". . . sieben, acht, neun, zehn."
"Good," Nadina said, then pointed to the number one again. "Cantonese."
Four-year-old M’boku, who still preferred to be called John, rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and took a deep breath. "Jyut, yee, saam, say, mm, lok, czat, baat, gau, sap."
"Excellent. Your pronunciation is getting much better," Nadina smiled and moved back to the number one. "Portuguese."
M’boku heaved a big sigh. "I want to go plaaay nooow," he whined.
"When we finish our numbers, we can go to the park. Now, say them in Portuguese."
He huffed and hunched his shoulders, then recited, "Um, dois, tres, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez. Are we done yet?"
Nadina laughed and mussed up his hair. "Okay. Get your shoes on. But when we get back, we’re practicing our hanzi."
Hooting and shouting, he ran out of the room to find his shoes.
Nadina carefully folded the number board and put it back in its designated place on the shelf, then took down the beginner hanzi flash-cards and arranged them in a neat stack on the table for when they returned. She glanced at her wristwatch. It was just past noon now. She would let him play for four-and-a-half hours, then maybe surprise him with a treat afterward, if he was good. Smoothing down the wrinkles from the front of her shirt, she turned to look out the window.
By law, citizens of the UK may enter Macau without a visa for up to 180 days. However, China is also a member country of Interpol, so Nadina had decided not to risk using the same British passports that they had used to leave England. Fanzou had charged her a ridiculous sum for the new documents, but he had managed to get her not only two Canadian passports, but also a visa that would allow her to stay in Macau for two years, if she so chose. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to know how he had managed that.
For some reason, they’d had no brushes with law enforcement, no close-calls with the police, not even so much as a stalker since they had left Europe. Nadina had no idea why they’d been so lucky for the past several months, but she very much appreciated it. It was as if some guardian angel had been sent to watch over them. So far, Nadina had refrained from trying to figure out who it was. If indeed, someone were helping them, she wasn’t about to scare them off by looking into it too closely. She would express her gratitude when, or if, that person ever came forward.
M’boku ran back into the room, wearing the rather roughed-up pair of velcro sneakers that Nadina had designated as his "playing outside" shoes, and carrying a toy bulldozer under one arm. "READY!"
"Where is your jacket?"
"It’s not cold outside."
"Let’s not argue, my love. It might get cold later, and if you don’t have your jacket, we might have to come home early."
"Okay, I’ll get it!" He put down his bulldozer and sprinted back to his bedroom.
Living in Macau wasn’t as expensive as in some of the other places she’d lived in, so Nadina had been able to get them a comfortable two-bedroom apartment in one of the safer parts of the city, just two blocks away from a small community park. It was the perfect place to hide. They were just two people lost in a densely-populated city with a heavy tourist trade, on the opposite side of the globe from where they had started. And despite her initial doubts, it was turning out to be an excellent place for little M’boku to spend his early childhood.
Of course, she still worried about the effect their prolonged close proximity would have on him. She had decided that when he was old enough, she would send him to a private boarding school. That way he could not only have the best possible education, but also he would be in a safe environment, surrounded by children his own age, and they could avoid the dangers of too much close contact before his awakening. She just hoped that their current situation wouldn’t be enough to cause him any harm. It would only be for a few years.
M’boku ran back out with his red jacket knotted around his head like some sort of makeshift turban, jumped over the toy bulldozer where he’d left it on the floor, and landed in an exaggerated super-hero pose. "Ooookaaay! Let’s gooo!"
Nadina laughed. "You are a silly boy. Alright, off we go." She slipped on her outdoor shoes, folded her sweater over her arm, and grabbed her keys from the hook by the door.
After locking up, she reached down and waited for him to wrap his little hand around two of her fingers before they marched off in the direction of the park. She told herself that holding hands was necessary when walking through the crowded city streets, but she knew that the real reason she always made him do it had more to do with her personal longing for closeness than any kind of pedestrian safety precaution. Soon enough, he would be away at school, and then once he awakened, he would be back to his old self, and she knew they would never be this affectionate again.
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