Merry and I had just gotten married and were having our reception in a colorful upscale lounge, filled with tall, free-standing glass walls of underlit oranges and blues. Dressed in a tux, a waiter who was also our emcee was taking our order. The laminated menu sheet was mostly Chinese-American fusion, and I ordered in Cantonese and finished off with a 7-Up (I didn't know how to say "Slice" in Cantonese, which was the actual brand). He didn't hear this last bit and turned as if to walk away, then changed his mind and sat down with us. Kai slid over as well and we all started chatting, but I don't remember what about.

Some time later, Merry was stationed in an island nation something like Cuba, and we had to travel an hour to see each other. She kept coming to visit me in the city, as she said the journey was too difficult and she needed the military training anyways. I got really curious, so one visit I decided to accompany her back. The first half hour was a normal bus ride which took us to a modern glass-enclosed mall (with a prominent dome motif). Inside the mall was a gorgeous military depot where jeeps and such took personnel off to various bases. A rickety bus took us to a remote location covered in wet mud. Now we had to hike, and Merry had a long walking stick which helped us keep our footing. It was really tough and I could see why it was such a hassle to visit, but was a great workout.

Once in her dorm room, it morphed into her room at her parents house (looking absolutely nothing like the one in real life). Her dad, who was a white guy and looked like Josef Fritzl (we even called him Josef) came in and immediately gave off bad vibes. He told me to come into the adjoining bathroom where several large raw turkeys and chickens were sitting in the bathtub. I threw some into the toilet and flushed them, because they looked disgusting, and because I thought he was using them for sexual purposes. I told Merry I didn't trust "Josef," and she got mad because he was her dad after all. Needless to day, her real dad is nothing like that and is a sweet old Chinese man. My dad then came into the room to tell me that dinner was ready.

A few days later, on a Sunday, I was back at my own apartment and decided to go see Merry before we were scheduled to fly back to America later that day. I went through the whole bus and depot process again, and while I was on the second transport, decided to call Merry to surprise her. But she was already at the airport and really mad that I was late for the flight. I tried to say that I was on my way to see her, and that I had thought the flight was later in the day. I thought she was being unreasonable, and she hung up. In real life, Merry and I never fight like this, she's always reasonable and understanding. So I was extremely relieved when I woke up and realized it was all fiction, and that my actual marriage was going so incredibly well by comparison (so far! haha).

posted by Larry at 8:40 AM