(Author's note: I mistakenly thought the Lakes were the Jonsons and vice versa. Please ignore the title of the previous episode.)
Karyn Jonson woke up to find herself strapped to a table in a windowless room with a single door guarded by Asian men in uniforms.
A petite Asian woman in a similar uniform walked up to her. "Zao an."
Karyn understood the Mandarin for "good morning." She couldn't believe it.
"Mandarin is your first language now," said the woman in Mandarin. She envied Karyn. She had to learn it the hard way. "I am Cyan."
"Sai ... yan?" asked Karyn. The English word meant nothing to her now.
"Lanluse," translated Cyan.
"Why are we speaking in Chinese?" asked Karyn. She could have asked that in English, but she was much more comfortable with Mandarin now.
"Like I said, it's your first language now, and I want to do everything to make you feel comfortable."
"Like strap me on a table!?"
"Okay, there are some exceptions. We know from experience that the transformed don't take their change well at first, and I'd rather not let you attack me. Not that you'd stand a chance, of course. I'm trained in martial arts and you're not. Not in your previous life and not in your new one according to your file."
"New one? New life?"
"Yes, just as you were told on your way here. Once you got into our car, your old life was over."
My old English-speaking life, thought Karyn. "Why do I have to speak Chinese now!?" She tried to switch to English. "Why ... must ... I ..." She knew the words but couldn't make them flow.
"To make you as different as possible from your old self," answered Cyan. "You just came over to the US from the PRC with your parents ... and your younger brother."
"Brother!? Younger brother!?"
"Yes, Side." The name was disyllabic and would have sounded like "sss duh" to Karyn's old self. "Hu Side. Thinking of virtue. He used to be Jessie."
And I used to be Karyn, thought Karyn. "Who am I ... now?"
"Hu Feng. The feng that means the tip of a weapon."
Karyn instantly visualized the Chinese character for feng in her head. "That's not a girls' name."
"Who said you were still a girl? Listen to yourself, Hu Feng." Cyan held a mirror over Feng's face. "Look at yourself."
Hu Feng screamed.
