The Princess of Beverly Hills

Chapter I

The Princess of Beverly Hills

 

1962

I

The sun was shining blissfully on the golden imperial dragons that levitated proudly above all the dark green roof tiles and out of clay and brick constructed walls in Chinatown. It was an animated Wednesday noon with the shimmering fire marble of the sky at its highest position, as the air which gently blew through the tunics and attires that the people in the streets wore was comfortably hot. Wednesday was as you could suppose a common market day. It was a day where all the inhabitants of the quite defiant little oriental town would set up their stalls with various imported products and goods to be sold the very same day, however, these imported goods lasted a merchant for about a year until the products were replaced with the newest nifty pleasures that originated from the land where the sun spreads its last amber-colored rays until it is recovered by the silvery queen of the night. The crowded mass of this ancient world spoke in a Chinese tongue, one of those dialects that were impossible to describe, but this was not a deficient attribute as the smoothening sounds of a distinctive Konghou and the Guzheng spread its timeless vibrancies through the ornamental air. This flamboyant scene of red lampions, ancient sculptures, herbal stores and the smell of ginger combined with tarragon was nevertheless a dazzling attraction for the natives of Los Angeles. Whenever some outsider entered this lively place of classifiable architecture they had this affectionate spellbounded feeling that they had entered one of the numerous Chinese dynasties within a couple of steps and it left them utterly astounded.

In the center of this ecstatic square there stood a young girl between the fast moving crowd. She was utterly confused, bewildered and overwhelmed with all that was going on around her. The variety of sounds, the uncountable people, the shrieks of chickens in cages, the penetrateable scents; it was too much for her fragile mind to bear as her ominous eyes were quickly gazing from one corner to another market stall. This young girl was standing on the tip of her broken-white moccasin loafers in the middle of a circular Feng Shui spiral and you might say that she represented the legendary phoenix that was menacing the merciless claws of the red dragon as the young girl was searching for a familiar face above all the rice padded hats. The shadow on the front of her face, created by her own sun-blocking hand, covered her alluring jaw lines which were powdered with a faint ivory-bisque; yet a slightly noticeable blush of valentine-red enchanted her dimpled cheeks. The girl smiled as her exotic tiffany blue eyes were now reflecting the rays of the saffron colored sun because the hand which was covering her face rose in the air to cast a gentle wave of recognition towards her beloved father.

‘’Dad!’’ she yelled passionately, ‘’I’m right here!’’

The young girl’s father waved and nodded back as she was gracefully dancing towards her father which made her diamond blue pinafore-dress sweep through the hot air.  

‘’Where’ve you been, Mia?’’ said Steve on arrival of the girl.

‘’I guess I was a bit lost back there, you see, there’s so much people going about here’’

Mia took hold of her wavy Havana brown hair and fringed it through her fingers.

‘’You should be careful Mia, you know what kind of people walk these streets’’

‘’I know dad, please, I’m nineteen years old now you don’t have to worry about me’’

Her father expressed a brittle smile of disapproval.

‘’Come on, let’s go home—there’s nothing here that I was looking for’’

And the young girl followed her father towards their car like a duckling follows his mother to the pond. Mia and Steve had left the overwhelming Asian crowd and were now strolling aimlessly next to the Echo Park Lake, they had though it better to take a shortcut through this peaceful scene of blossoming lime green palm trees and fields of apple green grass as the mothers of their children sat on the benches, watching over their boys and girls who were playing with self-constructed sailing boats on the flat mirroring waters of the lake. These little watercrafts that were navigated with a remote-controlled radio left a pattern of ripples on the smooth water surface which sparkled and glistered by the reflection of the sunlight.