Over the next month Jia’s mother keeps her busy day and night. Daily trips up the mountains for flowers become daily trips up the mountain for no reason at all. Some nights as she tries to sleep she’ll suddenly feel a shake. She opens her eyes to her mother standing over her. “One hour.”

It isn’t long before she learns the best paths up the mountain and that hour becomes easy. Once her mother realizes this, the time begins to shrink. One night she’s woken and told she has an hour. As she walks back into the house 48 minutes later, her mother tells her she needs to do it again and this time she only has 45 minutes. She makes it with under a minute to spare.

The mountains are only the start. Every day her mother keeps her up later into the evening than the day before and wakes her earlier in the morning. She cleans the house top to bottom. One day she’s given the challenge of cleaning their kitchen with a toothbrush.

Expecting the challenges to start focusing on martial arts she pushes forward but her mother continues to avoid teaching her a thing. Every day she gets closer to breaking. It didn’t take long to figure out her mother’s whole strategy is to break her. She doesn’t want to teach her but wants it to be Jia’s fault and not her own. The woman won’t even give her an idea how long is left in the training. It’s a lot easier to keep pushing when there’s an end in sight.

One day she’s sitting on the couch mid-morning, trying desperately to nap after her mother woke her only two hours after allowing her to go to sleep, when the phone rings. She practically jumps out of her skin.

It’s Carly, Jia’s college roommate. The investment firm who hired her after graduation is sending Carly and her boyfriend Hank to San Francisco to meet with a potential new client. It’s a business trip but she’ll have a free day and she’d love Jia to drive over and hang out. Jia’s first thought is excitement, they haven’t seen each other for over six months and after living together for four years, that feels wrong.

Her excitement doesn’t last long as she realizes her mom will probably have her climbing a tree with a piece of dental floss. There’s no way she can go. She wants to see Carly but not enough to make the last month be for nothing.

A whole day thinking about how to get the time off yields no better ideas than asking. After dinner she finds her mom drinking a glass of wine and reading a book in her room. Her dad went out for his weekly poker game so they have the house to themselves. “Mom?”

“Yes Jia?”

“Do you remember my roommate Carly from school? You and dad met her a few times when you came out to visit.”

“Of course I do. Nice girl. A bit obsessive but nice.”

“That’s Carly. She’s going to be in San Francisco in a few weeks for business and she wants me to drive over and spend a day with her. I’d like to see her, but I know I have training. I was wondering if there’s any way I can have the day off. I’ll do any training you want before I leave and you can make me work all night after I get home. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen her though and I’d feel terrible telling her no.”

“I’m not without a heart Jia. You’re giving me notice and it’s a rare thing for your friend to be in California. Doesn’t she live on the east coast somewhere?”

“Boston.”

“She’s coming a long way then. Of course you can go. I’ll even let you sleep the night before so you’re rested. What day is it?”

Fighting back the urge to rush to her mother and wrap her in a bear hug, Jia says, “It’s in three weeks, on Wednesday.”

Her mom’s kind look turns to a frown when she hears this. “Wednesday isn’t good. I can’t lend you the car that day. I’m meeting a company about possibly selling their wine glasses in the winery. I spent six months trying to get this meeting, I can’t reschedule. You can still go of course, you’ll just need to take the train over and get a cab to wherever you’re meeting. I’ll give you a couple hundred dollars for the trip, you’ve been working hard for nothing but room and board for awhile now.”

Jia searches for her jaw which is now resting on the floor. With that settled she lays down next to her mom like they used to when she was younger. It’s time for the evening news so her mother sets her book down and flips the television on.

The lead story tonight is about the presidential election. It’s only a couple of days away. Richard Hughes is facing off against the heavily favored Senator Gilles. Jia isn’t sure she’s even going to vote. She doesn’t like either candidate, though Gilles is definitely the better of the two. He’s a long way from perfect but he isn’t a lunatic. The experts seem confident Gilles has the election won but that hasn’t stopped the Hughes campaign from rocketing around the country, promising to defend the borders and fight terror. A major plank of his campaign is a push to legalize vigilantism so citizens can police themselves.

Every time you turn the TV on you hear this loud mouth but tonight Jia’s seeing his policies in a new light. “What do you think about the vigilante thing? You used to basically do what he wants to legalize. He’s crazy but maybe it could work. You and grandpa helped people.”

Her mother takes a big sip of her wine. “As someone who has been a vigilante, I’m certain what this country needs isn’t more vigilantes. Your grandpa did good in the war but he was a soldier then, not a vigilante. I’m not sure how much we helped anyone after that.”

They watch the news for a few more minutes until a sudden yawn sneaks up on Jia. She suddenly realizes how tired she is. Stretching out she considers heading to bed. Just as she’s about to say good night her mother turns to her. “Jia, get some flowers from the mountain before you go to bed. You have forty five minutes, starting now.”

Infuriated that her mother used her yawn as an opportunity, Jia flings herself off the bed and runs for the door stopping only long enough to put her shoes on.