There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

"It's a lonely washing that has no man's shirt in it," Lucy said to him as he entered the yard. "But somehow I doubt that old Celtic proverb was talking about dress armour."  She tucked one of her white curls back under the edge of her wool hat as she straightened up. She'd been leaning over Xia's bulging laundry sack, tying off its drawstring.  Like Mr. Antoine, she wore a coat.  The temperature was colder than yesterday. 

Maurice sauntered out from beneath some bushes to sit on the grass when Wanfeng arrived.

"Sorry to have interrupted you, luv. I was worried that all the thunder last night meant a storm was on its way so I rushed out early to put your things back inside the bag. Don't mind me. I'm funny that way. Everything was dry so you know.  But why does it have to be all black? Couldn't there be other colours?" 

Wanfeng gave her a wistful smile. "My mother always says the same thing." 

"Well, I happen to agree with her.  I never had kids myself.  Maybe that's why I dote on Xia so much.  She's like the daughter I never had. It'll break my heart when she leaves... some day." 

Maurice meowed.  "Oh hush. What do you know?"  Lucy sniffed as she wiped at the corner of her eye.

The cat flumped onto his backside, raising a back leg high in order to begin grooming his-- Wanfeng cleared his throat and looked away.   

"I thank you very much for your trouble, Lady Lucy. I would have done this myself later, when I would have remembered," he confessed contritely. "The sky is clear though.  I don't believe we need worry about a storm."

"Looks can be deceiving."

Wanfeng cocked his head at Lucy's reply. It was true what she said, he thought suddenly.  The scent of rain in the air was unmistakable to him.

"You're so polite, Wanfeng, but you're making me feel my age when you say Lady. Seriously, just call me Lucy."

"I'm afraid that would not come easily to me but I will do my best... Lucy."

"So now that you've had a good night's rest.  What are your plans, Wanfeng?"

Wanfeng answered without thinking.

"I plan to travel--"

"Travel?! Oh!  It's Xia's dream to travel far and away, did you know? Always so restless that girl. Like she doesn't fit in and feels lost where she is.  It's so easy to lose one's way in an unfamiliar place. Your feet will bring you to where your heart is. They say the best path to finding one's way back home is to retrace one's steps."

Wanfeng stared at her. 

"I don't care how blue the sky is.  The way my bones ache there's a storm coming for sure."  She surprised Wanfeng by pointing her finger into the air. "Wind's shifting too. Isn't the direction supposed to tell you weather things like that?"

Wanfeng didn't get a chance to answer as Lucy kept on. "Huh, I guess I'm like Xia that way. I rely on the radio to tell me the news I need to know.  Best to leave the weather predictions to the specialists, right?"

Wanfeng now waited in polite silence, realizing he wasn't meant to be saying anything at the moment.

"Yikes!" Lucy looked at her wristwatch.  "Here I am letting my mouth run off with the time.  There just isn't enough when you need it, is there?  I've got a roast in the oven, Wanfeng, I better go.  That Chen Kai is coming today with a service technician, Xia said.  I really hope they get the furnace fixed up.  Gotta run.  Bye!"

He watched her hurry off around the side of the building.

Mrrt?

Having finished his... private grooming, Maurice was sitting back on his haunches watching Wanfeng.

"The elder has left for the grocery store. He says he will bring you your tuna." Maurice's tail swished back and forth.

Wanfeng sat down on the grass, resting his chin in his palm.  "If you could speak, what revelations would you share with me as well?"

The cat's yellow eyes slowly blinked.  Then Maurice leapt into the air with his paws extended.  Was there an insect he was trying to catch?  Wanfeng couldn't see any.  Over and over, the cat leapt, reaching for only something he could see. Only when Wanfeng kept his gaze fixed on the sky did Maurice stop and begin to purr, loudly. So loud in fact, it sounded almost like...

Thunder.   

The Lad-- Lucy had just mentioned it.  Xia had spoken about hearing thunder yesterday too but he had dismissed it at the time, thinking it her headache since he heard nothing.

But he could hear it now, faint booming claps in the atmosphere, in a crisp blue sky that held the scent of rain.

Wanfeng rose to his feet.  Where was it coming from? From the position of the sun, he ascertained the sound to be coming from a distance, somewhere from the northeast.

Northeast...

'Where are you from then?'

'A small town, northeast of here.'

"A storm is coming," Wanfeng said quietly under his breath as he glanced at the cat.  Maurice blinked, then nodded at him. 

_____

Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine" was playing off the CD she'd popped in when came a knock on her door. 

What is it today with all the knocking? 

She'd been lip syncing to the song as she finished washing the dishes, lost in her thoughts and obviously having lost track of time.  Wanfeng hadn't come back in yet from outside.  Could that be him knocking?  Why?  She knew it wasn't Lucy or Mr. Antoine who always announced themselves first.

"Xia!  It's Kai.  I'm here with the service tech.  Gotta few minutes?"  Kai!  I'd completely forgotten about him coming today.

If she didn't know better, Xia would swear her landlord looked shy when she opened her door to him.  Behind Kai stood a bear of a man, massive toolbox held in a tattooed grip. The man's leather utility belt was heavily weighed down by tools and pockets filled with nuts, bolts, and screws.

"This is Ryers," Kai said. The man nodded and smiled at Xia.  "He just needs to check out the apartment thermostats first before heading to the furnace.  Is that ok?"  Kai stretched his neck forward.  "Is your brother out?"

"Wanfeng went outside to the back for a few minutes."

"Mm.  Say Xia, if it's ok with you, I'd like it if you could come upstairs with me to my mother's apartment.  Do you mind if Ryers does his thing without you here?  There's something belonging to my mother that I think she would have wanted you have."

Something of Mrs. Chen's for her? Didn't Kai have the whole apartment cleared out?

Xia looked to Ryers' smiling face again.  She owned nothing of value.  What could he do alone here?  Steal her birdcage?  She thought of her box under her mattress. Sure, let him find the police badge there. That should be a deterrent if any.  Xia knew it was unfair to judge a book by its cover but the bear of a man looked anything but teddy-like.  Maybe working in dank basements and under toilets and in dirty vents makes anyone look a little scruffy under the collar.  As for his tatts, she'd seen worse.

What if Wanfeng comes back while I'm gone?

"Uh, when my brother gets back can you just let him know I'm upstairs?" 

"Sure, Miss, no problem," Ryers said.

"Let me put on some shoes,"  she told Kai.

_____

Sorrow weighed heavy on her heart when Xia followed Kai into Mrs. Chen's apartment.  It looked so wrong without all the beautiful Chinese furniture that used to be there. The walls seemed so lonely without the beautiful ink paintings that used to adorn them. 

Xia frowned at Kai's back.  Why hadn't he done anything except empty the place?  For that matter, what could possibly still be here that he would say his mother would want her to have?

"Yeah, I'm probably not your favourite person in the world right now given how I've neglected this place and my mother's home." Kai stopped in the middle of the empty living room and turned to face her.

Xia tensed, stunned by what was the very last thing she ever thought the guy would say. Kai was looking at her with genuine regret in his eyes.

"Look, I was a total jerk and I owe you and Mr. Michaud and Ms.O'Sullivan quite the apology for neglecting the place and all of you as well, I know." Kai drew in a shaky breath.

"One of the things I discovered when I went through my mother's belongings were her old journals --writings I'd never known about. And I've been a bit of a mess ever since I finished reading through them.  Can I be honest with you?"

Xia nodded, unsure what to say.

"My mother's journals revealed a lot of answers to questions that have affected my life.  You see, turns out she'd placed me in foster care at some point when I was a baby.  Then only came back to get me after a year.  I only kind of remember some of it. Bad nightmares and a bad attitude that came with them.  I never knew who my father was.  My mother would only tell me he left when I was a few months old and that she'd had a really rough time and wasn't able to take care of me. I'd always resented her for that, even if she did come back to get me.  We didn't have the best relationship in the world as you probably guessed since I never came by here before she died.  But reading about her life and her struggles, I came to realize I had a lot in common with my mother, and that I let my anger at her human weakness cost me what should have been my only blood family tie.  The last few months I've been hating on myself so bad for that and wanted nothing to do with anything that would remind me of her and how badly I screwed up.  If I could go back in time, I would do things differently."

Kai rubbed at his eyes.  He chuckled darkly, emotion thick in his voice.  "Yeah, so much for being the tough guy.  Now you must really think me some kind of crying wimp."

He'd been in the system too?!

Xia stepped closer to him.  "No, Kai, no.  Tough guys can cry too.  I get it. Believe me, I get it."

"My mother wrote all kinds of nice stuff about you, Xia.  How much she really  liked you and appreciated how you helped her take care of the place. I don't want you or the others to worry about any rent increases, ok?  It's the least I can do for her to make up for my lousy behaviour. I know her apartment looks bare but there are still a few odds and ends in the bedroom that the movers left because they didn't know what to do with it."

Xia had a fleeting thought to ask if she could read Mrs. Chen's journals but quickly stopped.  They would be the woman's most private, personal thoughts.  While it was right for her son to read them, Xia had no business of even thinking to ask.

"Come with me." Kai led the way to Mrs. Chen's old bedroom.

There were some dusty cardboard boxes stacked in a corner. Otherwise the former bedroom looked just as abandoned as the rest of the apartment.  Kai went to the boxes and opened the top one. Reaching inside, he pulled out a small black lacquer box inlaid with tiny shell flowers.

"Here."  Kai handed it to Xia.

Lifting off the lid, Xia's nose crinkled at the aroma of assorted tea bags lined up inside.

Looking shy again, Kai's cheeks reddened slightly as he started to rub the back of his neck.  "Uh, yeah, see, my mother was big into drinking all kinds of teas for her health. Uh, you probably know that already.  In her journals, she claimed they often helped whenever she suffered from certain "female complaints" like bad headaches. So you might not want to share any with your brother because they're meant for women?  I don't know." Kai laughed softly. "The teas contain special herbs imported from China."

Xia smiled.  She knew how much Mrs. Chen was into herbal medicine and teas.  It was on many a sunny afternoon that she would sit with the woman out in the garden and share one of her great teas with her.

"Too weird?"  Kai went to take back the box which Xia clutched closer to her.

"Not at all!  Your mom was always inviting me to have tea with her on weekends when I wasn't studying or at work.  I really appreciate you thinking of me for these, Kai."

_____

"Who are you?  Where is Xia?"

Ryers jerked back at the loud thump of the laundry sack that had been dropped to the floor.  The tall man confronting him looked like one of those GQ male models, like Chen, except where Chen oozed sexiness with the ladies, this guy radiated something on a whole different level.

Having just finished installing the camera inside the apartment thermostat, Ryers had been testing it out on his phone to make sure the lens had a clear view, which it did.  He still had the torcher to install in the oil furnace so now wasn't the time to get into it with pretty boy here.  But he could see why this guy had the cool and calculating Chen unnerved.  What's the matter, Chen?  Got a little competition? Ryers couldn't deny the girl was quite the looker even though petites weren't his flavour.  Still, he didn't get why Chen was going through this hassle for one woman when he could have his pick of many.  Whatever.  Not his business. Getting paid his cash was all Ryers cared about.

But maybe he could score a bonus helping Chen out a bit now?

"You're the brother?  I'm the technician here to fix the furnace.  Needed to check out the thermostats first.  I think Chen offered to take your sister out for lunch.  They left not too long ago."

Ryers wanted to grin at the man's long black hair streaming behind him as he bolted out the apartment.  Instead he frowned, poking his finger into his ear to jiggle it.  He could have sworn he'd heard some kind of wild animal snarl just now.