Chapter 9
After this night, Paisley Logan was hiding from Matthew Waylon more frequently.
Fearing that he would achieve his goal in a roundabout way, Paisley kept to herself, trying to dodge him. Her friends didn't know how the "Young Master" offended Paisley, and they couldn't argue with that. The military training soon ended. National Day holiday was right around the corner, which fell on the same day as Mid-Autumn Festival. The school adjusted the schedule and arranged a long holiday for the students.
Paisley Logan wanted to go home early to see her grandfather, so she went back to the dorm to get her luggage after the parade on the last day of military training.
She changed her clothes quickly, carried her bag back, and went through a group of woebegone freshmen.
They had just sent off their instructors, and some of their eyes were still red. The military training lasted for more than twenty days, and it was easy for students under twenty years old to bond with their instructors. Looking at those sincere young faces, Paisley was a little envious. They seemed to like someone easily, whose feelings were as rich as the raging sea, while her feeling was like a small fountain, only focusing on herself.
Paisley Logan took the train this time, and a person came in the opposite when she got settled.
It was Matthew Waylon, who was carrying a shoulder schoolbag. He said, "What a coincidence, Paise."
Paisley was dumbfounded, "What are you doing here?"
Matthew didn't answer but winked at her with amusement.
In this world, there was always someone who came to make Paisley understand the true meaning of some words, such as the "ruthlessness" brought by Greyson Logan and the "entanglement" by Matthew!
Paisley Logan ignored Matthew, but he didn't care about that. The carriage was mostly filled with college students, and he was soon playing poker with the others.
Feeling bored and a little tired from her military training, Paisley fell asleep in a few minutes.
When she woke up again, they weren't playing poker anymore, and in the seat next to her was Matthew, fanning her with a paper fan.
The girl across the table was envious, "Ah, you're awake! Your boyfriend is so nice to you, he doesn't even let us play poker for fear of disturbing you."
Paisley thought that Matthew was not her boyfriend, but a cad.
"We're just friends. Sorry, you can keep playing." She explained.
"It's okay. We're almost at the station. It's good to chat like this."
After a short conversation, the train arrived at the station, and that girl pestered Matthew for his mobile phone number.
Paisley took the opportunity to hurry off the train, while Matthew caught up with her and asked, "Why didn't you wait for me? Are you mad?"
Noticing that Paisley was silent, Matthew went on talking, "Oh! It's all my fault. I'm so kind and attractive that…"
Before he finished the sentence, Paisley Logan couldn't help but chuckle, "You are over-confident."
She rarely laughed before. When she smiled, her face was as charming as a lotus rising out of clear water.
Matthew was captured by her beauty and then recovered quickly. "Well, without enough self-confidence, I dare not go home with you."
He was quite proud of himself. What he said reminded Paisley. "Why do you follow me?"
"To follow you home and see how you grew up to be such a hard-hearted girl," Matthew said seriously. Fearing that she would be unhappy, he added, "Don't worry, I will not bother you."
Paisley tried to avoid him on the way, but it didn't work.
She warned Matthew before getting off the train, "do not appear before my grandfather, or …"
Hearing that, Matthew raised his eyebrows. "Or I will not even talk to you in the future!" She said.
Matthew, "…"
After getting off the train, Paisley returned home directly.
Matthew followed at a distance and watched her excitedly run toward an old man standing on the street.
Justin George was waiting on the street early. As soon as Paisley saw him, she ran to him and said happily, "Grandpa, I'm back!"
It pained Paisley to see the old man's sunburned face. "I told you not to pick me up, what if you get heatstroke?"
"That would not happen." Justin grinned.
They were laughing and chatted all the way home. Paisley looked back uneasily and found that Matthew stood at a distance and waved his hand at her.
Despite a smiling face, Matthew stood alone, as if he had been lost. Paisley felt a little guilty, but in fact, he bought this on himself...
Along the way, Justin cheerfully told Paisley that Madison also went home to celebrate Thanksgiving Day this time. Paisley was pleased to hear it. Since her mother divorced, festivals for family reunions like Christmas and Thanksgiving Day had become taboos in her mind. It was rare for her mother to say that she wanted to come back.
Before entering the door, Paisley looked back again, and Matthew Waylon was gone.
Where did he go? She couldn't help but look around. As she wondered, her phone rang. It was a text message from Matthew.
[Are you looking for me?]
[No!]
Paisley replied to it, and then Matthew Waylon sent a smiling emoji, asking her to look up.
Paisley raised her head and saw Matthew standing in front of the windowsill on the second floor of the hotel across the street, waving at her with a bright smile. "You are worried about me", he mouthed.
Not at all! Paisley darted an angry look at him and slammed the door. She didn't worry about him! Rascal!
Justin was overjoyed that his daughter was returning home. He asked Paisley to prepare for the festival together.
He seemed to buy the whole street, busy steaming cakes, and frying food, which were the snacks unique to Plence. Paisley was both joyful and sad when she helped Grandpa. One was that the family was reunited and the other was that Grandpa was old and alone and he got satisfied merely to know his daughter come back.
Paisley thought that she must live with Grandpa when she found a job in the future.
Keeping his promise, Matthew did not show up. Instead, he sent text messages from time to time, reporting his whereabouts.
These messages were all photos with a sentence respectively: [It is the primary school where Paise studied. It is Paise's classroom. It is the shop where Paise went to school every day...] They were the places where Paisley grew up, and she didn't know where he got the information. Matthew went through these places and took photos, in which he stood on the left, leaving a space on the right.
Matthew said that they would visit these places together in the future.
Looking at these familiar or unfamiliar places, Paisley was touched.
After so many years, some places were not the same as those in memory, the cinema had been torn down, and the kindergarten had changed location. It was hard for him to find some traces of the past. When watching the photos, she seemed to see her past self, a taciturn girl, carrying a school bag, wandering around the street and looking for a place where no one could find her.
She grew up in loneliness from the day she knew her father had an affair.
Matthew's text message came again. It was a photo of the half-demolished gate of a park, and he stood by the ruins. [Has Paise been here?]
There was only one word on the gate: "Poe".
It was Allen Poe Park! She heard the park was going to be torn down, but it never occurred to her that the place turned out to be like this...
Paisley got upset and wondered if the bench she used to sit on were still there, and then she ran out without thinking.
Allen Poe Park had been torn down and the tall buildings were half-built. Searching the site for a long time, Paisley could only see the dust rather than the bench. Here was the new place to build commercial buildings for businessmen. Paisley stood in the flying dust, or the ruins of the past felt a crushing sense of powerlessness. She could not keep anything, and everything in the past was gone.
"Paise!"
A gasp interrupted Paisley's thoughts. She turns around and found that Matthew was standing behind her.
The boy carried a shoulder bag with a Single Lens Reflex around his neck, with a surprised expression on his face. But it soon turned into an inexplicable joy. He ran to her and asked happily, "Paise, do you come to see me?"
Matthew wagged his head like a husky.
Paisley felt better when she saw him. "I used to stay here when I was a child. Hearing that it is going to be torn down, I come here to have a look."
Matthew thought Paisley came here to accompany him.
They walked along the moat, and Matthew eagerly asked her about her childhood.
Paisley hadn't wandered Plence in a while. This city had changed a lot since she went to Oakwood. She pointed to a place and said, "there used to be a swing, and I often sat on it ... "
She became talkative, which was rarely seen before. Matthew listened carefully, staring at Paisley with tender eyes.
They passed a drink shop. Thinking that it was quite hot, Matthew asked her to go in for a break.
Paisley wanted to refuse at first, but she went over to the shop at the sight of something in the glass window. It was a small piece of ordinary wood carved with words, the corners of which are polished neatly. Paisley recognized the words at a glance. How could she forget such delicate and pitiless words? The wood was carved by Cottony's brother and he left the sentence "Goodbye, Paise" on it.
There is only "Goodbye" left in the wood and the handwriting was blurred, but Paisley was sure that it was carved by Dawson Grant!
It was amazing that someone would keep this wood.
Matthew felt so odd that she walked close to see what had happened. Thinking that Paisley had her eye on that wood, he asked the person inside, "hello, is this for sale?"
"No, it's not for sale." The owner, a young man in fancy clothes, pointed to the sign, "see?"
The store was named "Souvenir", next to which was a sentence "treasuring what has been lost".
The store was decorated in an artistic style, featuring a variety of things in the window, each with a line of handwriting in a poetic way.
As for that wood, there was a sentence: you said goodbye to me, but I want to see you again.
The owner added, "I picked up this wood accidentally when Allen Poe Park was dismantled. It's quite interesting, so I polished and preserve it. I will not sell it."
"But this is ......" Paisley opened her mouth but did not finish her words.
She wanted to tell the owner that the wood was her friend's farewell to her, but how could she prove it?
Cottony's brother's farewell was carved on a wooden chair in Allen Poe Park, which did not belong to her.
Paisley dragged her eyes away and pleaded with the owner, "if you don't want it one day, can you sell it to me?"
The owner gave a little start and then nodded.
Paisley left the number, looked at the wood again, and said to Matthew, "let's go."
With that, she got out of the store first. Paisley thought it was good to leave the wood in this store, at least that thing could remain. When she was a child, she thought that Allen Poe Park and wooden chairs with lettering would always be there. If she missed them, she could go to sit for a while, but Paisley did not expect that those things would disappear one day.
The owner did not sell it, and Matthew had no choice but to take a picture of the wood and went after Paisley.
He ran over to walk alongside her and asked, "Paise, do you like that wood?"
Not really, it was just an old thing left behind by a friend, like the sign of that store, "treasuring what has been lost". Dawson Grant did not appear again, but she still wanted to have something to prove that he had come and stayed with her. It was probably what people often say, "the thing reminds one of its owners". That was a long story, and Paisley did not explain it, but smiled, "I think the writing is pretty good."
"OK." Matthew nodded and didn't ask anymore, but he felt it was not as simple as she said. Paise had always been indifferent to things, and it was the first time to see her get interested in or care about something. Maybe she liked it but did not want to impose.
While walking, Paisley's cell phone rang, and she picked it up. After a while, her face changed.
"If you can't come back, you should not don't tell him that. Do you know how many things Grandpa has prepared?" Paisley said angrily, hanging up the phone directly. Her face had reddened with rage.
"What's the matter?"
"It's my mother!" Paisley was furious. "My grandfather has longed for his homecoming every day, but she told me she will not come back this time. This is too much! She makes Grandfather happy for nothing!"
"Well, don't be angry," said Matthew. He didn't know how to comfort her. "Maybe she was delayed."
"But it's not just she who was busy. My father used to be like this: he had promised that he would come home, but he made an excuse and did not return home! Mom hated it, but now she has acted like Greyson Logan!"
Paisley was so annoyed that her chest was heaving. She even took it out on Matthew for no reason, "I hate those of you who don't go home for festivals. Why do you follow me back?"
The poor boy dared not to retort her.
Since Madison George did not return home, Paisley was not in the mood to accompany Matthew. She wanted to run home.
Matthew pulled her back and said kindly, "Paise, don't be mad. It must be tough for your grandfather to see you like this."
Paisley looked up, noticing that Matthew was not annoyed at her impolite behavior just now. He was concerned about her.
Paisley nodded her head, feeling a little embarrassed.
When Paisley got home, Justin laid out the food on the table and called her for dinner.
Paisley was upset. How pitiful people were when they got old. The elder people had to wait to see their children who had grown up. Even if their children didn't go home, they could not say anything.
She didn't know how to tell Justin that her mother would not come back, while Grandfather said first, "Paise, your mother can't come back. You have to spend the festival with me. "
He said it with a smile as if he didn't care at all.
Paisley felt worse, but she had to smile and give her grandpa a bowl of rice. "Grandpa, let's eat!"
She also filled her bowl with rice and ate as much as she could.
Justin did not have an appetite, so he ate a little and then happily watched Paisley.
Paisley smiled at her grandfather as she ate food, and he also laughed. The wrinkles on his face made him look tired and old.
Paisley got sad and found it hard to swallow the food.
Justin didn't notice that. "Has your mother eaten yet?" He murmured.
"I'm sure she has." Paisley lowered her head, "don't worry."
They should have been happy and excited about this festival, but the good mood was ruined by Madison. Paisley and her grandfather sat in the courtyard and watched the full moon.
It was a bit windy at night, and Justin went into the house to have a rest soon. Paisley sits quietly, staring at the full moon in the sky. It was big and bright. Was there such a beautiful moon in Oakwood? Why didn't her mother come back? Her home was here, not Oakwood.
At this time, the phone rang, but Paisley ignored it. After a while, there was a knock on the door.
"Open the door, Paise!" Matthew lowered his voice.
Afraid of disturbing Grandpa, Paisley Logan had to open the door. Once the door was opened, Matthew dragged her into the car without saying a word.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"I know why your mother did not come back."
Paise,
There would be ample time for us.