Bianhua Ch 03

Bianhua

A Bud blooms

Part three

The big black stallion, a horse among horses as far as I concerned was following us as Alana and I walked slowly back towards the coral and the huge horse barn. He was constantly trying to stick his head between ours as if he were going to miss something. To me, it was humorous while Alana was taking it in stride.

Alana said in jest, "You had to get one that will be sagacious in how he tries to get your unrestrictive attention. I wonder if it will be a problem down the line."

"He's just a young adult like yours," I replied. 'As he matures, he will settle down."

We were holding hands taking our time, just enjoying the mid-morning sun. It was nice to see spring finally taking hold in the northwest. We were discovering, together, that the horse I had yet to name had a playful, almost kid-like nature.

Being a big, young adult male horse, we would learn that for him it would be, and was, the most natural thing for him to do. I saw it as his natural curiosity shining bright since, after all, that was what inspired his picking of me.

Clearly, my thoughts relating to him had been implanted in his mind. His devotion and loyalty towards me were now firmly established. Alana noted that I had done something different to him than I had with her horse. That led to me having to explain why. I tied her experience from when she got hurt into what I had done.

When she heard my explanation, she could see why things had to be different from each of our horses. Simply put, I was doing two different things. Her horse would reach the same level as mine, but it would take a little more time.

It was when she caught on to what I had actually been able to do, Alana asked, "What did you implant into the eagles to get them to go along with what you wanted to do?"

"A mutual respect, as equals of different types," I replied. "Both having no fear of the other for the next hour."

I guess what I had just said got to Alana because she got quiet for a few moments. I was trying to figure out if I had said something to upset her when she started to speak with seriousness to her voice. "There's something I need to explain to you," Alana said with a worried voice. "I may have made a big mistake because I let it slip at school that you had grown up in China and Scotland."

"That shouldn't be a problem with our modern society there is a lot of people who have different multi-cultural backgrounds so it may not be a problem at all," I replied, trying to diffuse her fears. "It's not like it was years ago when seeing one of a different culture was a rarity. How did it come out?"

"We were changing after gym class and a girl of oriental descent saw my ring. She was more than just curious about it because she came across from the other side of the room to ask me about it. Thinking about it now, it went beyond what I would consider normal," Alana said. "I explained that it was my boyfriends and that you had been raised in China and Scotland because your parents had been missionaries."

"When I questioned her about it, she said that her older cousin had worn one around her neck just like it for years. I told her that you had given it to me when we agreed to become exclusive. She asked if she could take a picture of it and I allowed her to," Alana further explained. "I thought about it later and wondered if that might have been a mistake because the girl has an oriental heritage. I have been wondering what if it had something to do with your history."

"That's okay, there is most likely nothing to it. Besides, I don't think my father's ring is that unique," I replied. "The American authorities in China, at that time were concerned about my history becoming public knowledge because of unanswered questions about what was going on. That is why I do not talk a lot about it. As far as I know, they could still be investigating it."

"Why you were just a child," Alana said. "

"Something or someone led the Chinese government into believing my parents were spies," I stated. "It led to their execution despite the pressure applied by countries in the world like ours."

"It has led me to think that the clamp down on the Christian faith was done to hide the Government of China's true agenda," I explained. "If it became officially known who I am. Those who were involved in the situation at that time still might see me as a threat to their ongoing authority. If what I have been told is true, some of those involved could be living here in this country, today."

Alana stopped and looked directly at me and said, "That may explain why I have not been able to find anything related to your name on the web. Am I right?

That was when I realized that it was time to tell my girlfriend a few secret things that may be or may not be important. For me, I had to decide if I could trust her. She needed to understand my thinking about some things for our relationship to grow. I remained silent for a few minutes trying to decide what to do.

"Most of the games available on the web, through direct web addresses or sites like Facebook you will find Chinese symbols or words that show up on them occasionally. With time and usage, all coding wears down if not regularly updated. That is why blurbs like that keep appearing," I explained. "Look at how often Microsoft updates windows ten as proof. They accidentally could be revealing added hidden programming because of the excess of usage."

"The internet is a tool that the Chinese government uses effectively to control its society in their own country. They use it, for example, to track their own people's movement," I explained. 'Via it, they can track where you are every minute. It is safe to say that, in a way, it is so bad that if they wanted to know with whom you slept with last night, they could determine it."

"Those with knowledge of how they manipulate things by using the internet have to ask themselves what they are doing on the web to try to affect or influence what is going on in our country and why," I said. "What most in society don't comprehend is that the web is the greatest social engineering tool ever created and a great aid to those desiring to manipulate things."

"My adopted father, the master, said the effective way to beat the Chinese government at their own game is not to play where it gives them an advantage," I said. "Because of that, I don't fully trust anything found in or disclosed in the mass media, nor the social media, because it's become a playing field for those with an agenda."

"Blackstone was my mother's maiden name," I explained. "The consulate in China changed my last name before they allowed me to leave China. I was sent to five different countries before arriving in Scotland because they needed to make it as hard as impossible for foreign governments to tract me. They did that to protect me because the Chinese Government knew that I had been found and were looking for a way to get my back. I'm surprised that you didn't catch on because I only refer to my parents in their first names not their last."

"My parents knew just enough of Bruce's story not to ask any further questions," Alana pointed out. "They may have known about your parent's relationship with him but not their full names. They most likely assumed it was the same as yours. It also explains why they found you acceptable enough for me to date. Until you came along, boys have been a closed-door sort of thing. I could date someone but not on an ongoing basis."

"So are you telling me that I am your first steady," I with a grin.

"Yes, and hopefully my last," Alana replied. "Now continue with what you were saying."

"Those I know from that time period are very tight-lipped about everything," I said. "The only thing your cousin Bruce ever said about that time was that my parent's problems started back here because of my parent's own family. It's left me with a bunch of questions that, I think will begin to be answered when I find La Chey."

"We could do a web search for him," Alana suggested.

"La Chey is what I called him," I said. "I have his real name written down as I remember it, but with me being so young it is more than likely that what I know is wrong. It could also have been changed when he became a US citizen, and if the government thought there was a need to further protect him."

"Now I understand why you don't have a Facebook page," Alana said. "You don't want to take the chance until your search for the truth is done. Do you still have your parent's legal names?"

"Of course," I replied. "They're listed on the copy that I have of my birth certificate. Why?"

"Because I want to put their names into ansestory.com and research your family tree," Alana said. "Perhaps that will give us a lead when we check out what the web says about those still around."

"I will by a new laptop for you to do it on," I said. "Use an artificial name, and address when setting it up. Be sure to only use it where there is a lot of people using free Wi-Fi. When you got all the information you can find transferred to a stick, I will give you a program that will permanently alter the laptop's IPN number. After installing it and running the program, the laptop will be reset to the factory setting and give it to someone who needs it."

"Smart thinking," Alana said. "I will do that during spare classes at school. With seven hundred students attending school, it would take them months to find the right one."

"How can they find something that will no longer exist," I asked? "The new IPN erases the chance it will ever be found."

Alana's face showed her surprise, so I added. "That is just how easy it is to manipulate and use the internet for your own advantage. Anybody with a bit of knowledge can create a lot of things that have their own life and not leave a trail that can be completely sourced back to its origins."

"Seriously I would never have known any of this," Alana said. "Internet security is talked about but only for our personal protection. It is never disclosed just how corrupt or dangerous the internet might be. Why isn't what your explaining to me discussed publicly?"

"It is deliberately kept from the public eyes because of the money it has generated," I said. "If the truth became known and accepted, think of how many jobs and business would be ended because of the concerns of honest people."

"My adopted father always said it take patience for the truth to come out, especially when society is doing its damndest to destroy itself," I said. "Understand the master saw the world wide web as the greatest snake that ever existed. I see it as a tool created by man that can be used for good or evil. The truth, when it arrives, is like a tidal wave that takes everyone down in its way because they are shocked into a different reality. While working together we may find a way to be able to push its time schedule a bit."

"It still leaves the question of why my classmate was so interested in your ring," Alana said. "I'm going to develop a deeper friendship with her. Perhaps as we grow closer that will help me to finally understand why?"

"What's your instinct telling you," I asked?

"That something we think we know does not add up," Alana said.

"Then keep your senses up, watch and learn," I said. "Learn everything you can about the young lady who was doing the inquiring."

********

Bonnie and Ian Conner were watching their daughter and her boyfriend having a serious discussion. Bonnie had noticed them because they were not moving. They were starting to get concerned until they saw them go back to doing a little kissing. Both Ian and Bonnie had to laugh because Dirk's horse was trying its best to get in their way when they tried to do that.

"Whatever the problem was, it looks like they got it sorted out," Ian said. "Alana has lost her serious look and is now smiling."

"There back to holding hands," Bonnie said as she headed into the house. "If it was important, I will hear about it later."

"Darling if you remember back to us at their age, we too had our moments," Ian said. "We, like them, had to work out our feeling of being awkward with each other when communicating. I'm sure our faces at that time were just as expressive as theirs."

********

Alana and I spent the day working with our horses. As a reward before we left them for the night, we brushed them down before feeding them a special treat. Toby was already wearing the saddle she would use to ride him.

Even her father had been impressed with the progress she was making. Although he used more traditional ways to break a horse, he could see the advantage in the way we were doing it. He could see that the way we were doing was giving the horse time to get normalized by the process. The subtle difference he saw was that the horse kept more of its natural spirit. He saw that as being a lifelong asset.

Toby and Alana would be inseparable. There was not one thing that horse would not do to protect her. Even the hired staff had caught on to that simple fact. Alana had gotten into a heated argument with one of the staff over the way she was training it.

The staff member felt intimidated when the horse brought his head over Alana's shoulder staring at him as if he were ready to charge. Toby had naturally sensed that something was bothering her. That was when both he and the hired staff understood the differences in training. One was creating a workhorse to be used as they saw fit. The other was developing a partnership for life.

Just before saying good night Alana again reminded me that the spring Junior prom this year had a multicultural theme. Some of the dresses worn that night would show an oriental theme. Hers would reflect the Chinese New Year or spring festival in color and length. She had even decided to do her hair up in a bun for the night and had bought an oriental looking hairpiece to help her achieve the image she was going for.

I promised her that I would wear something that would properly complement her manner of dress. What she did not realize was that the clothing I would wear that night would take me back to my roots.

It was just before Alana went to bed that her mother asked her if we had a verbal disagreement.

"Mom, I raised a question that brought out a serious conversation about a lot of things that I needed to know," Alana said. "I learned from that discussion not to just accept things the way they are publicly presented."

"Then it was a good thing that Dirk and you had that talk," Bonnie said.

"It was a learning experience for sure in many ways," Alana said. "As a result, from that serious chat, I know for sure that Dirk has complete trust in me, as I do him."

To Bonnie what her daughter revealed to her spoke volumes. It showed that their relationship was deeper and stronger than most boy-girl relationships were at their age. Something was bringing these two together because the two of them were already working on a firm foundation that would perhaps become a permanent fixture in their walk in life.

If what she sensed about these two proved true, it was not if but when they would get married. The way she was feeling about it was puzzling to her because she had not been sure about something like this since she was a child.

********

Every one of my female staff checked with me to make sure that everything I had planned for the date would be in line with what was expected for something so traditional as the junior prom. That was when I got schooled on its long history and what it meant.

Based on what they had told me it was the night the seniors passed the torch of being a senior to the future graduating class. For most females in junior high, it would be their first major social event outside of family events of importance. In the adult world, It was their way of saying, "I am a woman and I have arrived." It was the American symbol that signified the passing from being a teenage girl to an adult in womanhood.

I checked in with the office before I went to get prepared to go, only to receive a bunch of reminders of the do's and do not's from the female staff. After doing all the usual stuff, I got dressed in a suit I had bought in New York with a bunch of other clothing. The owner had been shocked because to him it had to different for someone of my background to pick out what I did.

He had been in awe as he measured the pieces so they could be fitted to fit me. When I tried the clothing on after the alterations were done, I was extremely pleased with how I looked.

While looking at the finished clothing in the mirror I said to him in Chinese "gōng zuò zuò dé hěn hǎo," which means a job well done.

In shock, he responded, "nǐ zěn me zhī dào zěn me shuō zhōng wén" which means how do you know how to speak Chinese?

I responded with "wǒ shì yóu wǒ de zhǔ rén jiào de," which says I learned from my master. To this day I have not forgotten the look on his face. I realized much later that my words had reflected back in time to the old Chinese culture.

When I went back to the office to wait for the limo to arrive, everybody was in awe. One of the mothers, whose daughter would be attending the prom, took one look at me and said, "Dirk, well done!"

I was wearing a midnight black Mandarin style Italian made suit with a soft pale purple shirt of the same style with leather shoes. I preferred this style of suit compared to western culture because I could leave the top two buttons of my shirt open. I hated having anything against my throat. It had been my adopted father's favorite ways to get me to listen; by sticking a stick across the front of my throat as he stood behind me giving me some more of his wisdom.

"Dirk, few men can wear that style of suit and do it justice," Cathy whose daughter was attending said. "It suits you well. It makes you appear that you are a man with great taste in class and style. I hope your girlfriend is pleased because you definitely went the extra mile for her tonight."

"Alana warned me that the prom had a multi-cultural theme and that part of the decorations contained Chinese style lanterns," I said. "That was when I decided to wear this."

When I saw the limo drive up, I went in and took the corsage box out of the staff fridge. As I left the building some of the female staff said, "have fun."

********

Ian was standing there holding the door as I got out of the limo carrying the flower box.

"Wow, you look like a million dollars, man," Ian said with a smile. "Is my daughter expecting this type of reception?"

"No, I told her I would be borrowing a friend's car," I said. "And I would have until some of the female staff at work explained to me what this event is supposed to represent. I think she expects me to show up in blue jeans with a sports jacket."

"Smart move. Sometimes it pays to listen to your elders," Ian replied. "Come on in. We will let her know you're here."

I walked through the front door only to see Bonnie catching a few shots of me with her cell phone. She said in her Gaelic tongue, "tá tú prionsa i measc na bhfear," which means you are a prince among men.

I felt like I was flying blind: hearing that from Alana's mother spoke volumes. It helped me to relax a lot.

Bonnie could see the difference in my body's response immediately because she said in laughter, "Dirk it gets easier from here because you passed the deadly parental approval."

Ian went to his stash and got out the bottle of scotch I had given him to pour us a drink "You have time to drink this before our daughter comes down."

"No, I better not," I said. "After all, I will be attending a dance filled with minors. Although I would like to its best that I not. I don't want us to be turned away at the door because of the smell of booze on my breathe."