No Birds Returning In Summer

Mandy York, my girlfriend, was practically a migratory bird that always flew away during summer. Every year, during July and August, which were the hottest months of the year, she would fly off and disappear from the face of the earth. She said that it was because her company gave her a special project abroad that required absolute secrecy from her. She was also not to contact anyone during that period of time. Even when I got into a car accident last year and lay in the ICU for two months, she never called to ask about me. Plenty of times, I had comforted myself and endured the harsh summer alone. One day, I accidentally saw the social media account of a friend of mine living abroad. It was his alternate account. Every year, during July and August, this alternate account would get really active. It would be full of videos and photos about his daily life with his daughter and a “mother” who always had her face hidden with stickers. In the videos, the mother accompanied the daughter to watch fireworks at Disneyland and pick up shells at the beach. Sometimes, I could see the side of her face. There was a mole at the corner of her eyes. I could even see a clear scar at the back of her hand. They were so familiar to me that my blood ran cold. It was Mandy. During the summer holidays, she would vanish for sixty days, and this had lasted for five years. So, she had never been flying off to work. She had gone to her other family. I sat stupefied on the couch and stared at the blinding sun outside. Suddenly, this year’s upcoming summer did not feel so difficult any longer. I picked up my phone and agreed to the marriage my family had arranged for me. Since Mandy refused to stay with me during summer, I was not going to waste my time on her. Chapter 1 In the video, a girl lay in the arms of the sticker-faced mom. “Mommy, hug!” “Alright. I’ll hug you.” It was clearly Mandy’s voice. We had dated for seven years. There was no way I could be wrong. Someone commented a question in admiration. [You’re so happy together, even after so many years. How did you keep your relationship fresh?] Lance Clark, my friend, replied: The secret is in us staying busy for ten months apart from each other, then spending two months dating. The blinding sun shone through the window to land on my screen. My blood ran cold. I had been with Mandy for seven years. She always said that she was busy and had to go to meetings so that she could build our future. It was normal for her to cancel our anniversary celebrations. Even for my birthday, she could only take out some time to have lunch with me. I had complained to her in the past. “Can’t you even get a single day off?” “We’re no longer kids. Some things are even more important than dates,” she said in resignation. It was not that she did not have holidays, but because her holidays did not belong to me. I went to Lance’s homepage. For five whole years, he would update his account daily during July and August. In the videos, Mandy would tell stories to the girl, build Legos with her, and clumsily pick her up to comfort her whenever she made a fuss. In Lance’s videos, she was a perfect mother. I scrolled down until I reached the videos from July of the previous year. It was in Havaiki. Mandy held the girl and laughed in the waves. [The summer days with you two are the best summer.] That was Lance’s caption. This had been posted on the tenth of July. On the same day, a truck went out of control and rammed into my car. It got horribly bent out of shape, and all twelve of my ribs were broken. Many of my organs were also injured. The hospital called her forty-seven times, but she never answered. I lay in the ICU for two whole months and received three critical condition notices. Mandy finally came during September. She held my hand with regret in her eyes. “I’m sorry. The project was just too important. I couldn’t leave.” I had been understanding toward her having her hands tied down in the past, but her mention of not being able to leave overlapped with the sunlight in Havaiki and the girl’s carefree laughter coming out of the video. My stomach churned, and a feeling of disgust mixed with stomach acid rushed to my throat. I rushed into the bathroom and gagged into the toilet. I even vomited bile. Martha, my mother, called me. “Andrew, are you serious about going through with the arranged marriage?” She did not even hide her glee. “I’m glad that you’ve come around to it. Speaking of which, you’ve met your future bride before. Once she comes back next week, I’ll arrange for you two to meet. If you’re okay with it, you can get engaged straightaway.” My mother had always looked down on Mandy and thought that despite coming from a normal family, she was far too ambitious to be a good match for me. For Mandy’s sake, I had argued with my family plenty of times before, to the point of me almost severing ties with my parents. Yet those arguments came back like a slap in the face. They had become utterly humiliating. After I hung up, I booked the earliest flight to Tinseltown. Mandy… Since she did not want to come back, I was going to take a look at her summer days. Chapter 2 During the thirteen-hour flight, I never slept. All I could think about were the videos on Lance’s account. Lance had been my roommate during my four years of university and my former best friend. After his graduation, he vanished without a trace, and we lost contact with each other. I never expected him to barge into my life again in such a mortifying way. Once the plane landed, I headed straight to Saint Veronica’s Beach. Lance had uploaded another video two hours ago. [Last night, Jane said that she wants to visit Saint Veronica’s Beach, so we went together this morning!] I immediately spotted Mandy through the crowd. She had always found the idea of matching outfits childish, yet she was dressed in an outrageous outfit that matched Jane’s, her daughter. Lance gave her the ice-cream he had partially eaten. Mandy tilted her head away a bit and frowned. I clenched my fists. She hated sweet things the most. I would always remember this. Whenever I finished drinking a soda and wanted to kiss her, she would scowl and push me away without hesitation, claiming that the sweet smell would affect her thoughts. Yet she only frowned and grumbled, “It’s too sweet.” Even so, she still ducked her head down and ate the remaining ice-cream while Lance still held it. Mandy had always kept to her boundaries, was calm, and restrained. Yet she could accommodate someone. In my daze, I felt as if I was looking at someone else’s perfect life, and I was a shameful intruder. “So, this is the special project you can’t walk away from, Mandy?” I asked from behind them. They turned toward me, and their smiles froze. Mandy instinctively took a step to the left to shield Lance and Jane behind her. “Why are you here, Andrew?” That instinctive act to protect them was an eyesore to me. I sneered. “What’s wrong? Am I interrupting your holiday?” Jane clutched Mandy’s hem tightly and asked with a choked-up voice, “Mommy, are you leaving?” Mandy simply patted Jane’s head. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay here with you.” Lance’s face turned pale, and his lips quivered. “Andrew, I can explain.” I scoffed. “Explain what? How you spent your time and effort to seduce your friend’s girlfriend?” Just like during his university days, he pursed his lips sadly, and his eyes grew dull. Back then, when he lost his scholarship application form and the counsellor criticized him, I had to go back and forth to the office three times to help him get the process done. Later on, when he could not pay rent, I had transferred all of my savings to him. He had patted my shoulder and said that he did not know how to repay me. After that, without a single word, he left the country. I had been worried about him getting into some sort of difficulty and sent plenty of messages to him, but he never replied. “Enough!” Mandy interrupted me. “Andrew, don’t run your mouth off. Lance never seduced me.” I felt a sharp pain in my heart. “So, you two love each other? Am I the bad guy getting in the way of your perfect family?” Lance hurriedly grabbed my hand. “That’s not it, Andrew. Listen to me.” The sun shone on his hand, and his wristwatch stung my eyes. I remembered the previous year’s Valentine’s Day. When I was hanging Mandy’s jacket for her, I had touched a velvet box hidden deep in her jacket. Very sneakily, I had opened it before putting it back quickly. I had waited for the entire night, until the candlelight dinner I prepared meticulously turned cold. Even so, she never gave me the box. Later on, when I asked about it in a roundabout fashion, she had answered coolly, “Oh. That one? That’s a custom product a client ordered.” That sample was on Lance’s wrist. I jerked my hand back and avoided his touch. The force caused Lance to stagger, but before he could cry out in surprise, Mandy had already grabbed his arm and shielded him. When she looked at me, her voice was full of reproach. “What on earth are you doing? Can’t you just talk properly? Lance is sickly and can’t handle you pushing him like this!” So, by simply jerking my arm back, her heart was already aching for him so much? What about me? I stared at her. “Mandy, last year, I was in the ICU for two months because of an accident, and I nearly died. Didn’t you know that?” Mandy frowned. “It’s already over, and you’re just fine, aren’t you?” Chapter 3 In an instant, I felt all my strength drain. So, as long as I survived, all my hardships could be brushed off. All my anger and sadness turned into a lump inside my throat. I turned to leave, but Mandy caught up to me and grabbed my wrist. “Where are you going? You’re hopeless with directions, and we’re not back in Sommerset. What if you lose your way?” I was stuffed into the back seat of the car. Half an hour later, the car stopped in front of a white villa. In the garden were hydrangeas and lemon trees. Under the porch were wind chimes that let out pleasant sounds as they knocked into each other. I stood at the door and felt dumbfounded. The arched door at the entrance, the tall floor-to-door windows in the living room, the semi-open study to the right, and even the embedded shelf beside the fireplace was the same as my designs. Two years ago, I had excitedly brought Mandy to visit a new housing development, and I had said, “Let’s buy it so that it can become our new home.” Back then, I pulled all-nighters and looked through all sorts of documents. I modified the blueprint repeatedly so that I could plan every part of our future home. The blueprint that I had drawn so carefully, revised so many times, and treated like treasure had become another man’s home. Just then, I heard a familiar voice from the kitchen. “Why are you back so early today? Lance, what do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you. The stew is already ready. Is Jane hungry…” I turned around to look and saw that it was Zoey, Mandy’s mother. Zoey had severe high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. She had poor health. She was frequently hospitalized over the years, and I had to find my friends for help, pull strings, and get specialists to treat her. I also stayed by her bed to tend to her every need. Zoey had always said that I was like her son, and I believed her. What a joke. Out of guilt, Zoey averted her eyes and did not dare meet my gaze. “Jane, come. Let’s go up and play with your building blocks.” In an instant, only the three of us were left behind in the spacious living room. Mandy and Lance sat on the couch together, while I sat across from them. They made the distinction far too clear. I was the unwelcomed outsider. Mandy broke the silence. “Since you now know this, there’s no need for me to hide it anymore. During the graduation party of our senior year, everyone had too much to drink. Lance and I… both didn’t have our full faculties. “When we woke up the next day, it had already happened.” Lance continued meekly, “Andrew, I know that I have no right to see you. After that happened, I bought a plane to fly out of the country immediately. “But Mandy got pregnant. The doctor said that she’s weak. If she aborted the baby, she might not be able to become a mother again.” In resignation, Mandy said, “I know just how much you like children, Andrew, and I won’t rob myself of the right to become a mother. That’s why I disappeared for an entire year in the name of participating in a fully confidential R&D project. “After Jane was born, Lance took care of her alone abroad.” Suddenly, Lance looked at me with panic in his eyes. “Andrew, I really wasn’t trying to ruin your relationship. But when Jane was one, she got acute pneumonia and kept asking for Mandy. I was too scared. That’s why I called her.” Mandy sighed. “Her parents may have sinned, but Jane can’t be faulted for that. She needs her mother. That’s why I spend two months every year to keep her company and carry out my responsibilities as a mother.” She then looked at me squarely in the eyes. “Aside from those two months, I spend the rest of the ten months with you. Shouldn’t you already be satisfied with it? “I need to carry out my duties as your girlfriend with you, but I also need to carry out my duties with Jane. You can’t tell me there’s anything wrong with that.” Chapter 4 As I watched how self-righteously Mandy was acting, I was finally unable to control myself and laughed. But as if there was glass stuck in my throat, it hurt so much that I started crying. “You kept this from me for five whole years and played me like an idiot. Am I in the wrong over the last five years?” Lance’s already pale face turned red as he threw himself at my feet. “Andrew, I’m the one in the wrong. I swear that I was never thinking about replacing you. “But please, don’t take away Jane’s right to see her mother for two months every year. She’s innocent.” That again. The child was innocent. So, was I simply supposed to bear the consequences? Suddenly, I heard hurried footsteps from above. “Don’t bully my daddy!” Jane rushed down and crashed into my legs. She clenched her fists and kept punching me. “You’re bad! Horrible! Get out! Don’t bully my daddy!” She then lunged at me to bite the back of my hand. Instinctively, I brought my hand up to block her flailing limbs. I had not even touched her clothes, and Mandy already rushed over with bloodshot eyes and shoved me away. “Andrew, I’m warning you! Don’t hit Jane!” The back of my waist rammed into the tip of the tea table, and the wound from last year’s car accident tore open. Pain exploded from my waist and shot straight to my entire body. I sucked in a sharp breath and had to lean against the tea table to stay upright. Mandy fell on one knee to hug the completely uninjured Jane. “Did he scare you? Did he hit you anywhere? Don’t be scared. I’m right here.” Then, she turned to her with wariness and rage burning clearly in her eyes. “She’s only five! If you’re angry, come at me! Why hold it against a child?!” Suddenly, Lance broke down. “Stop arguing. It’s all my fault.” He scrambled up from the floor to run out. “Lance!” Mandy’s expression changed, and she chased after him without hesitation. I followed them outside. Under the shade provided by the lemon tree, Mandy grabbed Lance’s arm as he cried and struggled to break free. “I shouldn’t have contacted you, much less hoped to have two months of your time every year. Just leave. “Andrew must hate me. I’ll leave with Jane and never bother you again.” Mandy’s expression sank. “You’re all alone. Where are you supposed to go with Jane? If she gets sick again, what are you going to do?” Mandy held him tightly as he said, “But I betrayed Andrew…” She cradled his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll get it sorted out.” She then stood on her tip-toes, tilted her face upward, and kissed him in the slightly salty sea breeze from Saint Veronica’s Beach and the lemon tree. They kissed with great abandon, as if there was no one else around them. I did not say anything to interrupt them. I could not even muster the slightest bit of desire to rush over and slap them. The intense pain in my heart had finally been dug out at that moment, and once it was gone, I gained a sense of clarity I had never felt before. I turned around and left from where I came. Just then, Mandy sent me a message. [Andrew, Lance is emotionally unstable right now. Stop kicking up a fuss and go home. Once the two months are over, let’s talk, okay?] I had always been waiting over the past five years for her meetings to end, for her business trips to be over, and for her to be done with that special project of hers. Instead, I blocked all of her accounts and deleted her contact number. I was not going to wait for two months, because I was going to get engaged next week.