Ramen and Other Stories

By Albert Chen

A collection of short stories from the early part of Albert Chen's life. Edited for spelling and grammar but not for content or style to preserve the youth and adolescence of when they were written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781329886834

Albert Chen

Albert Chen is a Senior Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he has authored over a dozen cover stories for the magazine and specializes in longform features. He has covered baseball, football, sports business, and gambling. He has also written for Fortune, among other publications, and been featured on CNN, NPR, MLB Network, and ESPN Radio. He has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and lives in New York City with his wife and son.

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Ramen and Other Stories

Ramen and Other Stories

By Albert Chen

Copyright © 2016 by Albert C. Chen

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2016

ISBN 978-1-329-84657-9

Albert C. Chen

658 N. Armistead St.

Alexandria, VA 22312

www.erinandalbert.com

Ordering Information:

Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, educators, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the above listed address.

U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers: Please contact Albert C. Chen Tel: [phone]; or email [e-mail]

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This is an unadulterated collection of short stories I wrote from college to the sometime in the 2000s. I have not written much since I got married and had children, but it is my intention to get back to it sometime. In fact, the retirement plan is to take the story ideas I have been collecting and write in my old age.

This is a draft version of a collection of short stories; I am making this because the coupon for Lulu expires tonight. Now, pulling these together has been pretty interesting for me, because it is a window into the person I was at the time I wrote it. So, to that end, I only made grammar, spelling, and formatting edits and resisted changing any content or style.

My writing, topics, style, and hopefully, maturity has changed over the years and perhaps at one point when I publish these for real I will rewrite these so that they are more mature, than they are now; but when and if I do, they will lose a little of the innocence that the stories have now. There are a few stinkers, and the first couple stories are particularly bad, so I would recommend starting in the middle somewhere like Ramen, or The Air Box.

I intentionally did not publish any high school work, those are long stories in and of themselves; Mikeio, parts one and two and Legends deserve their own book I think. I intentionally did not journal as a younger person and wrote stores instead; please take a look through this window and see who I was back then. I dedicate this book to my wife Erin, and my daughters Curie and Elia, and to everyone who inspired me to write back in the day.

ACC

January 20, 2016

Silhouette

1989

The silence fed on him like some primeval fog enveloping his mind and soul, and in the darkness, he cried out for restitution, but none was forthcoming.  The sparse decor of the apartment only served to enhance the loneliness that he felt.  Being lonely was not a new feeling; he had felt it many times before.  It always seemed to follow him in everything that he did, in work or in play, it made no difference, there was always a lack of a sense of fulfillment in his life.  His fiancée, though lively and vivacious, did not fill the void completely, yet so far, she was the closest he had come to feeling whole.

He was tempted to call her, but he had already done so many times that night in earnest and in argument, and it was late.  As the hour wore, the feeling grew desperate and almost unbearable.  Tossing and turning in his bed the loneliness would not let him rest.  And just when it seemed to be too much, he was saved from his private horror by a knocking at the door.  Taking a breath to compose himself, he rose from the bed and checked the clock. 11:30 PM. His steps across the living room carpet were soft and muted.  As he opened the door, the falling form of his fiancée pressed into his apartment.  Taking her into his arms, he laid her onto the couch before trying to find out what was the matter.  With the help of a little water, she recovered from her swoon to tell him that a friend of hers, Felicia Spencer, was missing.  The man hadn't realized that his fiancée was friends with this girl, but seeing that she was distraught, he strove to comfort her.  At his first touch she melted into his arms and sought comfort in his warmth.  Her movements quickly became languid and her touch, a caress.  He had been confused, for this did not seem like proper concern for her friend, and tried to protest, but her lips rose and silenced his.  Again he asked, `But what about Felicia?' and this only received a disinterested `who?’

*     *     *

In the darkness the emptiness nagged at him and he woke with the space in his soul like a festering ulcer.  His fiancée slept spent at his side.  Taking pains not to wake her, he left the warmth of the bed, quickly dressed and slipped out into the depths of the night.  There is a sense of comfort in the darkness, as if, while the rest of the world is asleep, those in the night share a sense of quiet camaraderie.  Into this unlikely comfort he ventured to find the solace that he sought.  Gradually he made his way along the waterfront.  The loneliness was no longer an unbearable burden but rather a dim dull ache that persisted in the recess of his heart.  He felt a sense of searching, yet did not know what he needed to find.  Like the proverbial wanderer he meandered aimlessly along the beach without thought or purpose.  As he continued, he caught glimpse of a girl on the path also alone and felt compelled to draw nearer.  Her long black hair shone like polished ebony in the pale moonlight, and her though he only could barely make out her face from where he was standing, he saw that her features were carefully sculpted to a crisp, defined state of perfection.  Oblivious to the world he followed, matching step for step never closer and never further yet always just away from her view.  Then at the edge of a breakwater, she stopped and gazed out over the water breathing in the salt air as if reveling in her solitude.  Following suit he also looked out across the ocean and took in the sea air, and for that moment in the night, they seemed to share a common bond, a thread joining their spirits and in that one instant, he felt strangely fulfilled.

Standing there next to the golithian stones of the breakwater, he let the feeling suffuse through his entire body and marveled at the sense of completeness that he felt.  Then in the corner of his eye, he noticed that she had moved.  In a frantic feeling of loss as he saw her draw away, he ran towards her in the panic that she would be lost in the darkness.  As he neared the gap she turned around and stopped him in his tracks.  Catching his eye she looked at him and smiled at him a small knowing smile and he knew that he had been found.  In the silence, her gaze seemed to pierce right through him as though she knew his every thought and insecurity.  Then as suddenly as she had turned to look at him, she turned away and resumed walking, the gaze leaving him powerless to follow.  When the darkness had swallowed her, and he was alone again, he turned, thoughts in turmoil, and headed back to his apartment.  The way home was haunted with images of her face and the taste of fulfillment left a maddening sweetness in his soul.  The feeling was new and though it was what he had been searching for all his life, it left him confused and disturbed.  Upon seeing his fiancée in his bed he was once again unsure whether or not it had only been a vision, and as in a dream, only a pleasant memory.

*     *     *

The haunting memory of her face captivated and preoccupied him until dinner  and that memory only whetted a greater need to find out who she was and where she came from, a need to find out more.  It was already seven o'clock when he remembered that he had a six thirty dinner engagement with his fiancée.  Hurriedly he dressed and drove to her home to pick her up.  A note at the door told him to meet her at the restaurant as some of her old friends had come for a visit and were joining them for dinner, so they had gone ahead.  Once at the restaurant the waiter led him to the table where his fiancée and her friends were chatting over a drink.  Sitting next to her was a strange herculoidian man whose t-shirt sported the logo of a body builder and the words 'Karl's Gym'.  Against the elegant setting of the dining room he seemed quite incongruous.  Her other friends were two of her girlfriends that he hardly knew.  `Karl's Gym' was leaning over his fiancée with an intimacy that could only be described as `familiar'.  They toughed heads laughing over some trivial anecdote.  His appearance was so sudden to her that she barely covered her flustered gasp with a nervous laugh.  Motioning him to sit, she introduced her friends to him.  Apparently `Karl's Gym' had been an `old flame' from her high school days and had dropped in on his way to the national body building championships.  His irritation at their intimacy quickly dulled in the presence of their incessantly trivial conversations.  Shutting out the conversation enough so that all he had to do was nod or shake his head at his fiancée’s unconscious prompting, his mind once again drifted to the image of the mysterious girl the night before.

He was so caught in his reverie that he thought he saw he face in the plate glass window in the front of the restaurant.  He lightly shook his head to clear it only to be shocked to find that it was indeed her face at the window.  He again cleared his eyes as if she would disappear at any moment, but she only stood there and smiled back at him.  As she turned away he stood up to follow not realizing that his fiancée had been talking to him and he had cut her off in mid-sentence.  He left the table oblivious to the stares and whispers of her friends.  His only intent seemed to be to follow that girl.  Embarrassed and furious at her fiancé’s behavior, his fiancée excused her from the table and ran after him.  Catching up with him in front of the restaurant, she launched into a tirade about how could he do this to her and embarrass her so.  Her reprimand fell on deaf ears for he was looking up and down the boardwalk for any signs of the mysterious girl.  His fiancée threatened that if he did not return to the table and apologize that she would insure he would regret it.  She even went so far as to insinuate that their engagement could be put at risk if he did not.  So unaware was he of her lecture he merely nodded and started off in the direction he had seen the other girl go.  Furious with his behavior, his fiancée made one final ultimatum then stalked back into the restaurant in spite.

Though he had searched the entire boardwalk, he could find neither hide nor hair of his quarry.  Defeated, he headed home feeling lonelier than he had ever felt before.  Once home he immediately prepared to retire for the evening.  No sooner had he closed the door however, there was a knock on the door.  Answering, he found the mysterious girl standing there on his door step looking a trifled embarrassed. However, when he invited her in, she smiled and         did so without hesitation.

*     *     *

Morning crept through the window like a lazy vapor consuming the darkness with an undeterred hunger.  In its presence the young man's fiancée lay awake in her bed next to the man who had sported the `Karl's Gym' t-shirt only the night before.  Having cheated on her engagement, she lay awake unable to sleep tossing and turning in the throes of guilt.  She felt compelled to tell her fiancé in hopes that he would forgive her for her indiscretion.  Being careful not to wake the slumbering bulk, she called her fiancé’s apartment.  To her dismay she received only the mechanical voice of   his answering machine.  Because it was only just dawn, she decided that he must be asleep, so dressed to tell him in person at his apartment.  In disarray, she drove to his home and urgently knocked on his door while trying to think of a convincing plea for forgiveness.  Only after several minutes of pounding did the door creak open.  Half asleep and only dressed in a robe, her fiancé squinted in the morning light to see who was at the door.  Just as she started to explain that it had been the wine and the anger that compelled her to do what she had did, she happened to look over his shoulder into the open bedroom beyond and see the sleeping form of a girl among his sheets.  Instead of completing her apology, she flew into a tantrum and accused him of cheating on their relationship, conveniently forgetting that she had been guilty of the same indiscretion not more than a few hours before.  He however felt no guilt whatsoever at what he had done, for in finding the girl he had found absolute fulfillment and combined with hers, his soul had become complete.  When her anger had expended she saw that she had not fazed him in the least.  Not knowing what else to do, she ran away from the room in frustration.  After watching her disappear down the hall and around the corner, he gently closed the door and returned to his room.

*     *     *

Four days passed and he had not been seen nor heard from by his fiancé and as yet unwilling to submit herself to the indignity of facing him in person and clearing up the matter, she resigned herself to trying to find out about him from his friends and relatives.  This however was to no avail, for apparently among them, she had been the last to see or talk to him.  Finally, reason overcoming her pride, she gathered her courage and called him to talk about their relationship. To  her  dismay,  there  was  no  answer  and a  trip to his apartment also  yielded fruitless  results. In desperation, she came to wander the boardwalk where they had always dined. As she passed their restaurant she came to peer into the plate glass window to find her fiancé and the mysterious girl sharing an intimate dinner by candlelight.   Jealous to no end, she burst into the restaurant to find that they were already leaving.  As he passed he didn't even recognize her much less acknowledge her as he was so intent on the girl at his side.  Her calls to him also had no effect.  Only when she ran up and grabbed his arm did he finally take notice. When she asked again how he could treat her that way, he simply replied that he had found fulfillment in life with this girl and that he was sorry but could not see how their engagement could continue.

Minutes after he had passed his former fiancée stood in the middle of the boardwalk dumbfounded at what he had said. Even in her worst scenario she did not imagine that he would break their engagement.  She felt defeated and wandered home mulling over these recent events.  Come  morning she  again went to  his apartment  to talk  to him  as she  was not  yet convinced  that  the  previous  night  had  happened.   Being unlocked, the door swung open at her first knock.  In the bathroom she could hear the sound of his electric razor as he shaved.  She kept  telling herself that  there was a  logical explanation  for  what  had  happened  and  that if they just talked it out  that all would  be normal again.   However, as she stood there in the foyer, the girl who had replaced her as the most important woman in his life stepped out of the bedroom dressed only in his pajama top.  In fury, his former fiancée lost all restraint and started calling her all forms of back-alley names, and when she did not respond, the half crazed woman began throwing things at her.  First her purse, then her shoe, yet still the girl did not flinch.  Looking around her for something heavier the former fiancée picked up the potted peony from the foyer tiles.  Seng her rival standing there so complacent under such a threat, she hurled it at her with all her might.   The pot crashed bottom first into the girl's head killing her instantly.  However, as the body fell, her image hovered over the figure a while before dissipating completely.  Convinced she had seen a ghost the man’s former fiancée screamed in terror and ran from the apartment.

Startled by the crash and scream the man dropped his razor into the sink and raced into the living room.  To his horror he saw the inert body lying in a pool of blood. Crying in grief and anguish over the loss of his love he rushed over to the body and lifted it into his arms.  But when blond hair instead of the ebony black cascaded from her head he dropped the body in the realization that it was not at all the girl that he had loved.  Although still dressed in his pajama top, the body in his arms was a stranger to   him. Transfixed  by  confusion  and  fear  he  felt his hands grow clammy and  broke  in  a  cold  sweat.  Then feeling a draft behind him he turned around to find his love behind him only she was not altogether tangible and she floated several inches above the ground.  There she hovered, black hair in disarray and clad in a flowing white kimono.  His terror seemed to reach a climax, when he happened to look into her face and saw that knowing smile and suddenly realized what it was she knew.  Slowly she reached her hand out to him and in his new found calm he took it knowing that now and forever he and she were whole.

*     *     *

Los Angeles Times:

The body  of missing  student Felicia  Spencer was found with the body  of James Weiland  late yesterday when  a Julia Jacobson  a  classmate  of  both  victims  claimed  to   have accidently  killed  an  unknown  Japanese  girl  in  the same apartment.  However when police arrived at the scene, the supposed victim was not to be found.  Instead Spencer was found with the same injury to the head that the supposed Japanese girl was killed by. Weiland apparently died of a premature heart attack after finding the body. His involvement in her disappearance is still unknown.  Police are still investigating the incident which according to the officer in charge is fraught with mystery. Even more mysterious still is the smile reported on Weiland's face when his body was found.

The Soul Sword

1989

They said I should write this down in case I forget everything that happened.  Ever since I was little I tended to be a brooding sort of child, not in a sullen sort of way, but I thought about a lot of things all the time.  Later,  as I  grew  up  people  marveled  at  the  level that I liked to introspect. I  liked  to  say  that  it was that while most people let situations and  occurrences blur into the  mists of time, that  I remembered  everything including  the color and type of clothes the  person was wearing.  Anyway, the result was that I was a brooding adult as well.  While  most people are  happy  until  something  brings  them  down,  I  was the reverse, down until something cheered  me up.  I let a  sense of  darkness  pervade  me  and  for  the growing years it was really no inconvenience.

Caring, I liked to say, was the most important thing in the world.  I was a people person and even when issues came to fore, it was this people element that let me care enough and deal with those issues.  Because  I liked  to relate to people on a one to one, I soon had many close friends whom to lean on when  I would lose  control over the  darkness and it threatened  to  overwhelm  me.   I  realize  that  my chronic depressions  must  have  worried  them,  yet it was a working relationship: when they  needed me I  was there for  them and when I needed them they responded in like.

I was as any person, I had my successes and failures, and I fell in love and suffered losses.   Yet all the  while, when something  would  happen,  it  seemed  like  I would feel the emotions with more intensity  than those around me.   Perhaps it is an arrogance to believe so, but in that belief, I felt others' pain.

As I pursued my education it was logical that I ended up in the health profession.  I had a hunger for helping others and a sense of caring that gave me insight on how to succor those around me.  The more  I gave myself to those  around me the more fulfilled I  felt, yet there was  a part of me  that was becoming more and more empty; It got so that I would work myself ragged