Gillian had a peaceful and quiet Christmas in New York with her friend, Megan Lee. When the New Millennium finally arrived, she (as well as everyone) was glad it was not the end of the world as some had predicted.
A week into the New Year 2000, she got herself settled in Baltimore where her graduate classes began at John Hopkins University. Between attending classes and working as a research assistant, there was hardly any spare time for her to think about the life she had left behind in Hong Kong. Aside from the two phone conversations she had with her family on the first day she arrived in New York and the night before flying to Baltimore; Gillian did not make any other oversea phone calls.
She was tempted to call Ethan for more times than she wanted to count. So far, she had managed to overcome her temptations. However, she allowed herself to send him an email upon her arrival in New York. She told herself it was only courteous to thank him for his gifts, which kept her in emotional upheavals throughout the entire flight from Hong Kong to Seattle and onwards to New York. She didn’t tell Ethan that, of course. Neither did she reply to any of his emails while she was staying with Megan in Manhattan where Internet was easily accessible and free for her.
So when Gillian first arrived in Baltimore, she sent one generic email to everyone on her contact list to let them know of her whereabouts. Then all communications ceased because she was only able to access the Internet during library hours. She chose to use the limited data to just reading her emails but she didn’t reply any of them; she needed the data to look for housing information.
Three months later, Gillian finally settled into her own little rental apartment with her own phone line and Internet access. That was when she sent another generic email to everyone on her contact list to let them know of her new contact number and mailing address.
One spring day in Hong Kong, Derek called Ethan into his office to inform him of an opportunity for career advancement. Derek had expected Ethan to jump on the opportunity of a lifetime, but he definitely did not expect Ethan to give him a dejected expression.
“Not willing to leave Anita behind, is it?” Derek thought he had figured out why Ethan was reluctant. When Ethan made no response to his statement, Derek thought he would provide the sulking colleague with a solution. “You do know you can take Anita with you to England, as long as the two of you are married!”
Ethan immediately let out a sigh and sent Derek a frowning look that told him it was lame for him to make such a suggestion. Derek surrendered, all he could do now was to keep quiet.
Finally, Ethan opened his mouth and spoke his mind. “Have you heard from Gillian?”
Derek took empathy upon his friend immediately. “Last email was when she moved to her new apartment … I think it was about three months ago?”
Derek couldn’t quite read the expression on Ethan, so he asked him directly. “What about you? Have you two been emailing each other? Have you called her?”
The facial expression on Ethan was an answer in itself. This time Derek was certain Ethan was missing Gillian very much and going to England for training with Anita was the last thing on his mind.
The following evening, there was a small dinner gathering at Derek’s home. After the meal, he was in the process of getting an email address for Nathaniel when he noticed a new email had arrived from Gillian. It was sent 8 hours ago. When he clicked on the image attachment, he called everyone to take a look. While Katie, Anita and Nathaniel gathered around the kitchen counter, Ethan didn’t budge from the armchair he was occupying. He was still brooding over the fact that Gillian had only sent him one private email but never replied to any of his. However, he was struggling emotionally not to blame her as she had told him to move on for more times than he wanted to recall. He was starting to believe Gillian had written him off for good.
“Ethan!” Anita called to him. When he ignored her bidding, she approached him. “Come take a look at Gillian’s photo!” Anita grabbed his arm and attempted to pull him out of the armchair.
Ethan reluctantly stood up because he didn’t want Anita to injure herself. But he stood like a dead weight and Anita had to push him from behind to get him close enough to join the others around the kitchen counter.
At first sight of the photo, the image of Gillian smiling caused Ethan’s heart to drop to his stomach. Her rosy cheeks showed she was keeping herself healthy. Looking at the pair of sparkling eyes, he couldn’t help but admit to himself how much he had missed her.
“She looks happy,” Ethan stated the obvious. Derek and Anita gave him a ‘Duh’ reaction.
“You must have talked to Gillian!” Katie turned to Ethan with an innocent smile. “Is she happy in America? Did she gain weight?”
Ethan looked fazed when all eyes were on him. Without saying another word, he simply turned around and stepped away from the group.
“You should give her a call!” Anita called out with a reprimanding tone. “You can’t expect a girl to call you all the time!”
Nathaniel caught Anita’s plea for support. “It’s 8:30 in the morning. How about giving her a wake-up call?”
Katie liked the idea and got all excited. “Is it Sunday morning? I can never remember if we are behind or ahead in time.”
Ethan was relieved for Katie’s question because he didn’t want to answer Nathaniel’s question.
“It’s Saturday morning!” Derek assured Katie. “Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead of Baltimore!”
“Let’s call her!” Katie insisted. “I will pay you back for the extra long-distance charges.”
“No need! I have a really, really good plan!” Derek gave her a goofy smile. He picked up his wireless phone and started dialing. When he heard the connecting tone, he approached the armchair and handed the phone to Ethan.
Ethan refused to take the phone from Derek until Anita chided him about wasting money on long distance calls. So, Ethan had no choice but to take the phone and placed it to his ear and waited. After the fourth ring, thinking Gillian wasn’t home; he was about to return the handset to Derek.
But when a sleepy male voice answered, Ethan was caught totally off guard. All he could do was clear his throat to buy himself some time; at the same time hide his disappointment. He also needed a moment to translate his question to English in his mind. “Hello, is this Gillian Chan’s residence?”
“Pardon? Hello?” The man on the other line was having difficulty hearing what Ethan was saying.
Ethan thought perhaps Derek had dialed the wrong number, so he repeated the name. “Gillian Chan. Is this Gillian Chan’s residence?”
“Gillian…Oh, yes, Gillian!” The man seemed to have woken up and his voice sounded much more alert now. “Yes! This is Gillian’s residence! Hold on please.”
Ethan heard chuckles from the man and some tapping noises that sounded odd. Then the man’s voice drifted into a distance as he called out to Gillian. “Wake up, Gillian! Wake up!”
Then Ethan heard Gillian mumbling faintly in the background, it was the same familiar sound she used to make whenever he tried to wake her up from her sleep. His jaw muscles tensed up as he couldn’t help but pictured Gillian waking up next to the man he had just spoken with. That was when his stomach started churning and a sudden rush of acid rushed to his heart when he realized the man had covered up the mouthpiece of the phone. A moment later, the man handed the phone to Gillian.
“Hello?”
When Gillian’s sleepy voice came through the line, Ethan felt as if his whole being was floating in the sea of dismay. He wanted to slam the phone down, but he managed to control his rage to just press the End button and handed the phone back to Derek. “Wrong number!”
“Wrong number?” Derek repeated with confusion. “I thought I just heard Gillian’s voice.” He placed the phone to his ear. “Hello? Hello?”
Katie took the phone from the confused looking Derek and placed it to her own ear. When she only heard a dial tone, she looked at Derek with confusion as well. “Check the number and dial again!”
“Yeah, maybe the connection was bad!” Anita added.
When Derek pressed the auto-redial button and placed the call on speaker phone, Ethan got up from the armchair and made a quiet exit through the front door. Just before the door closed, he heard Gillian’s voice again as she answered the call. As he walked towards the elevator lobby, Gillian’s cheerful voice filled the hallway. Instead of waiting for the elevator, he descended the fire-escape staircase as if there was a consuming fire behind him.
Ethan could no longer deny the throbbing pain in his heart as the sound of Gillian’s cheerful voice continued to resonate in his eardrums. When he finally got into his car, he was breathless, and his body was shaking. He tightened his fists and shut his eyes to overcome the internal rage. He looked out his front windshield and lifted his gaze towards the balcony where Gillian had asked if he still loved her on the night of her farewell party. And when his rage finally subsided, he became angry at himself for denying the obvious truth about his own feelings for Gillian. Now he regretted not telling her the truth that night when he had the chance.
Three weeks later, Ethan entered Derek’s office to inform him that he would like to accept the opportunity for the promotion. After the emotional upheaval from the phone call, Ethan felt it was time to leave the past behind. And the only way he could do that was to go to a place where there were no memories of Gillian.
That evening, Ethan told Anita that his application for training in England had been submitted. Anita reassured him again that she would get by with Nathaniel’s help, but she had mixed feelings towards Ethan’s hasty decision.
Anita decided to brave it up and brought the subject of Gillian into the conversation. “Gillian said she couldn’t afford to call because long distance charges were very high in the US. Perhaps you can rent the condo out when the renovation is done. That way you can send some of the rental money to Gillian! Maybe then the two of you can call each other more often!”
Ethan remained quiet, as if what Anita said was not deserving of his attention. Anita didn’t want to push her luck, but she decided to take the opportunity to remind him of a task he was supposed to do three weeks ago. “So, have you called Gillian back yet? I told her you would call her back! And don’t you make a liar out of me!”
Ethan knew it was time to get out of Anita’s presence or else she would nag him and pressure him to pick up the phone right there and then. On the way to his room, he told her of his plan that he secretly had no intention to fulfill.
“I will call her when I get to England!”