Waking: Sometimes a good thing, sometimes not

William dimly became aware, some time later, that he was awake again; and the next thing he noticed was a terrible stabbing pain in his cheek. Putting up a shaking hand, he found that it was bleeding heavily and was really quite deep. There were some black feathers lying in the street, and he realised he had been attacked by some sort of rabid bird. An uneasy flash of reminiscence took him back to the boarding school and the black feathers in the bully's room; but he pushed it from his mind.

Staggering to his feet, he wiped his face on his sleeve and was disgusted to see a smear of blood there. Great, he thought. Now my shirt is ruined. He swayed a little, not really feeling in the best of shapes. He must have hit his head when he fell.

He put his hands in his pockets, trying to think, and felt a piece of paper in one of them. Automatically he pulled it out to see what it was, and recognised it as the business card Takeshi Niro had given to him. He sat down again on the doorstep he had fallen onto (it was deserted out here, probably why no one had helped him), and fished his mobile phone out of the other pocket. He punched in the number written on the card and waited for the call to connect.

"... Moshi moshi?" That was Takeshi's voice, all right.

"Hi, Takeshi? It's me, William."

"Oh! Aren't you supposed to wait a few days before calling?" Takeshi asked playfully.

"No, it's... I'm not ringing you for a date, exactly. Um. Are you at home?"

"I am now, I just got back from work."

"Do you have medical supplies?"

"... Yes."

"Right. I'll see you in twenty minutes?"

"... Well, alright... Are you in trouble?"

"I'll see you."

William ended the call and gathered up his shopping bags. He caught his reflection in a mirror across the street and sighed, ruefully. This would definitely scar.

When he arrived at Takeshi's house the door opened for him; it seemed Takeshi had been watching for his arrival from the window. As soon as he saw William's face he cursed in Japanese and went to fetch bandages and warm water, knowing exactly how to look after wounds, having suffered a few himself from years of sporting games at school. As he saw to the cut William told him everything: how the crow had attacked him, and the bully, how it seemed he could never avoid the black feathers, how he was all alone in the world.

"Listen, William." Takeshi said when he was finished, looking him seriously in the eye. "You seem to be in need of some help. I want you to stay here for a while."

Wordlessly, William nodded; and that was how their relationship began.

Memory: The morning after

In a state of confusion after last night's events, William sat up groggily at the breakfast bar whilst Takeshi was making coffee. What had happened? What had happened? This question was repeating itself over and over, in time with his pounding headache thanks to the previous drinks.

Takeshi added frothy milk to William's coffee, put it in front of him on the bar, then sprinkled chocolate on top. "Kanzen!" he said, and smiled. William thanked him. Indeed it was perfect.

"I've got to rush off to work now, so if you could leave when you've drunk your coffee, that would be great." Takeshi began to fish inside his wallet, and William wondered whether he had got the wrong idea about the nature of last night. To his relief, it was just a business card. Takeshi pressed it into William's hand, lingered, and looked him in the eye. "Call me."

"Definitely," said William, as Takeshi said goodbye.

William walked around the streets in a sense of delirium. He suddenly had the urge to buy some new clothes. He went into the nearest Topman branch,which had recently opened in Japan.

An hour later, and hands full of bags of delightful attire, he realised he was now broke. "Shit," said William.

He went into the nearest phone box, looked through the phone book, and wrote addresses of all the restaurants in town. One by one, he made it his task for the afternoon to apply for a job in each. All of them replied along the lines of "Thank you, we will take into consideration."

Safe in the knowledge that he must have burned off many a calorie in all his walking, William relaxed. He decided to go to the library, he was dying to read some English-language books; native speakers here were rather sparse. Choosing to cut through an alleyway was a mistake. The last thing he saw was a flutter of black wings and a sharp pain in his cheek.

Drinks: Often Lead To Other Things

William decided that his slough of despondancy was, once and for all, over. What would Chichang say if he saw his friend like this? No, it was time to have some fun. He resolutely left the tiny room he was staying in that evening and went out into the nightclub district.

Everything was so confusing! The lights, the colours, the signs... He found himself a little excited. He didn't know quite where to turn, everything was so new and different. He decided to stop wasting time and just go into the first nightblub he came to. There was no name, but only a neon pink flamingo above the door. He thought it looked quite interesting, as a matter of fact, and so he went in immediately and went to the bar.

It was quite a nice atmosphere inside; the music wasn't too loud and, bizarrely, there were what seemed to be several sailors gathered in one corner. It was mostly full of men, as well; even the bar staff were all men.

"How pleasant." William thought to himself. "A nice little place for a man to come and drink."

He waited for the barman (who called him 'darling' - how strange!) and ordered a simple Coke, not wanting to be too extravagant all at once.

He heard something over the speakers - it was a song he recognised, from quite a few years ago but still good all the same. He tried to listen over the sound of people talking. What were the lyrics, again? So you go, and you stand on your own... Well, he certainly didn't want that to happen; and yet he couldn't help feeling a little shy. These were real Japanese people, not just his teachers from China, and he didn't know how good his Japanese accent was or if he could really be understood. Aside from akk that, he didn't know anyone at all! It was quite... frightening, in a way.

After he had been there for a while, still nursing the same Coke, he dared to look around at the other patrons. Some of them were dressed in rather odd manners, but he put it aside as just being a Japanese thing, since some others were also wearing suits or normal clothes. There was one in particular, a suit man, who was sitting just a few empty barstools away and who met William's eyes when he looked over. William smiled and nodded after a second, and, taking this as an invitation to talk, the other man moved over the intervening barstools to sit next to him.

"Hi." He said. "My name's Takeshi Niro."

"Hi." William replied. "Er, I'm William."

"That's not very Chinese." Takeshi said, recognising of course his accent. "You are Chinese?"

"Yes, I am." William said. "And no, it's not."

At this point, William suddenly realised that Takeshi was in fact a very handsome man, and he was very snappily dressed. Also, he wasn't afraid to flash the cash, immediately offering to buy William an exotic-sounding cocktail.

And that was that. Takeshi Niro, it turned out, was very charming, and full of funny little sayings that made William laugh. And he really liked The Smiths, and kept making jokes about their song that had William's name in it. He had a twinkle in his eye and really nice hair, and he kept touching William's arm, which he didn't mind at all. William couldn't really say exactly how it happened, or indeed what happened, but he found himself a few hours later in the flat belonging to Takeshi Niro. It was spacious and well-decorated, the kind owned only by the wealthy. It was littered with half-empty wine glasses... and scattered, discarded clothing. And, William dimly realised, some of that clothing was his own.

"Well." He thought to himself, "That was certainly an interesing evening."

Search: The need for a home of one's own

It took only one month for William to receive the necessary visas for immigration, and to pack up his wordly possessions (which promptly boarded a boat across the East China Sea), before he set off to begin his new life in Nagoya, Japan.

On arrival, he booked himself into a hostel just near the airport. It was cheap, and he was sure he could secure some sort of official residence soon enough. He was lucky enough to score a room on his own, even if it didn't have a lock. But at least it had a sink. William was prepared to be odourous for a few days if it meant not sharing a bathroom with heathens. He had seen too many prison films.

After a surprisingly fulfilling sleep, William set off into town to begin his property hunt. He was searching the cheapest places - in fact, he came across a squat that was literally one room. This would force him to have takeaway each night for dinner, since there was no kitchen, and use the showers at swimming pools. The asking price was, however, still too high - and when William realised there was no means of heating, he was not too disappointed by the rejection.

Even though he couldn't go lower , price-wise and moral-wise, than that place, he looked around five other places - still far too high a price. William sighed heavily. Maybe that casual tramp had been right when he had said that he needed those pennies more than he did. He hated himself for wasting a year at university. He hated having spent his money on an absolutely useless course, and a promiscuous girlfriend. The only person he maybe, possibly, slightly, had left turn to, was Mike Kevinson. But where was he in this time? When he needed him most? Surely he'd put him up for a few nights at the most.

William sat on a bench in a park. He was made even more upset when he noticed a poster from a local right-wing party, saying in gargantuan Kanji letters, "FOREIGNERS GO HOME". It was only when - out of nowhere in the desolate park - a crow pecked the last symbol, that William realised that he himself was a foreigner. But then he took it to mean that he should return to the youth hostel, stay there for a few more nights, and take everything as it came. It wasn't tourist season, after all. Rooms were definitely up for grabs.

Decisions: They come on us suddenly

Poor, poor William. It seemed to him as if his life truly could not get any worse. Why didn't Sisi love him? Why was Chichang dead? Where the hell was Mike Kevinson? It all went round in his head, to the point where he began to feel nauseous. He decided that a bit of fresh air was in order, and left his house, going out into the streets. He walked for a long time; he knew not where.

After quite some time had passed, he found himself still feeling utterly dreadful, and sat down on a bench. He had just that day recieved a report from his tutor on how his grades were doing, and had been devasted. He wasn't even getting an E in this year's work. It seemed the past two years had been totally pointless. What did he have to show for them? No girlfriend, no friend, no grades, and certainly no Mike Kevinson. But, why should he look up to that man any more, anyway?! He was a fiend, a beast! He had stolen Sisi! And just what reason would a man such as he have for seducing a young woman anyway?!

William sighed. He could add "no one to look up to" to his list. He got up and started walking again, aimlessly. He wandered through the many streets of the town, at one point passing by a tramp by the side of the shops.

"Here, mate," The tramp called out softly, "Are you alright?"

Alarmed at being asked this by none other than a tramp, William paused to speak with him. "No, I'm not, to be honest with you. I'm in a slough of despondancy."

"A slough of despondancy, eh?" The tramp said, and shook his head. "I have no idea what that means, but you look like you could do with a hot drink. Here, have some change."

"Ah, no thank you." William answered. "Don't you usually collect change, rather than giving it out?"

"Yes, but you look like you need it more than me."

"Oh." William answered glumly, and, with his hands in his pockets, slouched away again, now feeling even worse than before.

Somehow his steps directed him in a circle, and he found himself back at the bench he had been sitting on before. It was still deserted and so he retook his place, falling into almost a stupor of misery.

Some time passed before William became aware of the crow that was perched just in front of him. It was looking at him with what could only be described as an intelligent stare. After William had been looking at it for a few moments, it dropped a twig on the floor and flew away.

Curious, William walked over to look at the twig. He suddenly realised that the square in front of him was designed to be a map of the world, laid out on the floor in brass plate set into concrete. It was very peculiar; but the crow had dropped his twig on Japan. William thought to himself for a moment.

"Mike Kevinson comes from Japan. I speak fluent Japanese. I'm not doing too well in China. I wonder..."

And just like that, without much preamble or warning, William had decided: he was going to quit university, sell his house, and move to Japan.

Betrayal: A whole new punch in the stomach

William and Sisi's relationship was blooming quickly. William now could relate to the old love cliché of life being in colour rather than a black and white photograph. It was brilliant, and he wondered why before, he had never really given girls a second look.

In fact, Sisi had now moved into William's university accomodation. This was because - in a remarkably similar situation to the deeply missed Chichang - her parents refused to fund her higher education, due to its "blatant ludicrousness". They would have much preferred to fly her out to an American university, wherein she could study at a good medicine school and "actually give something back to society at large, as well as using your English skills". (One of Sisi's traits that William particularly adored was their common fluency in English. It was brilliant if they wanted to say private things to one another in a public place.) However, Sisi was something of a stowaway in William's house - if the university landlord found out that he was being ripped off, there would be big trouble.

One day, William wanted to take Sisi to the Museum for the Development of the Modern Pterygoid - a must for all students of ornithology. However, to his massive disappointment, Sisi had come down with a cold that day; and insisted that he go without her, since she wouldn't want to deprive his extra learning, and much less for him to catch the illness too. William agreed, and at ten o' clock in the morning he got the bus into the inner city.

* * * * *

At about six o' clock in the evening, William came home, shivering and feeling ill. It had rained all day, and he had not dressed appropriately for the weather. It seemed he may as well have stayed home and caught Sisi's cold. As he entered through the door, soaked, he put the kettle on and made himself a cup of hot black tea with tapioca. Absentmindedly, he stuck his hands into the steam rising out of the kettle, wondering how good it would be to have a sauna one day. In fact, he could go to Finland with Sisi and they could experience it together... No. Finland was too close to Sweden, a place Chichang would associate with sadness.

After taking his crow-patterned mug of tea to the sofa and sipping it, William eventually fell asleep. It had been a rather exhausting day.

* * * * *

He awoke, forgetting why he had been on the sofa. Then he checked his watch. Quarter to nine! William scolded himself for napping so long - not really a nap, more like a coma. Now he would be up all night. But then he thought he could hear something in the background of the familiar buzz of the fridge. He tuned in his ears more. Yes, definitely something. Someone. He got up, and could now tell it was somebody laughing. Two voices, two people. Still dazed from his snooze, William made his way over to his bedroom.

He opened the door, and there was a man and a woman - in his bed - both naked (granted the duvet covered most of it). It was pretty obvious why they were emitting sounds of pleasure. William himself began to laugh. What a surreal situation! "I'll come back later," he chuckled.

No sooner had he left the room, shut the door and walked back to the kitchen, did he realise something was not quite right about this. He opened the door.

"....the hell?" William gasped.

Now that he had spoken, the couple turned their heads towards him, their faces the picture of horror. William's stomach lurched as he realised it was his girlfriend, Sisi... his girlfriend, and....

"MIKE FUCKING KEVINSON!" William roared. "Get out of my house, now! What are you doing? Who?... What?... Why?..... Just go -" he sank to his knees and pounded the floor, crying and crying.

By the time William had got up - after about five minutes - the only people left in the room were he and Sisi, who was now wearing a dressing gown and sitting on the bed. Mike Kevinson had apparently disappeared silently

"Why, Sisi? Why did you do it? Why did you lie?"

"I'm sorry, William. You're a guy who's been through a lot. I couldn't hurt your feelings like that."

"What, so you get... this guy who I've looked up to, who saved my life, who disappeared on me... and in my own bed? What the hell is wrong with you?" William picked up a stool, and threw it through the window. It smashed, and Sisi cowered.

"Get out. Find your own place to live, you whore."

Tears started rolling down Sisi's face. "You know I've got nowhe-"

"Didn't you hear me? GET OUT!"

Relationships: Love Is All You Need

Unaware of Mike Kevinson's plight and subsequent lack of power, William had fallen into a slough of despondancy. He mourned Chichang for a long time. The Chinese History with Ornithology lectures were very lonely, and without a homework buddy William began to lose interest. It is all very well to never have a friend; but once you have had one you realise what it truly means to be alone. So it was that at the end of the year, his marks were falling terribly.

The previously welcome break of the summer holidays was tedious for him. He worked on his Japanese, for lack of any other option, even though it was mostly perfect already. He supposed, when in the mood to analyse himself, that studying Japanese reminded him of that shining light, Mike Kevinson. He wondered what Mike Kevinson had meant when he had mentioned his own bereavement. Who had Mike lost? A friend? A colleague? A parent? William could only guess. He had, of course, lost almost everyone he had ever known. And now there seemed to be another Kevinson-shaped vacancy in his life; where was he on holiday now? Bermuda?

William tried to put these futile thoughts from his mind, but only succeeded in making himself more miserable. "If Chichang were here," He said to himself, "He would know what to do."

However, time, as we have seen before, waits for nothing; not even grief. William had to return to that dreaded academy, where Chichang had spent his idle days painting instead of studying.

This year, he expected once again to be the only person on the course; but as fate would have it, there was one other university in the whole of China that held this particular course. And, as fate would have it, there was a girl at that other university who had decided to transfer to William's place. Imagine his surprise when he saw, not an empty lecture hall, but the face of someone who was not Chichang...!

It was most distressing for him; but once he got over his shock he realised that the girl in question was really quite pretty, and became flustered.

It took him a while; but every time his courage failed him he thought of Chichang, and how disappointed he would have been. That made things easier. And then, one day, he decided on a way to ask Sisi (for that was her name) out. He printed off a list of chat-up lines he found online, and learned them by heart.

"Hey, baby." He said to her at last, the words sounding very strange on the tongue of William Xiu, "If you were words on a page... you'd be what they call fine print."

Sisi, of course, burst out laughing; but rather than reject William, she found him quirky, and made up her mind at once to date him. This made William so very happy that for a moment he even forgot that Chichang was dead.