CHAPTER FOUR: THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME!
“What’s he like?”
“Is he a nice guy?”
“How tall is he?”
I was bombarded with questions from my relatives when my mother’s cell phone went off! (I had given them my mother’s cell number because I didn’t have one at the time. You can be assured that after this experience I always had a cell phone with me!) I guess the reception was bad (this was 2001 after all) and it went straight to voicemail. They had left a message and gave me a long distance number to call them back at – probably Dorothy’s or Solon’s Hong Kong cell number. My uncle said to use the phone in his study which I quickly did. I was right, Dorothy picked up and gave me all of the details for dinner.
“Meet in the lobby of the hotel at six,”
“Okay, thank you Dorothy! See you soon!”
It was 4:30 pm now. My uncle lived about twenty minutes north of me, so I played it safe and left right away! I said goodbye to everyone who were all giddy with excitement for me and wished me the best! I called Master Chang and told him I’d be heading down.
“Very good, I’m happy for you, lemme know what happens!”
“Thank you sir, I will, of course!”
I was on my own. I went home and quickly freshened up and drove down. I parked across the street and rushed into the lobby. It was 5:30 pm. I sat in the lobby waiting. Five minutes passed. Then ten. It was almost six! I stood up at five-to expecting them to come down at any second from the elevator. It was six! Okay any second now…five minutes passed. Okay any second now! Is that them!? No. Ten minutes passed, okay, any second now! I was standing my eyes glued to the elevator doors. They opened! And out came…some strangers I’d never seen before. It was 6:20! Where were they? Okay…okay…calm down…ANY FRIGGIN SECOND NOW I kept telling myself.
Finally at 6:45 the elevator doors opened and out came Dorothy, then Exy, then Andy, Solon, Willie, and finally Jackie! All the tension and frustration that was building up inside melted away at the site of them! Jackie took the lead and as he walked by me said, “Let’s go,”
I said hi to everyone and followed suit. We walked outside and started heading north on Avenue. It still boggled my mind that a superstar like Jackie Chan just travelled out in the open so freely like this!