“What the hell is wrong with you!” Jia Li yelled in shock.
Jia Li had awakened from dreamless sleep hours earlier, and she had spent most of the morning dancing in her room to melodic music. At one hour past noon, she had decided to eat something, so she had hefted her book bag onto her back, and she had skipped from tree to tree until she had made it to one of her favorite places to eat. It was an authentic Chinese restaurant. Sure, some of the food was a Americanized, but the dryad was born and raised as an American. Still, if she asked nicely, whoever waited on her would tell the chef to add a bit more spice.
When the waiter had asked for her order, she had ordered Hunan Chicken with an egg roll, and she had also asked for hot tea. The meal had taken a little while to make because the place had a decent amount of customers for the lunch period, but the wait was worth it. Eating Chinese food always made her think of her mother because it was basically all she had with the exception of the bracelet that forever wrapped around her left wrist.
Jia’s father had learned several dishes from his wife before she had passed away giving birth to their daughter. He made them for her all the time, and he had learned other recipes from the Internet. It wasn’t all they ever ate, but it always felt special when he would cook Chinese meals for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner every Friday. Jia kept the tradition to this day. It made her feel closer to the mother she had never had a chance to meet.
The dryad had eaten her meal slowly, savoring each bite. This place had quality food. When she had finished, she had sat a moment at her table, fiddling with her bracelet. She had only broken it once, but she remembered it clearly.
“Daddy!” A six year old Jia Li screamed, sobs making even that simple word choked and difficult to understand. “Daddy! Help!”
Her father rushed into the room to save her from whatever may be hurting her. Instead, he found his daughter on her knees, unharmed, with beads scattered around the floor. “I…” She sniffled. “…broke it.” The child-dryad had sobbed, pointing to the beads. “Mommy will be mad. She’ll stop watching me!”
Her father had lifted her from the floor then, cradling his young daughter in his arms. “No, Jia Li. Your mother loves you, and she’ll always watch over you. Besides, we can fix your bracelet, Baby Girl.” He set her on her feet and began picking up the beads. She immediately began helping him, and while she had stopped wailing, tears still streamed down her swollen cheeks. Her sniffles continued to fill the room.
When they had gathered all of the beads, careful not to drop any, her father had led her to the kitchen where their junk drawer had some fishing line, and they strung the beads onto the line precisely how they had been on the other bracelet.
“Good as new!” He had said, patting her head. Jia Li smiled from ear to ear. “If it ever breaks again, we’ll fix it.” From then on, she changed the string once a year to make sure it would never break, that it would always fit perfectly.