--- Later that evening at dinner, the three family members, with Claire being at college, sat and had a normal conversation; until the end of the meal.... "My company wants me to go to China for a little while. Three and a half weeks actually." Carl announced. "When do you leave?" Austin questioned. "Three days." he replied. Austin was shocked. Not because his dad was going on another trip, but due to the fact that his birthday was in five days and it would mean that his dad would miss it for the. The next few weeks passed in a similar fashion. There was the occasional report of stolen bicycles, but nothing that actually amounted to any police work. The bikes will have been dismantled repainted, practically untraceable, it was futile even filing the report. That was until he received a phone call, an unfamiliar number.“ Hello?”, Ming stated, in his stern police officer voice, a voice reserved for work and unexpected phone calls.“Hi, is that officer Ming, its Chen calling, we spoke a few. Although I will probably be getting home at around 1:30 I think. We’re meeting in Santa Monica, which is about halfway for each of us. So dinner, movie, maybe a drink or two then walk around the pier. So 1:30 would be about right.”I still remember the month before when I had gotten the letter with a copy of her draft article. I did not even think asking where she had gotten my address, I had just assumed Mr. Cummings gave it to her. I was surprised to read the article, and was pleased. It was. Even with just the two of us inside the little room, we hardly had enough space to move about. I put the bag to one corner and stood behind mom and tried to remove the hook of her chudidar. It was stuck pretty tightly and it was getting hard to remove it with mom moving about. I held mom by her bare arms and told her to stay still. After some struggles I removed the hook and mom completely removed her top.She turned around and kissed me on the cheeks. “Thanks beta” she said. Then she started.