Summer’s father arrived and talked to Vincent briefly, and then came over to shake my hand. I hadn’t seen him in at least a full
year, but he easily remembered me since I was one of the first two foreigners to ever come to his home (the other one being
Nathan). We went inside of the PSB department, and Summer’s father talked to the police, asking if there was any way to settle the
problem. They directed us back to the main police station to talk to Mr. Zhou again. Outside of PSB, Vincent and Summer’s father
had another talk. Vincent was trying to find out exactly what my connection to him was. He responded in Mandarin saying, “He is my
daughter’s friend, but now she is studying in Korea.” I was thinking, “I’m just glad he only thinks we were friends, because if he knew
what really happened, he wouldn’t be trying to help me.” We walked on foot through the streets and through the hot summer weather
to the police station where Summer’s father continued the negotiation. While he was speaking to Mr. Zhou, Vincent talked to me,
saying, “The man, your friend’s father, is an important man in this city, a man of influence, and he may be able to help you.”
Through the grim circumstances, I could at least enjoy a nice view of the city from the 17th floor as Vincent and I looked out
through the windows, waiting for whatever information we would receive about my situation. Summer’s father came back out of Mr.
Zhou’s office after about 10 minutes and explained to Vincent that nothing could be done for the situation.
      We went back down to the first floor and out to the front of the building. I asked Vincent to translate for me, “Thank you for your
time and thank you for trying to help me even though it was not successful.” And he said back, “Oh, it’s nothing” in Mandarin, of
course. Then he shook my hand and said, “Sorry” in English. That might have been the only thing besides “Hello” I ever heard him
say in English. After that, Vincent and I returned to the neighborhood near Anhui University.
      My chances for resolution seemed to be over. If Summer’s father was truly a man of status and still couldn’t help, there was
nothing else to do at all. No more negotiations could take place. I could only wait for fate to come and deliver the verdict.

Pet or meal
       Back at the apartment, Umesh’s girlfriend Linda bought a dog for him to keep. It was a cute and small puppy with brown and
thick fur that made it look like a little teddy bear. It was full of energy and ran around the barren living room with a very high pitched
bark and tongue hanging out of its mouth excitedly. Umesh used to keep it out on the balcony of the apartment so it wouldn’t make
a mess inside when we were all out. But one day, after only a week or so of keeping the dog, Umesh came back to the apartment to
find that it was missing. There was a restaurant just below our balcony on the first floor, so that was logically the first place to ask.
They said they hadn’t seen anything. I walked around the neighborhood to see if perhaps the dog ran away and was roaming the
streets, but there was no luck. After Linda asked around to several of the shop owners nearby, she discovered that there indeed was a
man at the restaurant below the apartment who was seen climbing up to the balcony to help himself to Umesh’s new puppy. The
only thing I wasn’t sure about was whether the man wanted a new pet, or wanted a meal. Some people in China would bring a
whole new meaning to the term “Scooby snack.”

Transients
       Eventually, the guys had to move out of their apartment building. Minku and Rashes moved into an apartment inside Anhui
University, and Umesh looked around for an apartment for him and his girlfriend. They tried to buy an apartment from some guy who
was in the military, but he kept changing the price (to make it higher each time), so he didn’t take that offer and kept searching.
They didn’t have any room for me in their new apartment, so I had to go back into the same old hotel once again. Fortunately, I had
saved up a lot of money from teaching there for one year, and the hotel itself was very cheap, so that was nothing to worry about.
During this time, a couple of my friends I had met at English corner had met with me at several restaurants to have dinner on a few
occasions. They were friends, Daniel and Snow. Daniel was tall, and always wore business suits and spoke very quickly. He worked
for an international trade company somewhere in the city. His friend Snow was a little quieter than Daniel, perhaps because he was
not as confident about his English level. Some people are afraid to even try speaking about anything if they think they will make
some mistakes when they are speaking. Daniel seemed like a very polite, yet very ambitious person. We talked about many serious
topics, and it was harder than usual for me to get a laugh out of him, but he seemed like a loyal enough person.
      All of us, Umesh, Minku, Rashes, Vincent, and many others we knew went to English corner on Friday nights when we were free.
Most of the students there went to practice their English or to look for a date, but I went there because it was a place where I could
be together with my friends and talk about anything. We usually had a great time there together. But one time when my friend
Ursula was there, Minku started talking to her. I saw Minku try to put his arm around her, but she quickly pushed his arm off. I started
to realize I had some feelings for her, and I was disappointed that Minku would even try that with one of my friends. Minku definitely
had some devious plots in his mind, but he was my brother, so I couldn’t criticize him too much. But that didn’t stop others from
doing that. Minku’s relationship with Darcy became the big joke among our circle of friends. Every time we would eat or go
somewhere together, everyone joked about Minku. I kind of felt sorry that his business was spreading in a humorous way across so
many people, but a part of me inside also thought it was funny.

The police and my Visa
       The police summoned me back to the main police station to talk to me about something, so I went there with Vincent to see
what they were going to do. We went into Mr. Zhou’s office on the 17th floor where I had a seat and watched him and Vincent
talking to each other. Mr. Zhou was making some very forceful looking hand gestures as he was explaining something to Vincent. I
guessed it was time for something to happen to me, after all this time waiting, after more than a month of not being able to move.
When Mr. Zhou was finished explaining, Vincent turned to me and said, “They decided to let you go without punishment. At first he
blamed you for what happened, but now he sees that it wasn’t your fault. It’s no problem. They forgive you, so you don’t need to
worry about anything. But they said that you must either present to them teaching certification, or you must leave the country.”
      They gave me a one week visa to either leave or find a school that could get me teaching certification. I wasn’t sure where I
would be able to find that. The school I was trying to work for obviously couldn’t do that, but someone did tell me there was a place
in Shanghai that could do it. Only problem was there wasn’t enough time. If I exceeded the limit on my visa, I would be fined 500
yuan a day, but luckily, the maximum fine was 5,000. I really didn’t want to leave the country, so I continued to try to find a way to
stay.
      Kingwater’s birthday was coming up in October, so she decided to have a birthday dinner in a restaurant on the same street we
used to live on. She invited several of us. Umesh, Minku, Rashes, Lucy, Bluestar, and I were among some of the people. She also
invited Rakesh, who we were starting to dislike, and a man named Jack Chan, whom I had met at English corner several times. I was
surprised to find out at that moment that Mr. Chan was Kingwater’s old teacher. He kept encouraging me to make romantic moves
on Kingwater, but I was hesitant because I didn’t think she was the right girl for me. But Rakesh, almost as soon as he arrived, sat
down and looked at Kingwater with bulging and desirous eyes, like he was struck by love at first sight. He started talking to her, and I
realized I made the right choice by leaving her alone. It was time for them to get started.
      Things seemed to be back to a level of safety I was comfortable with between the police and I, but after one week ran out,
every day living there cost me 500 yuan. There was no other school that could take me and get me certification, so it was time to
start planning to leave China.
China Dispatch/Andrew Gramling
Efforts to stay in China