Tea Bitches- Pat III

I wrote about the Tea Bitches back in Feb'12 and never finished the story. So here is the third of four parts:

Tea Bitches: PART III

 

It is several days later and I am now comfortable walking about Beijing without getting lost.  Things are looking familiar to me.  I am beginning to recognize some of the neighbors.   I am now returning to my hotel at dusk.  It is really cold and windy.  Everyone is bundled up.  I notice a woman waving to me.  She is wearing a big hat and scarf so I don’t recognize her.  But I wave back.

 

As I get closer I hear, “Hello, remember me.  I Jenny”, she says so cheerfully, so full of goodwill.

 

“Jenny, Jenny”, I think, “who is jenny”.  Then I get a good look at her.  She is the tea bitch.  She has tracked me down and now she is standing right in front of me, happy as can be to see me.  Acting as if long lost friends have reunited.

 

Anger rages through me and I have an urge to punch her.  But I don’t.  I am too stunned to see her and I am shocked by her audacity to speak to me with such a pleasant tone.

 

“Hello. How you.  Hey, we no get our money back at tea house”.  She says and then points to her friend, Tan, who sheepishly nods in agreement.

 

 “You help us?” she asks with a tone of sincerity, as if now we were comrades against the immortality of the waitresses at the tea house.

 

“What”, I shout in complete astonishment.

 

“Yea, they say you take all the money.  They say we get the money from you. We give lot of money but they not give it back. Can we have money”?

 

My anger starts on my toes and run through every pore in my body.  I am trembling in so anger that I think I am going to throw up. “Are you fucking kidding me?  Get the fuck away from me you thieves.  Fuck you.” I am shouting as loud as I can and the two of them jump back in fear.  They huddle together.

 

“We need our money.  We have no money”, she pleads.

 

“Get the fuck away from me.  Who the hell do you think you are? Get the fuck away from me”.

 

People are passing us and watching.  No one stops or tries to establish eye contact. But everyone now walks backwards to watch our interactions.

 

I take a few steps towards the two of them who have now become one big lump of huddled, trembling cowards.  I point at them, “Get the fuck away from me before I call the police. Get away, you thieves.”

 

They take off, not quite running but they are scurrying.  As they make their way down the alleyway, I am shouting, “Watch your purses, everyone, these two women are thieves.  They are thieves.  They will steal from you.”

 

Now, everyone in the alleyway has stopped to watch the show. As my volume got louder, their pace got quicker.  Soon they were out of my sight.

 

Back in my hotel, I go to the bar and have a beer in celebration of yet another victory against crime and injustice.  But as I am taking my last sip, a thought crosses my mind.  “What if they come back here with friends and attack me.  Should I change my hotel?”  I only had one more day in Beijing.  I have tentative plans to go to an evening concert.  I decide to lay low for the evening and stay in my hotel. I leave town the next day, thankful to put this incident behind me.