Huh?

Written Aidan byFry Edited byJanet Song DesignedAlexander by Pham

t 6:30 AM, Grace and David finished their cereal and wriggled their tennis shoes on. Mom trudged into the dining room in a nightgown and slippers.

“Backpacks ready,” she mumbled.

“Already did,” Grace replied. Her cereal had gone soggy, so she went into the kitchen with her laces undone and gave the bowl’s contents an unceremonious dump in the sink. Mom would clean it up for her, she thought.

“Brush your teeth,” Mom said as Grace rushed back to her room. Grace didn’t want to, but she figured it would be best to avoid getting four cavities in a row. Besides, it wasn’t like she and her brother had to worry about being late for school. Today was a special day for them.

David, already done with brushing his teeth, went outside to call the apartment elevator even while Grace was still in the bathroom. “Hurry up, Grace!” David yelled after rushing back inside.

“Coming,” Grace replied. She gave a quick goodbye to Mom and snagged her backpack from off the floor, not bothering to close the door behind her as she left. Outside in the foyer, she saw David staring up at the left elevator’s floor indicator as it slowly crept up. It was still at 22.

“Got everything?” Grace asked.

“Yep,” David replied. “Where are we going first?”

“Shh. Mom can still hear us.” Grace gestured to the open apartment door.

“Oh. Right,” David whispered. “So where are we going first?”

“The malls aren’t open yet,” Grace whispered as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. “So we’ll go to 7-11 first to kill some time–”

She shut up immediately upon noticing that the elevator wasn’t empty. Inside on the far right corner was a mother cradling an infant in her arms. The two siblings entered without a word. Grace checked to see that the ground floor button had already been pushed before squeezing up against the left wall. The doors slid shut.

As all four walls of the elevator were mirrors, it was hard to find somewhere to look that didn’t meet the mother’s eyes. Grace cycled between looking up at the ceiling, staring at the floor indicator, and glancing at David. One of the disadvantages of living on the 33rd floor was that each elevator trip felt like when Grace had her first x-ray: trapped inside a box making strange clicks and hums, her silhouette transformed into unnerving patterns of light on the mirrored walls. Even worse if there was a stranger inside with her. Grace couldn’t help but fidget. When she looked down at David for the hundredth time, she noticed him looking at his fingernails, so she grabbed his hand before he could start biting them.

“他是你弟弟吗?” the mother asked.

Grace didn’t look up. She assumed that the mother

was just talking to someone on the phone. Besides, she couldn’t understand her.

“你看起来很会照顾他呢。” the mother spoke again.

Grace heard the voice getting nearer, so she looked up. The mother had indeed inched ever-so-closer to the siblings, no longer leaning against the corner of the elevator. She stared straight at them, as if she was expecting a response.

“Sorry, I don’t speak– uh, I don’t speak…” Grace tried to say, but faltered when she realized she didn’t know what language the mother was speaking. And yet, the mother didn’t seem to get the hint. Her endless reflection in the mirror pulsated and multiplied as she moved even closer to them. Grace tried to step away, but there was nowhere to run with her back against the elevator wall. Now that the mother was closer, Grace could see that she wasn’t quite looking at them; instead, it was as if she was looking through them, transfixed by something far off in the distance.

“我之前不知道还有别的中国人住在这里诶。”

“We’re not Chinese, OK?” Grace blurted out.

That stopped her. The mother looked at Grace’s face for the first time, shocked. Just then, the elevator slowed to a stop, and a ding sounded as the elevator doors opened. Grace flashed an awkward smile at the mother before leading David out by the hand through the empty apartment lobby. She took deep breaths as her body transitioned out of fight-or-flight mode.

“Who was she?” David asked once they were out of her earshot.

“No idea,” Grace said. “I’m pretty sure that was the first time anyone’s tried to make conversation with me in the elevator.”

“How did you know she was Chinese?”

“She told me in English, y’know, something like ‘I didn’t know there were other Chinese families living here.’ Didn’t you hear her?”

“Yeah, I did. But…” David thought for a moment. “How come she started speaking English to us if she thought we were Chinese?”

“Well, she was being pretty weird. Did you see how she was looking at us? People like that, they do all sorts of crazy things, and you can’t really say why they do it, y’know? That’s how the world is sometimes.”

David furrowed his brow, unsatisfied with her answer, but he didn’t press any further. “So, are we still going to 7-11?”

“Obviously.”

In truth, Grace wasn’t interested in buying anything at the convenience store. She was only there to stare at the strange variety of microwave meals and lose her appetite. David, on the other hand, was intent on buying a pack of Jolly Bears, bringing it to her while she stood in the frozen food section. When David tugged at Grace’s arm, she looked at the pack of candy in his hands, then at David’s eager expression.

“You eat too much of that, David,” Grace said. “Put it back.” “I thought you said I could get anything I want,” David whined. “And I want candy.”

“What do you need me for? I thought you had your own money.” “I ran out. It only costs 15 baht. Please, Grace.” “I’m not going to be responsible for your bad eating habits. So no, David. I’m not giving you any money. Now put it back.”

“Grace,” David whined, louder.

“What? I said I’m not giving you money.” “Why not?” “Because,” Grace replied, “I’m not going to be responsible for you eating unhealthy food.”

“But you said I could get anything I want and I want candy now,” David yelled. “You said I could get anything I want!” “Well, I changed my mind. Put it back.”

David stormed off with tears in his eyes. Grace went back to staring at the frozen food section, though she had lost interest by now. She checked the time on her phone: 7:12am. 18 more minutes until the malls opened. She wondered if she would be able to appease David for that long. But as soon as she stepped away from the line of refrigerators to go look for him, he had already returned, popping gummy bears into his mouth from an open bag of Jolly Bears. The two of them stared at each other.

“Hi Grace,” David said.

“David,” Grace said. “Did you pay for that?” “Nope,” David replied. “The 7-11 guy at the counter let me have it for free.”

“That doesn’t happen.”

“It does so happen. I told him about how you weren’t giving me money, so he said I could have it without paying.”

“No, you idiot. 7-11 workers can’t just give stuff to people for free. They can get fired for that.”

David frowned. “Well, he didn’t say that to me.”

“How could he have said anything to you anyway? Or understood you? You can’t speak Thai.”

“He did understand me!” David shouted. “Go up and ask him! I’m telling the truth!”

“You know what? I will ask him.” Grace grabbed David’s hand and pulled him to the front of the store, where the sole employee stood at the counter, looking down at his phone with red eyes.

“Uh, hi,” Grace said.

The employee looked up at her. Grace snatched the bag of gummy bears from David’s hands before he could protest.

“We didn’t pay for this.”

“ไม่ต้องห่วง เชิญคุณกับน้องชาย ตามสบายเลย ไม่มี ใครจะซื้อทอฟฟี่นั่นอยู่แล้ว”

Grace jolted. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

“คุณสองคนดูไม่เหมือนคนไทยเลย คุณมาจากที่ไหนเหรอ?”

“See?” David said. “I told you he could understand me.”

The employee’s eyes bored holes in Grace’s forehead. She suddenly felt the urge to run away. She looked down at David, who had a smug grin on his face for being proven right. “Uh, thanks for the candy,” Grace said to the employee. She then pulled David with her towards the automatic doors. “We’re going now, David.”

“You don’t have to keep holding my hand so tight,” David complained.

Grace ignored him. Looking over her shoulder, Grace could see the employee still staring at the two of them, so she walked faster. David waved at him as the two siblings left through the automatic doors, a blast of hot air hitting them once they were outside. Grace stopped outside, taking a moment to breathe the fresh exhaust-fume air and think.

“So can I have my candy back?” David asked.

Grace ignored the question. “David, you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“The people passing by. What they’re talking about. Can you hear it?”

David looked all around, scrunching his eyebrows together in concentration. “Nope. All I hear is car noises.”

Grace huffed and handed the candy back to him. “Yeah, me neither.” he BTS skytrain was never crowded on weekday mornings, but even still, Grace made sure to walk the two of them all the way down to the end of the train where there were no other passengers. The plastic ceiling handles rattled against each other as the train picked up speed. While David had taken his backpack off and placed it in between his legs, Grace kept hers on even as she leaned back in her seat.

“สถานีต่อไป เอกมัย,” the train announcer said. “Next station, Ekkamai.”

“You understood that too, right?” Grace whispered.

“Yep,” David replied. “So we know Thai now. Cool.”

“It’s not cool,” Grace said. “It’s not cool at all, David. Something is going very wrong. You don’t just suddenly understand Thai after never learning it. It doesn’t work like that.”

“Well, everyone around us speaks Thai. Maybe we just magically picked it up.”

“失礼、” a man standing in front of them said. He wore a suit, and his hair had small streaks of grey amidst the black despite his youthful appearance. Grace hadn’t heard him walk into their car. “モール への行き方知ってますか。”

“Don’t respond, David,” Grace whispered.

“Why not? He’s just asking us for directions.”

“すみません、この辺では誰も日本語をしゃ べらないもので…” the businessman said.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t help you,” Grace replied, keeping her head down. “Keep quiet, David.”

“そうですか、この街について詳しそうな気 がしたので…”

“Please,” Grace said. “Go away.”

For a moment, it looked like that had worked. The businessman looked startled. But soon after she said that, another man stepped in front of the two siblings: a fat man with a colorful button-down shirt, complete with a large floral pattern.

“这个男人挺烦人的吧。” the fat man asked. “我 没想到还会有其他中国人住在这里。”

“Oh, god,” Grace mumbled.

“Grace?” David said. “Can I talk to them yet?”

In their attempts to get closer to the siblings, the two men bumped into each other, as if neither noticed the other was there. They stared at each other, then back at the siblings. Their faces darkened.

“你们两个不是中国人。” the fat man said. “你们 到底是从哪里来的?”

“เอกมัย” the train announcer said. “Ekkamai.” The train slowed, screeching as the brakes kicked in. The view of decrepit buildings outside the window was replaced by the pristine concrete of the skytrain station platform.

“David,” Grace whispered. “We’re going to run.”

“What?” David scowled. “Why? It’s not even our stop yet.”

“โปรดระวังช่องว่างระหว่างรถไฟและชานชาลา” the train announcer said. The doors hissed and began to slide open. “Please mind the gap between–”

Grace burst out of her seat and ran for the train exit, yanking David by the arm as he yelped in pain. They jumped onto the platform, skipping down flights of stairs to the lower level. Grace looked behind her and saw more people coming down the stairs and was prepared to run even faster before David howled for her to stop.

“My backpack!” David shouted. “I left my backpack!”

Grace looked around, breathing heavy. People at the station were beginning to stare, and adrenaline spiked in her veins. She tried in vain to shush him. “It’s OK, David, we’ll get it back from the Lost and Found.”

“My candy was in it!” David yelled, kicking at her. “You lost it!”

“Let’s just go home, OK?” Grace suggested.

“We can’t go home,” David scoffed. “Mom’s going to kill us.”

“We’ll just tell her it was an early dismissal day. Now come on. Let’s go home.” Grace reached down to grab David once again.

David jerked his hand away. “Don’t pull me. I’m not a kid anymore.”

“Alright, fine. But you have to promise to follow me.”

David huffed, but he still followed Grace obediently, staring down at the ground while occasionally looking up to check where she was. Even though David had stopped yelling, people were still staring at the siblings as they walked through the station.

David frowned when he noticed they were heading down the stairs to the street. “Aren’t we taking the BTS back?”

Grace sighed. “We can’t take the BTS anymore, David. It’s too dangerous. Too many people.”

“So?” David said. “Where aren’t there people?”

“At least if we’re out on the streets we aren’t trapped with anybody. It’s better this way.”

“I’m not walking back.”

“Look, David, I hate this as much as you do, but there’s something going on, and we have to be safe.” Grace again instinctively reached for David’s hand, but he crossed his arms and stepped back.

“So tell me what’s going on!” David yelled. “You haven’t told me anything! Why should I believe you, anyway? You’ve just been annoying me ever since this morning!” Grace didn’t reply, looking back at David. He stared back at her, tears welling up in his eyes.

Just then, the van stuck in traffic near the sidewalk

where David stood opened its door, and out popped the heads of several young boys wearing blue soccer uniforms. They were waving at David.

“타!” they yelled.

David gave a quick glare at Grace before jumping in without any further hesitation, and as the light turned green and the mass of cars in front began to move one by one, Grace bolted to the van and screamed at them before they could shut the door. “That’s my brother! He’s not leaving without me!” She expected to be forced out of the van but was instead grabbed and pulled in too, and before she knew it she was sitting in the third row down squeezed in between two boys. Grace could see David sitting in the front, but he was staring straight ahead, refusing to look at her. Suddenly, the traffic jam broke and the van took off down the road with a jolt.

“야 방금 좀 멋있었다!” the boy in the number two jersey said to David.

“너 우리팀 들어올래? 축구 잘할거 같은데.” the boy in the number fourteen jersey said.

“너 학교 어디 다니는데?” “야 너 괜찮아?”

“I just want to go home,” David muttered.

“David!” Grace kneeled on the seat cushion, leaning over the seat in front of her so that he could see her.

David looked behind for a moment before looking away again. “What?”

“We have to get out of here, David. Please. You have to trust me.”

“Don’t care.”

“OK, David,” Grace said, “OK. Listen to me, David. Come on. Turn around and look at me.”

David didn’t move.

“I’m going to think about something really, really hard. And I want you to concentrate as hard as you can and think of what I’m thinking about. Can you do that for me, David?”

David still wasn’t looking back.

“Alright David, I’m thinking of it now.” Grace closed her eyes and waited for five seconds. After that, she opened her eyes again. “OK, David. Tell me what I was thinking about.”

After a moment, David spoke up. “A panda bear.”

Grace smiled. “That’s exactly it. That’s what I was thinking of. You got it.”

David turned around and looked at her in wonder. “Woah.” “So, David, do you trust me?”

David nodded.

“I can’t explain what we’re going to do because they can understand us and they’ll try to stop us, so you just have to trust me. But you know what we have to do. Look at them,” Grace motioned to the soccer boys. “Sooner or later they’re going to ask the same question that every single person we’ve met today has asked us. And you know exactly what question I’m talking about.”

“무슨 질문? 너희들한테 질문 안 할 거야.”

“지금 우릴 놀리는 거야?”

“So you just have to trust me,” Grace continued. “I trust that you know exactly what I’m talking about, and I want you to trust that I know what I’m doing. That’s all you need to do.”

The van began to slow down again as it approached a red light. Grace slowly removed her legs from the back seat, placing them on the ground while still holding onto the back of the chair in front of her. She met eyes with David and nodded. The van came to a stop.

“누나 어디에서 왔 어?”

Grace bolted for the door on the left of the van, sliding through the gap in between rows of chairs as she fumbled with the door lock, but the soccer boys weren’t trying to stop her at all. They simply laughed.

“Uh, do you need help?” David asked.

Grace got the door open and rushed out into the street, gulping down unfresh air and weaving through cars to get to the sidewalk, and she saw that David was right behind her. But it was no use. In an instant, people walking along the crowded sidewalks stopped in their tracks and stared at the siblings gasping for breath, forming a ring around them. People started to get out of their cars stuck in the traffic jam, and the circle around them got smaller and smaller.

Grace hugged David closer to her, but he twisted away from her and yelled “Behind! Behind!” She looked behind and saw a hand peeking out from underneath the barely-opened rolling shutters of a curb-

side basement apartment, beckoning to them. Grace rushed for the shutters but tripped to the ground, her backpack jutting into her shoulder blades as she fell onto it, and she could do nothing but flail and struggle on her back as the crowd closed in. But suddenly, she felt a hand tug on her backpack strap and she was yanked inside just as the shutters closed behind her with a bang, and then everything was quiet. She took deep breaths, lying still as her eyes adjusted to the dim, fluorescent light. After catching her breath, she rolled onto her chest and propped herself back up from the tiled floor.

“Are you OK, David?” she asked. “Uh, David?” When he didn’t reply, Grace looked at his face and found him staring forward, transfixed, so she followed his gaze and saw–

The man standing in front of them had perfectly reflective skin. His legs were made of green floor tiles and framed black and white photos, and his arms were made of the red-and-gold altar and the pink plastic chair, and his face was like when Grace looked into the mirrors in the apartment elevator too hard. An endless series of faces reflected into each other, stretching out into a vast distance where the light from the ceiling became too dark to illuminate the outline of the faces at the end but it still kept multiplying even further beyond that, and–

Hands grabbed Grace’s shoulders and twisted her to look back at the rolling shutters, and her vision filled with grey and she could think again.

“对不起。” the reflective man behind her spoke.

“这是我的错。我应该告诉你我们不应直视对 方。”

“It’s fine,” Grace said, though she wasn’t fine at all. She looked down at David, who was also facing the wall and breathing heavily. The man must have turned him around before her.

“You OK, David?” Grace asked. David nodded.

“是不是你们有这个超能力？” the reflective man said.

“If by power you mean people chasing us everywhere, then yeah, I guess we do,” Grace said.

“哦。” the reflective man said. “私の言っている こと理解してる?”

“Yeah.”

“무슨 말인지 알아듣겠어?”

“Yeah.” “二加二等如幾多呀?”

“Four.”

He laughed. “唉，我剩喺識咁多咋。我細個嗰 陣都學過少少方言，所以個老嘢會以為我可以講 多幾句啦，但係睇嚟佢都應該對我幾失望。”

“Uh, who?” Grace asked.

“呀，係喎。我唔應該要佢等咁耐。佢喺左邊 個客廳等緊你哋㗎喇。”

“So how are we supposed to go talk to him without looking at you?” David asked.

The reflective man paused for a moment. “拿，我 哋咁做啦。我落咗樓梯先，咁我落到底就嗌一嗌 你哋。跟住你哋兩個等五秒之後就轉身，之後你 哋就可以唔洗見倒我咁就過倒去客廳㗎喇。 咁樣 O唔OK呀?” “Uh, sure,” Grace replied. Grace heard him run off behind her to go down the stairs to the lower floor before calling back up to them. She counted to five and turned around, and there was nothing in front of her but an empty basement apartment. Besides a single set of plastic furniture and the incense-burning altar inside the crevice of a wall, everything else was green tiles and green wallpaper. Grace looked down at David and squeezed his shoulder before they walked towards the only other room on the floor. She heard the faint sounds of a television and saw lights flickering from underneath the metal door. Grace put her hand on the doorknob and turned. Inside the room was an old man, shirtless and in his boxers. Bony and wrinkled, he sat in an armchair staring at an old television set, the only source of light in the room. This armchair was surrounded by stacks of boxes and ceiling-high shelves. Grace and David shuffled into the only free spot on the floor, a small rug by the entrance. The old man turned his head to acknowledge the siblings’ presence but didn’t say a word. Grace decided that she would have to be the first one to speak. “Uh, hi.”

the old man said.

“Huh?”

The old man smiled. Satisfied, he stopped talking and went back to staring at the television screen, as if the two siblings had suddenly stopped existing.

“Can we go now?” David asked.

They crept out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind them. In the foyer, the rolling shutters had already been lifted, allowing the sounds of the city to filter in and the full glare of the sun to coat the floor tiles near the entrance. The reflective man was nowhere to be found. Grace gave a cautious few steps outside, ready to spring the instant she saw a passerby turn and look at them. But nobody did. Pedestrians walked past them without a glance. Cars honked and continued driving without anyone getting out. The sun was directly overhead, the only time of day where it wasn’t hiding behind buildings. Grace stared up at it until she got spots in her eyes.

“So, Grace,” David said. “Are we lost?”

“Mostly,” she replied.

“Excuse me,” David jumped in front of a man who was passing by, waving his arms around. “We’re lost. Can you give us directions, please?” But the man just ignored him, stepping to the side and continuing on his way like he wasn’t even there. Special thanks to our translators: