Short Story I

Iris has been a friend of mine since high school. Nobody would use "beautiful" to describe Iris. But the fact always lost on guys when they were enchanted by her slender figure, soft voice, the smooth, lady-like movement, especially her dark bright eyes which betrayed the owner's intelligence and sometimes stubbornness (of course, lost on guys as well). Iris did enjoy the attentions from boys and quickly started dating one of the most eager boys. The dating was covered under many gatherings of friends. So her parents never had any clue until the senior year in high school. Iris's parents were both professors at a very prestigious university. Iris was their only daughter. She was raised up in the university campus (Tu Mu Yuan) under strict rules and careful educations. In her parents' minds, Iris would be the last of all girls to do anything wrong, particularly dating boys in high school. When news came that Iris was seen kissing a boy in a theater, this was a blow to her parents, and subsequently a "perfect storm" for Iris. In my opinion, the highly educated people, or “elites” in China are the most pretentious creatures in the world. Iris parents are among the weirdest in that bunch. Her father was known among his students as the most knowledgeable and gentlemanly professor, with appealing sense of humor (lots of college girls admired him. In fact, Iris’s mother used to be his student). Her mother, a descendent from an old family with blue blood, was the most lady-like, noble person one could ever expect to see in real life. But when it got down to Iris’s “intolerable” behavior and their humiliation in public, the layers of disguises were peeled off, revealing the bear bone of human nature and abuse as the last resort. Iris was very tight-lipped about what happened at home. But the shabby apartment did not offer the best sound-proof effect. High-pitched female soprano together with uncontrollable loud weeping, mixed with deep male baritone penetrated through the enclosures to every family around it. Occasionally, even sounds of physical violence came through. What was missing from this orchestra of abuse, surprisingly, was Iris’s own voice. No loud crying, no protesting, no argument, no nothing. She was completely mute. But that did not give her any chance of easy relief. From then on, Iris was escorted to and from school by her parent. Every single friend of Iris’s was informed that she was not available for any social event. Also, everyone should ” keep an eye ” on her and the other boy. Teachers at school were told that the two love birds should be separated into different classes and forbidden to speak to each other. Retrospectively, they really should not have worried about this and humiliated themselves even more, because, while Iris was quietly resisting her parents’ demands, the hero of the “love affair” had bailed out on her. Now we have to introduce our first hero in this story, Iris’s first boyfriend, MIG. There was not much that could recommend MIG to Iris, to any girl at that age. True, he was tall. But most of the boys in that class were tall and quite handsome. True, he would do something strange and make people laugh. But that usually came from his awkward behavior. He was more being laughed at than considered humorous. What caught Iris’s attention was one incident. Veggiedoggie was one of Iris’s best friends. The two of them were together since they were newborn. They were in the same class from daycare all the way to high school. Never was a day passed by that Veggiedoggie and Iris were not seen together having little snacks while wandering around the campus, talking and laughing secretively about you-know-what. Of course MIG’s ardor for Iris did not escaped Veggiedoggie, though she thought that was a laughable affair. To have a bit of fun for herself and for Iris, Veggiedoggie, on Valentine’s day, forged Iris’s hand-writing and wrote a note to MIG: “Please meet me at noon under the third lamp pole from the left at playground. I will be waiting”. MIG had tried and failed numerous times to get Iris to talk in private. And this note came on Valentine’s day!!! He was there waiting under the third lamp pole at the playground for 2 hours until the afternoon classes were on and he had to go. He was late for the class. When he made his entrance, the whole class burst out in laughter. (Veggiedoggie told most people except Iris and MIG. ) The teacher was confused, usually students dosed off in her class. Iris was puzzled too. MIG was humiliated, blushing to the neck. (What is a red-neck? That is it.) He knew immediately what happened. MIG was good. He got over this pretty quickly. After the first class, he was at Iris’s desk and told her everything. Iris immediately knew who did this. But it did not affect her friendship with Veggiedoggie. After all, it was just an innocent joke and Veggiedoggie was just another teenager having fun. On the other hand, MIG had deeply impressed Iris. She had never thought that any boy would stay outside in mid Feb. for 2 hours waiting for her. That evening, MIG accompanied Iris back home. However, to MIG, waiting for a girl in bone-piercing chilliness for 2 hours was one thing, having his own life style threatened by his parents was another. He was shocked and scared by what happened to Iris, also was scared by his own parents. So he made his move quickly. He broke up with Iris.