Mitosis

Telophase

VI. Telophase

Telophase is the final stage in mitosis.

It’s the creation of new cells and if we form it into lives, it’s the creation of new lives and new relationships.

As Zhen Wang landed in China again, for some weeks, she couldn’t find the urge to do anything and she hated herself for many things. Most of all, she began to forget things – the tiny details, firstly, like the little facts in Feodor’s life and his odd habits. But as the days passed, the things she’d forgotten got more. First, she’d forgotten how it sounded when he called her name, and his smell, she recalled it slightly but still, it wasn’t as certain as it was in the very first days. She damned herself, her little mind that couldn’t keep the memories of the most important person she’d ever met.

Then, the feeling and the yearning started to ease and cool off. She knew that he was there, somewhere deep inside her heart and engraved in her soul but he wasn’t at the surface and she was afraid of not remembering as much as she used to. She knew it though, it was the exact words she’d uttered to Feodor when they separated. They were going to forget each other but it would just stay there, somewhere deep.

Years passed like this, five to be frank, and Zhen was now married to Qing Lin, a traditional Chinese man as her family always desired and they had a son named Chin. She’d married him when she was nineteen and Chin was born in the same year. He was now four, very cheerful and he was the only one Zhen lived for. She thought at first that she might’ve loved Qing but whatever he made or said was compared to that Russian boy even though she had never wanted to. She hated how his name burnt her throat like fire so she decided to never utter his name again. He was now just the Russian boy she’d met in London.

When Chin couldn’t sleep at nights, she would tell him stories about London instead of singing him traditional Chinese lullabies. She told him about her journeys she experienced in London, about the London Eye, palaces and the people. Chin loved to listen to them and he begged his mother to bring him to that land. Zhen would say in Chinese, “Soon, my darling,” whenever he begged.

Qing was a great father, she thought, and also a good husband for his family. He was earning enough money for them and he was caring. He actually loved Zhen and he knew that she didn’t love him. He even asked her once why she was so cold towards him and why they weren’t exactly like a couple.

“You love me this way, Qing,” Zhen would say each time. She was now twenty-three but it was as if she was actually sixty. She had lost her will of living and the joy. She was now only a mother and a wife to her family and that was all. She remained doing her duties and she utterly lived like a robot.

One day, when Qing headed home, he found Zhen sitting on a sofa and crying. He didn’t hesitate to reach her and give her a hug to comfort. For a while, both of them didn’t speak and the room was only filled with soft cries of Zhen.

“What’s wrong, Zhen?” He asked once again, even though he never learnt the truth.

“I miss him.”

“Who is he?”

“That supernova explosion that enlightened my life for a brief while and when he was gone, he took every single light along with himself. . .Now, I’m blind. I can’t see anywhere.”

 “Therefore, you can’t see me,” he whispered bitterly. Then, he thought that maybe Zhen would be happier if she found him. He didn’t know why he would be sending his wife to another man but he knew it was right thing to do – at least she might find her heart somewhere. It wasn’t actually a love marriage but only made up by the families. Qing slowly started to like Zhen Wang and he didn’t refuse to marry this woman. But he realised it very soon that her body was all he could ever have. Because his words never reached through those thick walls Zhen built. He never knew why, she was that desperate and only hopeful and happy around their son Chin. “Go find him, Zhen.”