"I suppose it's a fine way to go.  She was chief mourner at Art's funeral even though the family forbade her from being in the hospital room when he died as they weren't married.  They didn't consider he as true Crawford kin. He left money for her too you know to make sure she was never unhappy. Isn't that a beautiful thing to say to the woman you love?  It wasn't good nor too bad, she just got into a car accident where her brain was injured. When we went to go see her, she had already pa.s.sed on, the physician attending her told us that she didn't feel any pain as her other injuries were so severe." Nadius sniffed and wiped some tears with a tissue that had been in one of the deep bathrobe pockets. He offered it to Henry with some added comfort. "I know these type of parents will often be a point of ridicule from others, but to whom knew her well she wasn't really bad.  Conrad benefitted from painting her as an evil instead of a human. Her choices of husband will definitely poor, but she was a good person who was just trying to do as much right as she could. She was incredibly kind to me when not a lot of Chinese looked down on a couple with two different races.  It wouldn't have been legal for me to marry in several states, but she saw through all that. She was quite ahead of her time."

There ended the complicated tale of a fallen wife of Conrad Wong . . . Henry really hadn't even known his mother's name before this.  He had heard it muttered under people's breaths while he pa.s.sed, but he'd never really paid attention. Now he knew -- Mingxia -- he would never forget the name.

Then as if suddenly his emotions were an ocean, he felt as if he was a child on a small sailboat with a spygla.s.s on rough seas.  A wave came forth from there and he felt the boat tip slowly as his tears leaked down. Henry sprang up and s.n.a.t.c.hed the tissue from Nadius's outstretched hand.  He moved to the opposite end of the room and blew his nose loudly. He was incapacitated as his thoughts world out. His eyes truly grew into a blood filled rim that was intensified by his hangover.  When his throat finally subsided long enough for him to form a sentence, he threw down the soaked tissue with intense emotion. "I can't believe you. You're just saying all this to give me closure, but my head is just filled with more and more questions.  What was it with people abandoning me and leaving me? If you really say that she was such a great person, why did she just let me go? How can a parent just leave their child like that and go live with another man? Am I not half her blood too? What about the family she had from China?  Why didn't any of my blood relations care that I existed?"

His shoulders shook as his finger pointed at Nadius.  He tried to open his mouth to speak but suddenly his knees felt weak.  Henry collapsed onto the ground in a sudden half-faint. But as Nadius rose to help him, Henry held up a warning hand as he got to a sitting position.  His breath heaved slowly as he attempted to gain control of the open gape in his chest where his innocence had been taken from him. Now that he knew it couldn't be closed.  "I did everything that my father told me too not knowing that his intent was so dark. I was such a fool." The wail that was wrought from Henry's lips was eviscerating as if the whole of his parents downfall was something Conrad had pushed onto his ten year shoulders.  "Of course, it was I who hurt her the most by refusing her."

"Yes, that is true." Nadius said quickly finally moving towards his pitiful nephew.  He moved to the ground where Henry was seated. He noticed the whole of his travel stained clothes were dried with phlegm and freely flowing liquids.  He decided he wanted some of the mess on himself as he wrapped himself fully and swayed pretending he could apologize for all the hurt that had been left to the little boy there in the room too.  "I can't believe all that happened while I sat and watched. All this time you had thought these adult issues were on your shoulders. No wonder you were so sullen and mature for your age. You need to ask more questions Henry or you're going to keep having these regrets in life.  Don't make this mistake again. Don't run from the truth if you're too afraid to ask it. Don't be led astray as not all people have good intentions."

"But they're supposed to have my good intent . . . for me.  They're supposed to make sure that I have the best childhood possible." Henry buried his face in his uncle's shoulders as the man patted him on the back rea.s.suringly.  "Why was I told such vicious things? I truly always thought that my mom was a psychiatric patient who refused treatment.  I thought the reason why she wasn't around was because she was running from the law. The police were going to use me to find her and bind her and give her shock treatments and that might happen to me if I got married.  That's the whole story I've been told since I could remember. Why else would my mother leave me behind for a man who didn't look like my dad? In my child's mind it make the perfect sense."