From A Distance

'What was it like growing up with Opa?' 

This question had never come to Raelle so she really didn't know how to answer it either. What was she supposed to say?

"What do you really want to know?" asked Raelle.

"Anything," replied Xiang Wai as she took a tissue and covered her mouth to sneeze and wipe her nose. 

"I'm not sure what to tell you or what you want to hear from me," started Raelle. "I think I grew up into a decent person because of Opa. I didn't like to talk but he'd still sit with me every day for hours and chat about anything. He'd share the stories passed down from generation to generation in our family. Tell me how brave and patriotic our ancestors had been. Every night, he'd come to check up on me to see if I was sleeping well. He even went to see top psychologists learn how to evoke some emotions into me. Even though it didn't work, I appreciated the effort."