to call for an ambulance, but it was too late and she was pronounced dead on arrival..."

Mr Wu started to cry and Tobey felt awful for bringing back such an awful memory, so he tried to comfort him by patting his hand gently. Mr Wu sobbed desperately, saying, "Heart attacks in real life are nothing like heart attacks in movies. I couldn't believe it when they said that that was what had happened, as Lucy was so young and so healthy... but it was. She was only twenty-four when she died on the sixth of May, 1992, and I couldn't believe that I'd lost her at such a young age. I called everyone I knew to tell them what had happened, and so many people came to her funeral it was hard to find a seat. We buried her on the twelfth of May, and from that day on I've found it hard to speak about her or even just to move on. I have tried to, as you saw last year, but I can't seem to yet. It's too hard... no woman can replace my Lucy, and no one ever will."

Tobey felt awfully sorry for Mr Wu and resolved that he wouldn't moan at him anymore. Instead, he'd do as he was told immediately and try to make his life easier. But he was now awfully confused. Mr Wu had said that Lucy had died on the sixth of May, but he'd been born on the eighth. So how could Lucy be his mother? And there was the birth certificate to consider, as the date that it was filed and registered was on the twenty-second of May. It didn't add up, so he took a deep breath and said, "Mr Wu, I'm so very sorry for your loss. You must have loved Lucy so much. But I must ask something... forgive me if this sounds a bit strange, but was Lucy pregnant at any time before May 1992?"

Mr Wu looked at Tobey sharply and said, "No, of course not! She couldn't have children, Tobey!"

"What do you mean, she couldn't have kids?"

"She couldn't have any at all, Tobey! She told me this when we first started dating, as she considered it an important thing that she had to tell me. She said that when she was six she went on a family vacation to Portugal, where she went horseback riding. She'd never ridden on a horse before, and so when the horse started to buck and try to toss her off its back she had no idea what to do and she fell. When she got up to walk away, the horse kicked her right where her womb would be. It was ruptured immediately and Lucy was told that she could never have any children, which broke her heart as she'd always wanted them. She felt so awful when she told me, as she said that she really wanted to give me some but I just patted her shoulder and told her that I didn't mind. After all, we could always adopt or foster some when Barney was a bit older. She was really touched by my acceptance and hugged me hard. I know that she would've loved you three as much as she loved Barney. I'm sure of that!"

Tobey was touched by this and smiled at Mr Wu, who wiped his eyes and asked, "So, why did you want to know about Barney's mother?"

Tobey frowned and said, "Well, Mr Wu... I think that someone used Lucy's identity for some reason."

"What do you mean, Tobey?"

"Well, the reason I wasn't here today is that... I was kind of looking for my mother. I went back to the foster centre where I came from, where I found my original birth certificate which said that my mother was Lucy Song, which I now know is impossible as she died two days before I was born and my birth certificate was only filled in two weeks later, on the twenty-second of May. And, added to that, I was only left at the foster centre when I was six months old... so Lucy couldn't have done that either!"

At that, Mr Wu went red with anger and said, "But that's impossible! How could someone do that? Why would they? How dare they! That poor girl couldn't have any children and yet some person has used her name instead of theirs to make some kind of claim? It's disgusting! It's sick! And... wait a minute! Where are you going?"

Tobey had quickly decided what to do next, but he needed to get out first... so he'd simply crawled under the table while Mr Wu was talking and now he was almost at the door. But before he left, he turned to Mr Wu and said, "I'm sorry, Mr Wu! I'll work overtime tomorrow and Monday to apologize, I swear! I must go now, but I thank you for telling me about Lucy! I promise that I won't tell Barney anything!"

Mr Wu just nodded and said, "Thank you, Tobey. You bet I'll make you work overtime tomorrow!"

But there was a sparkle in his eye which said that he wouldn't really. He was just joking... well, Tobey hoped so, anyway. He ran outside and down to the well where, the year before, Kong Li had told him that he was his son. He knew what he had to do now, and that was to confront Kong Li and ask him! He knew that it was incredibly stupid and reckless of him, but he didn't care anymore. He was just so angry and he wanted answers!

"And why shouldn't I ask Kong Li? Nana's never told me anything... she didn't even tell me that Kong Li was my father until last year when it was almost too late to save everyone! She should've told me! She can't say that she doesn't know who my mother is... as my father and I have the same middle name! How would my mother know that if she didn't know Nana too? It wouldn't add up, especially as my mother knew all about his prophecy as well! I also can't see my father having a long-term relationship or telling anyone about the prophecy... and according to Mr Wu, Nana disappeared around the time that I was conceived in September and didn't return until a year and a month later! So she couldn't have told my mother anything! I honestly doubt that Nana would've told a random woman about my father and then that woman ended up being my mother, as it would be far too much of a coincidence, right?" Tobey thought, his fists clenched. He then wondered where Nana had been during those thirteen months as, going by his knowledge of her, Nana had never left Chinatown in her lifetime. He tried to think where Nana could've gone, but he couldn't think of anything. It then struck him that Nana hadn't told any of them that much about her life. She'd only told them that she'd been best friends with Kong Li and had been trained in the ways of all the major martial arts and magic, up until Kong Li had betrayed their master and unleashed the powers of the cookbook. She'd then stopped him and, after that, had told them nothing else about her life, so they'd all just presumed that Nana had then gotten married and given birth to Mr Wu, but then Tobey realized something else... something he'd never thought about but maybe should've.

"How old is Nana, in fact? Mr Wu said that Barney was born on the fourth of June, 1991, when he was twenty-three and his birthday is on the thirteenth of April. If he was twenty-three when Barney was born, that means that he was born in 1968, which makes him forty-one now... so how old is Nana? Is she in her sixties or seventies? She can't be older than that, can she? And how old was she when she stopped Kong Li last time?" He didn't know as Nana had never said. No, she couldn't be older than seventy as she didn't look it, for one. Well, unless she looked young for her age. He wished that he knew how old she really was, but seeing as she hated celebrating her birthday he had honestly no idea. Also, why did she hate celebrating her birthday? Had something happened on that day to make her hate it? It was just so confusing! He finally reached the well and shouted, "Hey, Kong Li! Get out here! I need to talk to you!"

That didn't work, so Tobey decided that he really needed to annoy him in order to get him out. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Hey, Dad! Wanna have a little chitchat with your little one for old times sake? It'll be fun-"

"No, it would not be fun, son!" Kong Li growled, suddenly appearing behind him and brandishing his staff. He looked all ready to strike him and Tobey had to duck fast before it hit him.

AN-Oh no! Read on and find out! Also, I just wanted to try to give a reason for why Mr Wu acts the way he does. I think that he needs a bit more examining, as he must have a good heart in him somewhere. And one last thing, can anyone see Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen playing Nana and Kong Li? Because I can! Okay, enough chitchat! Bye for now!

UPDATE- I might be a bit late in updating as I'm going away for a bit, but I'll try to upload a new chapter soon!