ArchivedLogs:Vignette - Dead Man's Gun

Vignette - Dead Man's Gun
They've given you a reason to fight.
Dramatis Personae Tian-shin	2013-10-02 Picking up the pieces of a father's misguided love.
Location <NYC> Jin Hua Yuan Bookshop - Chinatown
Hua Tian-shin sits at her father's desk in the darkened study above the shop. The trails of half-dried tears streak her face, now placid, though she sniffles from time to time. She cradles a .44 Magnum revolver in her slender hands, tracing its smooth outline with her thumbs. The drawer from which it had come stands open, key still in the lock; its contents range from ammunition to dogeared erotic magazines. The only other item she has taken out is an old notebook with a black cover lying open on the desk. Its first page is a letter in her father's crabby hand, his simplified Chinese interspersed with traditional characters. My dutiful children, If you come into possession of this notebook, I will have gone to our ancestors. I exhort you to look after your mother and one another, and to keep the shop prosperous. You know my long-time associate Chung Ling-yin, and probably realize by now he heads the Chung Yu Tong. Our family has benefited greatly from his patronage, but without me you would do best to distance yourselves from him. His interest in you will be limited unless you have exhibit extraordinary talents he considers useful. To that end, I have collected down through the years information which would be detrimental, if not fatal, to his operation. Chung collects individuals with extraordinary talents; without him they will scatter, and his tong will be no more. I pray you never need it, but if you do, I trust you will understand the risks involved. Forgive me, my children. Everything that I have done, no matter how wicked, I have done for your benefit. Do not follow in my footsteps. Your father, Hua Yong, February 2007 Addendum, July 2013: Chung knows of Tsai-hong's talent with colors. As little as I like involving any of you further in the tong, she is better off with someone to guide her. "{Baba...how could you delude yourself so?}" Tian-shin draws a deep breath and lets it back out, then returns the pistol to the drawer. The key and the black notebook go into an inner pocket of her purse. She rises and leaves the study for the world of light and the living.