after a few more hours I was barely holding on to my consciousness. Dara just keeps shaking me to give my medication or we are close to a gas station. " here we are. the farthest of the farthest place we can find," she said. we are by the sea where things show simple life is expected. no houses close to each other but miles apart. waves crashing to the shore and seagulls are the sounds you hear. " Where exactly are we?" i asked Dara. "I really have no idea, what I know is that they will never find us here," she replied. Immediately we looked for a place to stay. asking whoever we can meet by the road, asking directions on rental houses. its not when we turned to a rough road where we saw an old woman seating by the road watching over the kids playing with the sand. "excuse me grandma,do you happen to know any rental houses available for us?" Dara asked. the old lady just smiled and said. "I will be moving out of my house today for i will be going to taipei. if you want you can stay in my house for free." that gave us a shock. a house for free? for 2 strangers you just met? " are you sure about that grandma?" i asked. "yes, im old and i cannot take care of the house anymore. my daughter lives in taipei and i dont have anyone to turn the house over to. please stay in my house." she responded. Gladly we accepted her offer. Dara and i thought that her house is near by but we were wrong. it was a few more miles where we met her. it was located at the foot if the mountain and about a mile to the beach. it was a humble house that the old lady has. a dining and living room in one, 2 bedrooms and an outside kitchen in a traditional Chinese architecture. "here is my house that i will leave to you," the lady said giving us the key and a piece of paper. " grandma, can we please have your name?" Dara asked. "Everyone calls me Minzy," she responded. "well i have to go back to that road, my daughter will pickme up anytime now." old Minzy said. she started to walk away without looking back. Dara and i stood dumbfounded of what happened. We looked at the old lady walk away until we can't make her out. "We have a house," Dara said like it was supposed to be a question than a fact. "yes, a free house," I responded as I surrendered myself to my failing heart and exhaustion.
when i regained my consciousness i cant tell if it was twilight or dawn Dara is sprawled beside me sleeping. i glanced at my watch, 7:30 pm. i slept for about 5 hours. "Dara? Dara?" i tried to wake her up. we are at the hallway with the doors wide open and its getting cold. a few shakes and kiss she woke up. "Are we there yet?" she suddenly asked. "There what?" i asked smiling. " Oh, sorry, what happened?" she asked. "I dont have any idea, i passed out because of exhaustion and i just woke up," i explained. " oh right," she replied as she punched me by the shoulder. "What was that for?!" i asked. "Kris, dont you ever do that to me anymore! for a second i thought i lost you! if it weren't for the snoring i thought you're dead!" she said. i laughed at her. i laughed my heart out for the first time in days. " sorry, i was just really tired and old Minzy took all the last energy that i got," i responded. Dara stood and turned to the house. "I think there is electricity here, its somewhat dusty and not much furnished," she said. i groped my way around until i found a switch. "Actually we don't have furnitures," i said when we had a full view of the house. "at least its free," Dara ended.
slowly we took all the bags from the car into the house. I parked the car at the back of the house and closed the wooden gate. Old Minzy has a gasoline stove and some firewood for the furnice. Dara made us supper while i tried yo clean the house a bit.
