Book Title: Keychains

Book Genre: General Fiction

Author: JH_Foliage

Character Name: Tai Vuong

Nominated by:  NefertitiFenison

About the story:

It's been ten years since Nora Whelan ran away, taking with her the painful secrets that shattered her family. Her ability to peer into other people's lives had saved her own. Now as the marketing manager of a technological enterprise, Nora is determined to succeed and leave her past failures behind. But when Nora discovers she's to inherit her family's old house, she must confront her past, as well as the truth behind her visions.

As Nora dives deeper into the fractured past of her family, she is faced with a difficult question: What is worth fixing, and what is better left behind?

What should I call you? Do you prefer a nickname?

You can call me Tai. Can't get any shorter than that. My sisters tried making my name longer so they could tease me, so I'm glad my parents stuck with a simple name. It means "great extreme." No offense against my name, but it's really vague. I think that's a good thing though, because I can mold it to mean myself, right?

That's kinda cool. Welcome and thanks for agreeing to talk to us today.

Yeah, it sounded fun so I might as well try. I did need the money to pay for rent - wait, am I being compensated? Are you sure? Did....did I read the poster wrong? Oh. Uh, sorry for misunderstanding. Well I'm free for the rest of the day. Didn't know this part of the city existed. There were some pretty cool and scary people in the waiting room. Do some of them have magic, or something? Sorry if that's classified. But thanks for inviting me!

Well, I'm lucky to get to chat with all kinds of... beings. Can I get you something to drink? Water? Soda? Coffee? Wine? Whiskey?

Um. Can you repeat that? So you said...okay. Water is meh, soda gives me that weird nose burn after a while, I need to stay away from caffeine, and I really, really can't drink and drive. I drive a lot. Do you have apple juice?

You bet. Lets start with you telling me a little about yourself.

(Stares at the ground intently, thinking.) Sorry, I have all these ideas in my head but it'll take me too long to say them. Didn't someone tell you something about me? How did you know who I was? I think you'd get to know me in the rest of the interview.

You were nominated by a fan who thought you had a tale to tell. So let's dive in. Where do you live?

I lived on the road for the past couple of years, stopping over at towns and motels sometimes, but my car is my main home. A good thing since it's pretty roomy. Oh, but I'm staying in the city for a while, so right now it's an apartment in a high rise. I don't know how long I'll be here before I get on the move again. In a way I'm glad this place is so big. There's a lot of restaurants, businesses, parks and landmarks to explore. Pokemon GO helps a lot.

Wow. Nomadic life huh. Do you have any jobs or hobbies?

I like playing my guitar, making music and singing. I'm really good at the former two, but I'm not good with vocals. It's easier to just focus on the music, you know? You don't have to think about turning it into words because others understand it too. Technically it's also my job since I play on the streets and in the subways. It helps with. Though there was one time where I signed up as a nail polish artist. They were pretty desperate, and that's the job that was the most fun and didn't pay horribly. I had practice with doing my sisters' nails.

I also like collecting maps from the different places I've visited and marking them with stuff I remember. It's been a habit all the way from childhood, even before I got into music. But is that a hobby or just an interest? I mean, if reading counts as a hobby, and that's a passive activity, then I guess my fascination in topography counts, even though I'm not making my own maps. But topography and guitar are also different. Guitar is something I pick up from time to time, but topography is always at the back of my mind.

What are some of your likes and dislikes?

I dislike thunder, philosophy because it makes no sense no matter how hard I try to wrap my head around it, reading, snow, carbonated drinks, sprinting, dead ends, outdated websites, and bananas unless they're in a smoothie. And sameness, because it gets boring after a while. It's why I prefer moving from place to place. Sameness isn't the same as routine though.

Oh, you asked about my likes? It's frustrating because I can't come up with all of them right now, but I drank bubble tea for the first time yesterday, and it was pretty good. Traffic is a bit of a nightmare here, so riding the city streetcars when no one else is on them is relaxing after a long day.

I get the trolling the city when Its quiet. What is your greatest fear?

There's plenty of things I'm scared of. And our true, greatest fear is usually invisible to us, right? But there was this one time when I was in cross country, and I was racing against other classmates. I ended up in the upper half of the placements, which I was proud of, but I quitted cross country afterwards because of my coach. See, I thought cross country would give me time to find my pacing and slow down when I need it. But my coach told me that I shouldn't have walked as much as I did, because it wasn't the right way of doing it.

Basically, and this is more of an annoyance, but it drives me crazy when there's a "right way" of doing things. I never understood, never will, but sometimes I wonder, you know: What if there's an easier way that I refused to see because I'm too close-minded?

That's a great perspective. If we didn't challenge the status quo now and again, nothing would ever change. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

If this counts, then I wish my family had more get-togethers. That's hypocritical coming from me because I pretty much hate them--it's too many relatives and fussing around--but my little sister told me she misses back when everyone was together. Now my siblings live in different places, while my parents are at home, sometimes on business trips. We're lucky that none of us have grown too far apart. We keep in touch a lot. It'd be nice to see each other in person more, though.

Family's are complicated. You mentioned a sister. Do you have other siblings?

Yeah, I have two sisters, Kimmy and Tienne, and an older brother, Liam. I don't know Liam as well because he was born a lot earlier than me, and he moved out after Tienne was born. But Kimmy and Tienne would bug me to no end. Now that I think about it, I'm really grateful for them being great sisters. They dragged me to their slumber parties, sure, but they made school bearable. Tienne, especially, was always there for me. I love them.

Do you have any special talents?

A special talent? Not really. Asides from my knowledge about topography, I'm pretty average in the grand scheme of things. Even if I take into account my "special" talent, it's only special because I haven't met anyone with a similar uh, skillset. I think, anyway. The world's pretty big though. I haven't given up.

Great attitude. Do you like to travel?

Totally! I've been to thirty-two countries, and I love exploring new places. Staying in one place is hard for me, but travelling helps me learn new ways to see life and have fun. Now, airplanes and ships are definitely not fun, so I prefer driving, walking or even biking when I can. It's more hands-on, you know? There is the downside of expenses, but I think I've avoided that problem for the most part. My parents have a lot of money and Kimmy taught me how to save money with interest. But now I'm seeing if I can land a stable job here. If you hear about any openings, let me know.

Will do! If you could go back in time for one day, where would you go?

One day is too cruel. Wouldn't that cause paradoxes? I mean if time travelling does exist, then it's not a far-fetched idea. But I'd pick the last time when Liam came home for Chinese New Year. It was just my siblings and parents for that day. We were done celebrating, so we played board games. I beat everyone at Settlers of Catan. Liam also told us a lot about what he was doing at work, and it's the best memory I had of him and I just talking.

Wonderful. Have you ever served in the military?

No, though Liam had for a while despite our parents' worries. He came back quickly because he didn't like the rules. I think he likes making them instead, and I can respect that. I wouldn't ever join the military. I'm really clumsy.

Are you happy we know your story?

I don't know? Depends on what you do with it.

Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

I don't think I'll have any fans for a while. My music career hasn't even started.

We all have fans. Perhaps just not typical ones. Can we look forward to reading more of your story?

I'm not a storyteller, but...I hope? I mean I tend to drift and circle back around so if I'm gone, I'll probably show up sooner or later.

Unfortunately Tai that's all the time we have today. I enjoyed chatting with you. Perhaps you'll drop by with and update if you do show up around here again.

To read Tai's story, click on the link in the comment here ---->

Now it's your turn to ask Tai.

Add your questions as an inline comment here. Don't forget to tag JH_Foliage so they can get the question to him. ---->