How I met Jangking Yang Who is Jangking Yang? I really don’t know. It was just by coincidence that we found her, yes found her as she was lost. It was on a cold winter night, sun was long set and air was getting exceptionally cold by California standards. Being fully aware of trail rules “Trail Open from Dawn to Dusk”, we always tend to stretch that time to suit ourselves. As long as we can see our hands, we consider it as before dusk. There it was, a figure trying to venture down the canyon, we call, coyote country. It could have been called bobcat country or to that matter deer country but coyotes, just by sheer number and loud midnight howls, to terrorize all other animals and humans, have monopolized it. Figure was too slow and too upright, as only humans can be. Bushes are thick and thorny; to venture down at any time, leave alone after dark. With two wide, clearly marked trails, paved and unpaved, one couldn’t get lost, even if they wanted to. Well there is always an exception to the rule. We became curious, curiosity may have killed the cat, but we are not cats, it was an unadventurous walk. On that particular day; we had not spotted any animals, big or small, nor had anything unusual happened, it was bordering on boring. In fact, first time in our adventure filled walks, we were very happy to see a human, that also an old Chinese woman, who did not understood or speak a word of English, Hindi, Marathi or few other languages, I claim to speak. As it is known to happen, in any country, any language, we started to ask her questions, loud and slow. She was obviously smarter than us, but then again, almost everyone is smarter than us, she spoke in fluent Chinese, not sure she was answering our questions or just calling us idiots. We interpreted as she is lost and needed help. After a long conversation in us speaking in English and her in Chinese, we decided to bring her home. Pat called Terry to forewarn him that we are bringing home a visitor, he was not at all surprised, but then again, Terry is used to our odd behaviors. On our remaining 30 min walk home, just being polite, Pat continued to have conversation with her in English and she continued answering in Chinese, probably calling us idiots. By the time we reached home, it was very dark; we were worried that her family must be frantically looking for her. Terry, being methodical, brought a paper and pencil, attempting to get her to write her name and possibly phone number and address. I assisting Terry called each wrong number she wrote. Pat had much better idea, so it seemed at the time, she trying to be hospitable offered the old lady some green tea, but served regular tea in a green pot, since she had no green tea. Yeah, try to fool an old Chinese lady. As usual, Pat had another brilliant idea. She decided to go from house to house looking for a person who speaks Chinese. It turned out none of our Chinese neighbors, and there are many, spoke or understood Chinese. Clearly disappointed and exhausted after telling the story to each and every person, Pat returned home, empty handed. I had to contribute to this drama, so I decided to call 311 (non-emergency police number), wish I was that lucky, I found out that that number is not universal, not even country wide, it is only for Chicago area. After much of deliberation and debating amongst ourselves, I called 911. Phone was immediately answered. With an apology, I asked the lady dispatcher, if anyone was looking for or have reported a lost Chinese woman. Now I was really surprised, what kind of family is this, did they not notice that Grandma is missing at the dinner table. Dispatcher lady wrote down our address and assured me that she will send someone over immediately. Now it was all waiting game, we all sat around the breakfast table, watching the old lady, not drinking the camouflaged green tea. Officer Dan arrived in a squad car, no sirens. I respect anyone who is wearing gun, why take chances? He was very friendly, he treated the situation as an emergency, and after all, chances of any real emergency happening in Irvine are next to none. I couldn’t help but wonder, with a big Chinese population in Irvine; wouldn’t it have made more sense to send a Chinese officer? But then again he would have turned out like our non-Chinese speaking neighbors. Officer Dan pulled out his little writing pad and started to take down notes. He wrote every word the lady was saying, which included every wrong phone number and bits and pieces of her address. We all gathered around and looked at Officer Dan with a lot of respect; he was very patient with the lady. Doorbell rang, I opened the door and saw a very young Chinese man, not knowing who he was, I looked at him, he introduced himself as yet another of our new neighbor, Steve. He stopped by after seeing the police car in the driveway. Though he didn’t know Chinese his parents did. They lived in Montreal, no problem; we could get them on the phone. It turned out, they spoke Mandarin and old lady spoke Cantonese, both Chinese languages, and that is where similarity ends. Conversation on the phone was going on, getting louder and louder. Finally I asked Steve, why are they yelling? He smiled and said, Chinese languages sound like they are yelling at each other, and he went further and said, if you ever go to a Chinese concert, you have to wear ear plugs to really enjoy it. I made a mental note, not to ever get talked into going to a Chinese concert. Officer Dan was hard at work while we were all watching the old lady. He talked to Steve’s mom on the phone and was able to get lady’s house number and partial name of the street and was able to call for information and get her full address. He volunteered to take her in his police car and drop her at her house. I realized, with modern day technology, it is very hard for a missing person to stay missing for long, whether you speak the language or not. Only thing we knew about her was her name, Jangking Yang, written by Terry, on a small piece of paper.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:20:49 +0000
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