The Pool

Halia and Emerson soon pulled up outside a beautiful mansion situated in the exclusive Peak neighborhood of Hong Kong. This was the most expensive neighborhood in Hong Kong - and possibly the world.

As the Rolls Royce pulled into the driveway, a butler and two maids stepped out to greet them. Halia breathed a sigh of relief, at least there were other people around. Afterwards, a man who appeared to be in his early 60's stepped out of the mansion with two women by his side. One woman looked like she was in her early 50's and the other looked like she was in her mid 40's.

Emerson walked Halia over to the man and quickly introduced her, "Father, this is Haili Feng, do you remember her? We haven't seen her in over a decade."

Father Wu scanned Halia from head to toe and smiled, "Oh, Henry's daughter. You're all grown up, dear. It's been a long time."

Halia looked at the old man and felt a slight sense of familiarity, but she had met so many of her father's friends in the past that it was impossible to remember much about this man. She simply shook his hand out of politeness.

Emerson then introduced the two women next to his father, "Haili, this is my Mom and this is Auntie Lily."

Halia smiled at the two women politely.

"So what are the two of you doing here?" Father Wu asked out of curiosity as he led everyone into the mansion.

"I was planning to show Halia our view. She's in Hong Kong for a holiday, so I thought I'd show her around," Emerson replied as he walked through the extravagant living room towards a set of glass doors.

The butler quickly ran over to open the door and Emerson led Halia outside into the garden.

As soon as Halia stepped out, she felt her breathing stop. The view in front of her was spectacular. They were high up on a hill; looking down on the high rises of Hong Kong.

"Follow me this way, there's a place you can sit and enjoy the view," Emerson guided.

Halia quickly followed Emerson down a paved path through some beautiful magnolia trees, there was an odd sense of deja vu as she breathed in the scent of the blossoming flowers. Had she been here before? It wouldn't be a surprise since her father and Father Wu were friends, but again, she had visited too many of her father's friends to remember for certain. Finally, the path opened up to reveal a sparkling infinity pool that appeared to fall off the edge of the cliff and just beside it were some sun lounges.

Halia sat down on one of the sun lounges and gasped in amazement as she looked at the view.

"You're really lucky today," Emerson said as he sat down beside her. "Hong Kong can get quite smoggy, but the view is clear today."

Halia turned to Emerson with a smile, "Thank you for bringing me here."

Emerson looked at the woman's smile and felt his heart race. It had been 12 years since he last saw her, but she was as beautiful as he remembered, if not more.

At that moment, Halia's smile suddenly disappeared as she looked at something just above his head. Emerson looked up and noticed a branch from a tree.

"Is that a plum blossom tree?" Halia asked. It was hard to tell since it wasn't the season for the tree to bloom (it was just a bare tree with branches) but, Halia felt like she had seen it before.

"Yes," Emerson replied. "Do you remember it? You tried to pick a blossom off it before and fell into the pool. I wasn't allowed near the pool unsupervised after that incident."

Halia looked at the man in confusion as she glanced back at the pool. There was obviously a fair distance between the pool and the tree, how did she fall in?

"We rebuilt the pool a few years back and moved it closer to the edge of the cliff," Emerson explained. "The old pool use to sit right under this tree. I think you were 12 or 13 then."

Halia looked up again. She then scanned her eyes around the garden and finally recognized the place. No wonder she felt a sense of deja vu. A lot had changed since she last came here. Not just the pool, but a lot of the landscaping had been redone.

"That's right, I came here before," she exclaimed. "This place has changed a lot."

"I had a fear of water after I almost drowned that time," she laughed. "My father even forced me to take swimming lessons to overcome it. Gradually, I learned how to swim and put the incident behind me. But, every now and then, I still had nightmares about that day. I remember struggling to breathe and everything going dark but I couldn't pinpoint the location of where it happened. So, it was here..." Halia said in amazement as memories started flooding back.

At that moment, she suddenly paused and looked at Emerson, "Do you remember who saved me that day?"