Chapter 4

Are they here?

I heard keys rattling around then the door opened.

Uh oh!

If they found me in Jann Lee's apartment then I would be in trouble. So I hid behind the doorway then thought that that wasn't the best place to hide so I climbed under the bed instead.

The dragon!

I saw the little figurine on the dresser & knew if that were them then they would take it. I quickly crawled from under the bed, nearly hurting my leg in the process, grabbed the dragon, & just when I was about to get back under the bed, there they were. They had blue uniforms with "State Government" on the back. The clerk was there, too. He must have showed them the way. And there was another man, really tall, in a black suit.

He looked at me & I looked at him. That was when the clerk got nervous.

"Who's this?" the man in the suit asked the clerk, "You never told me someone was living here with him."

"She doesn't live here, sir," the clerk said back.

". . . Then who is she? And how did she get in here?"

Oh, gees, I'm in trouble.

I just stood there with the figurine behind my back. The other people in the blue uniforms were already taking some of his stuff away.

"She's a friend of his & she wanted to look around before you take the stuff," the clerk said.

That's when the man looked at me. I grinned, 'cause I knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that I lied to the clerk & I was here to steal from his apartment.

"Search her," he told a man in uniform.

What?!

The man started patting all over me then he found the figurine. He took it & handed to the man in the suit.

"What's this?" he asked me.

That's when I threw myself on his chest & pleaded, "Can I keep it? Please!"

"Sorry, it's not in his will."

"What?!"

"He doesn't have a will saying who keeps what so I can't let you have this."

"He doesn't? . . . Well, it's just one little figurine! Why can't I?!"

"You think he would like for you to keep it?"

"Of coarse, he would! I'm his friend! And his partner in the tournaments, yeah, he would!"

". . . Tournaments?"

"Yeah, what we do best is fight."

". . ."

"C'mon! Please! All you have to do is put it in my hand."

"Sorry, I can't."

"Ugh!"

I let go of him & looked around at all the people taking away the stuff.

"Where is all this stuff going to anyway?" I asked him.

"An auction," he answered me, "If you really want this figurine then you'll have to get it back there. It'll be held at noon three days from now at the Corner Plaza."

He then looked at me like I had something on my face.

"What?" I asked him, "What is it?!"

"Are you Tao's daughter?"

". . . Yes."

"Then I guess you'll have no problem getting this expensive thing back, right?"

"Yeah, I guess . . ."

I wasn't in the mood to go to an auction & I was pretty sure I still wouldn't be three days from then either.

I turned to look at the bedroom. They were taking his bed apart & the sheets were folded up near the window.

"Hey, can I keep the bedspread?" I asked the man in the suit, tapping him on the shoulder.

He had handed the figurine off to one of the people in uniform then turned to me like I asked something stupid.

"You guys don't take keep anything soiled, right?" I asked him again.

"No & I don't see why you would either," he said.

"Fine, I'll take that then."

". . . Help yourself."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Leifang, sometimes I worry about you . . ."

I had been sniffing his sheets a little too long & Hitomi stared at me the whole time. She didn't understand. No one has died on her so she didn't know how soothing it felt to smell his scent again. It was like he was actually there . . .

"You're going to the auction, right?" she asked me, taking the sheets from my face, "Leifang, you don't know what he's been doing on these . . ."

"It doesn't matter," I said back, setting them aside, "And, yeah, I have to if I want that dragon."

Hitomi sat on the couch next to her bed & I sat on my bed.

"When're you gonna talk to your friends again?," she asked me, "They've been calling since you left this afternoon."

"I dunno," I said, looking down at my hands, "I guess I should invite some people to the auction with me, huh?"