school he went to , he mentioned that he wanted to attend school there but they couldn ' t afford it . They were struggling and I felt sorry for him .
It was getting really cold and my jacket wasn ' t enough to warm me up so I asked if we could walk a little faster to get to the embassy . As soon as I sped up , I slipped and fell down on the snowy ground . He bent down and reached out his hand to help me get back up . I noticed he was wearing this necklace that looked like a medallion . I got curious and asked him where it was from . He replied that his father gave it to him before he went to war and told him to keep it safe . He had been wearing it since to remind him of his father . His father told him before that the medallion has magical characteristics . It protected the wearer from any harm and danger .
He laughed and said , “ I don ' t believe these things you know .” And we both laughed .
Then it occurred to me that the medallion looked quite familiar but I just couldn ' t recall where I had seen it before .
Upon our approach to the embassy , as our conversation was getting interesting and we were too focused on our topic , we weren ' t paying so much attention to the road when a speeding car almost hit us , but crashed into a post instead . We got startled and quickly ran away from the scene to avoid getting into any trouble . Coincidentally along the side of the road , a flowerpot fell just a few inches behind us causing us to walk even faster . We wanted to ride a rickshaw to get to the embassy in the quickest way possible but he didn ' t have any more money to spend and all I had was a ten dollar note . We just kept on walking , chatting and laughing along the way . He was very entertaining and helpful . Although he wasn ’ t the best at speaking English , I understood him clearly . I seemed to have forgotten where I was . I was wondering how a place like this could even exist which was so different from where I came from . Even if the place was weird for me , my new friend made it so much better and pleasing . I ' ve never thought that a stranger could be so helpful and sincere .
We were almost near the embassy , when the sky suddenly turned grey . A heavy rainfall poured making us run towards the nearest shelter . I noticed that there were golden statues and sculptures inside . The place looked so peaceful that even if the raindrops outside sounded like heavy traffic on the highway , you could feel a certain calmness inside . Thunder and lightning again broke the silence . He closed the door and lit up some candles inside . Then I realized , we were inside a temple . I recalled something in there that looked familiar . It was a sculpture of Buddha that was similar to one I had seen the night before in the Chinese Theatre .
Heavy rain continued to fall . He told me that he had to leave as it was raining too hard and he was worried about his mother and sister . He gave me the directions to the embassy since we were already almost there before it started pouring . He said he felt sorry , but I thanked him and told him that he had already done more than enough for me .
As he was about to step out , I shouted “ What ' s your name by the way ?” “ I ' m Jiao !” he shouted back .
We smiled at each other and waved goodbye . As soon as he stepped out of the door , a loud boom of thunder echoed from above . A flash of lightning lit up the dark space and hit the temple ' s door . It was scary and that made me faint all over again .
I woke up on smooth carpet , and above me I saw the words ‘ Box Office .’ I was back in the Chinese theatre . I was utterly confused about what had happened . This time when I opened the doors , it wasn ' t raining and it was still dark out , like right before I entered the Chinese theatre . It was like as if the storm never came in the first place . I shouted Jiao ' s name but nobody was there . Still puzzled , I walked my way home . But when I entered my house , everybody was asleep . I didn ' t bother to wake anyone up and I just went into my room . I was tired and sleepy but it was hard for me to fall asleep because I couldn ' t stop thinking about everything that had just happened . I kept wondering how I was able to remember everything in so much detail and I was curious if it was all just a dream . I then convinced myself that everything did actually happen but I just had no idea how . After an hour or so , I finally fell asleep .
I was awoken by my dad who was still mad at me . He forced me to do the chores and clean the whole house as a punishment for lying to him . The weird thing is that he didn ' t even question me about where I had been the evening before . Nobody even noticed that I left .
While I was cleaning my parents ' bedroom , I caught a glimpse of a familiar looking object . It was a medallion and it looked exactly like Jiaos '. I quickly went up to my dad , holding the medallion inside the palm of my hand .
“ Is this yours ?” I asked him with extreme curiosity , showing him the medallion . “ Yes of course it ' s mine ,” he answered . “ Why ?”