"Wow, that sound must stop instantly" he thought. But no, there it was again, a sound like stirring the cheese into a fresh boiled pot of macaroni. Only this was sharper, and drawn out half a painful second longer.
He had just sat down to breakfast, wrapped his hands around the tea cup and began the early morning duty of staring into the light yellowish liquid through cracked eyelids. The sound of a light plastic chair being taken from atop the table and set upright on the linoleum floor had momentarily caught his attention. She had sat down to begin her own breakfast and haunt his morning nightmare.
Gaa!! There it was again, like ten thousand nightcrawlers slithering through his ears. His thought was that he must breathe. His next thought was that the source of that sound must be atomized. He turned his head to the left just enough to see.
She was there in blue, cotton/poly blended slacks and a clean white blouse. Like all the rest he thought, dark straight hair, petite, narrow eyes. She's probably come to Hong Kong to study, most likely an internship or short term course he thought. One doesn't stay in these hostels as a permanent resident. Especially ones like this.
She sat down the table from him, as Asian as all the rest only more malevolently so. She was slender except her face. Like two creamy hemispheres, her body had stored all it's fat in her cheeks. She, this innocent panda bear in bow-tied high heels was the source. In the time he had taken to make a single cup of tea, she had filled her bowl heavy with noodles, red beans and some other indistinguishable bits and pieces. And somehow, impossibly, this fat-faced little pork chop could slurp her noodles with chopsticks. A continuous vaccum-like suction must have allowed her to eat and chew beans with a wide open maw. Never spilling, never staining her perfectly pressed blouse.
