The Gaze of Caprice (The Caprice Trilogy Book 1) by Cole Reid Read Free Book Online Page A

complete stop just after her ponytail.  She rolled her wrist to look at her watch.  It was 3:42pm in the afternoon.  The students would be let out in three minutes.  At thirty-four years old, Xiaofeng’s mother was the youngest parent waiting outside the Xindian District Junior Middle School.  She didn’t know it. She wouldn’t have cared.  Thirty-four years hadn’t given her time enough to compromise her thoughts.  She made decisions and didn’t do anything else.  She unbuckled the helmet strap wrapped around her chin and took the helmet off her head.  She put the helmet in her lap to adjust it for someone more precious to her than herself.
    The building was a composite of neatly stacked red brick with concrete trim.  The building was four floors from the ground with external air-conditioning units hugging the brick just below each window sill.  The building was L-shaped, a design that let it fit into a highly developed area in Southern Xinbei City.  Children began flooding out of the wooden doors on the ground floor.  The boys wore plain white dress shirts with navy slacks and socks; black loafers echoed against the concrete as the children moved quickly across the courtyard.  Near the front of the pack, was a medium-height girl with a slightly round face and serious disposition.  She wore a white blouse and green plaid skirt with knee-high navy socks and black slippers.  Unlike most of the other students, she was dutiful not boisterous.  Her hair was silk black like the others, but it was given a bit more attention than the others.  Her hair was pulled back straight and tight.  She used four pins to make sure it stayed firm atop her head and the rest followed the beat to the back of her head, clinging tightly to the sides.  Her hair was still, no ponytails, nothing to flop or attract.  Her hair obeyed one command, do not distract me!
    “Xiaofeng!” said the woman on the green Vespa .  Xiaofeng spotted her mother around the same time she heard her voice.  Xiaofeng didn’t say a thing; she locked eyes with her mother and steadily walked in her mother’s direction.
    “ Hey Mama ,” she said.
    “ How was school ?” asked her mother.
    “ Not bad ,” said Xiaofeng.
    Xiaofeng’s mother extended her arms toward her daughter with the red motorcycle helmet in hand.  Xiaofeng grabbed the helmet and put the helmet over her meticulous hair.  She was able to adjust the chin strap and snap the buckle in one motion.  It was a drill she was used to.  Xiaofeng checked her satchel to make sure it was closed before throwing her right leg over the back of the Vespa .  She tightened her grip around the back ridge of the Vespa on each side.  A year before she would have been content to wrap her arms around her mother’s waist and hold on for the ride.  But it was early May. She would be thirteen years old in June.  Dutiful as she was, Xiaofeng realized she was too old to be clinging to her mother.  It was cozy but life, she knew, wouldn’t tolerate if from her much longer.
    “ Are you on ?” her mother asked.
    “ I’m on ,” said Xiaofeng.
    The Vespa jerked them both as it began its assault on the streets of Xinbei City, a suburb of Taipei.  Xiaofeng’s mother steered the scooter with a heightened awareness, conscious of her daughter’s safety and her own.  The scooter moved more slowly with the added weight of a half-grown woman, but it was weighted at the back giving it more balance around turns.  Xiaofeng’s presence on her mother’s scooter reflected her presence in her mother’s life.  She had slowed her mother down in life, but made her more serious about her decisions, giving them added weight.  And like the ride home they were together.
    The apartment was in the Wenshan District of Taipei on a street that wasn’t bustling but busy.  The lack of seclusion made the area relatively cheap to live.  Xiaofeng’s neck turned in a 45˚ angle as they passed a new 7-Eleven