Kenwyn, Walter, Tuck, and Cricket celebrate Valentine's Day in Hong Kong…

Part 1

I do not own.

"So does Hong Kong celebrate Valentine's day?" Kenwyn asked Walter as he sipped some tea.

"Hmm? Well, obviously, they don't traditionally celebrate it. But Western traditions have a habit of creeping into other cultures." Walter said dismissively.

"Don't mind him." Cricket told Kenwyn. "He's naturally aau hei, very grumpy."

"I'm not grumpy." Walter said petulantly. "I'm more yau muk."

"What does that mean?" Kenwyn looked at Cricket and Tuck.

"It means he thinks he's funny." Cricket rolled her eyes.

"Oh, well, he is funny… in the head." Kenwyn said. Tuck and Cricket snickered.

"Haha, oh, please stop. I can't take any more of your wit." Walter said flatly.

The four of them sat in a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong having a traditional Cantonese breakfast of dim sum. The restaurant was decorated with pink hearts and cupids, which surprised Kenwyn who associated those items with the United States.

"Well, Valentine's Day or not, I'm going to enjoy our time off from Providence." Tuck said getting another dumpling from the bamboo steamer. "First a good long breakfast, then off to the arcade, then lunch at the food carts, then a trip to the entertainment district, then dinner at the Floating Restaurant."

"Oh the Floating Restaurant is such a tourist trap." Cricket groaned.

"Well, we have a tourist." Walter pointed at Kenwyn.

"Hey, I came here with you guys because I want an authentic experience. I'll go wherever you guys want." She said.

"That's very magnanimous of you." Walter said suspiciously.

"But I made a schedule for us to follow so we can optimize our time here." Kenwyn pulled out a sheet from her pocket. "Here, all you need to do is fill in the space here, here, here… and here with where we are going and we can maximize our fun."

"I knew it. I knew you'd do something like that. You can't schedule fun!" Walter looked at her. "You should just go with the flow."

"That's what you said about the amusement park… and we ended up standing on line for hours for two rides. Then when we followed my plan we ended up on all the rides with barely a wait… sometimes riding even twice." Kenwyn said smugly.

"Yeah, well, that's a different kind of vacation. This is a relax, do what we want when we want vacation." Walter argued.

"It's okay. It wouldn't hurt to have a little schedule to keep us on track." Cricket said trying to keep the peace. "Here, give it to me." She took Kenwyn's paper and filled it out.

"Thank you, Cricket." She looked pointedly at Walter. "If we're done here, let's head over to the arcade. Time's awasting." Walter rolled his eyes.

Tuck pulled out his wallet and pulled out his credit card. A waiter appeared at his elbow to hand him the check. Tuck handed him the credit card. A few minutes later the man came back with the receipt. Once it was signed, the group left the restaurant.

"Arcade's this way." Tuck said leading the way. Walking through several alleyways, they ended up at a plain wooden door with a Chinese sign over it. Tuck opened the door. Kenwyn walked into a dimly lit place filled with vintage video games.

"Wow, I guess I was expecting something more modern." Kenwyn muttered.

"The newer stuff's in the back. But it doesn't hold a candle to the stuff in Tokyo. So we don't even bother. It's the retro stuff we come here for anyway." Walter walked to a large video game machine. "Ah, Miss Pac-Man, did you miss me?" He gave it a hug.

"Stop, you're embarrassing me." Kenwyn grumbled.

"Yeah, that's why we go play over there." Cricket beckoned her to follow them. They walked over to a racing game that had bikes you sit on to control the avatars.

"Now we're talking." Kenwyn said her eyes lighting up.

"This is Tuck's and my favorite." Cricket picked the pink bike. Tuck got on the black one and Kenwyn sat on the dark purple one.

Cricket popped in a coin as did Kenwyn and Tuck. They sat ready. After the third beep they all hit their throttle and shot off.

0o0

"That was fun." Kenwyn declared.

"Yeah! I beat my new high score in Miss Pac-Man." Walter said proudly.

"Whatever! You need to broaden your horizons. There are other video games, you know." Tuck elbowed him.

"Hmph, none as good as my baby." Walter scoffed.

"Come on, we are three minutes behind schedule. If we move it we can still make up the time." Kenwyn quickened her pace.

"Seriously, we don't need to rush." Suddenly, Walter stopped. "Hey? You hear that?"

Cricket and Tuck stopped as well.

"Hey yeah, is that the..." Cricket's eyes widened as she recognized the banging gongs.

"It is!" Tuck shot off in the direction of the sound followed by Cricket and Walter.

"Wait! Where is everyone going?" Kenwyn called to them. "We are off schedule!"

She threw her arms up but ran after them.

Cricket, Tuck, and Walter stopped in front of a crowd.

"It is! It's a Chinese New Year parade!" Cricket squealed.

"A what?" Kenwyn panted after catching up.

"It's still Chinese New Year so they sometimes have parades that march around the local streets. See that's the dragon and those are the traditional lion dancers." Cricket pointed to all the dancers in colorful costumes.

"Let's get closer." Walter said pushing through the crowd.

"Walter, wait for us." Tuck called out.

"Those dancers are amazing." Kenwyn said awed as they tumbled, jumped, and danced in sync with the banging of the barrel drums.

"Yeah, most of them belong to some martial arts school." Cricket pointed at symbol on the drums.

"It looks familiar but I can't place which school it's from." Tuck scratched his head.

"What does it matter? It's cool. See what happens when you're flexible." He looked smugly at Kenwyn.

"I guess this is an acceptable reason to go off schedule." Kenwyn admitted reluctantly.

"Heck, yeah. Check out those acrobatics." Walter was still rubbing it in. Firecrackers went off. The finale caused excessive amount of smoke to obscure the view.

Kenwyn waved her hand to clear the smoke. "Ugh, is it always this smoky?" She coughed. When she turned to Walter, he was noticeably missing.

"Walter? Cricket, did you see where…" She trailed off when she realized that Tuck and Cricket were also gone. She turned to one of the spectators. "Excuse me? Did you see three people next to me?

"Mmsic tang." The lady said in Cantonese. The spectators were dispersing. The acrobats were also leaving.

"Crap!" Cricket was not there to translate. Kenwyn ran to one of the performers. "Excuse me? Does anyone speak English?" The performers shook their head and continued packing. Kenwyn spun around frustrated. Where could they have gone? She watched the drums being loaded onto a cart hooked to a motorcycle. The movers seemed to be having trouble with the last one. The drum tipped over and the top fell off. Kenwyn saw Walter's unconscious form at the bottom.

"Hey!" Kenwyn yelled.

The men quickly pushed the drum upright. One of them cried to the motorcyclist who immediately shot off.

"Oh, no you don't!" Kenwyn ran after them.

So is anyone still reading these?