"That is the three of us about a year ago. Such a handsome boy, is he not?"
Marcus vaguely managed to nod as his mind reeled with this new information.
One year.
One year!
Li had somehow grown nearly two feet taller in ONE YEAR! How was that even possible?! In order for that to happen, he'd have had to grow another inch every two weeks. Was the human body even able to grow that quickly?!
Marcus had known that something seemed off about Li ever since he'd said he'd only been playing for six months. Now his mother was telling him he'd been almost as short as her only a year ago. What was going on with this kid?
Something was definitely fishy about all this, and Marcus was determined to find out. But any plans to try and coax more information out of Mrs. Li were dashed when the front door opened and Li squeezed himself inside.
"Li!" his mom called, setting down the picture and going to hug him. Li remained near the door as she wrapped her arms around his middle, staring in shock at Marcus. Marcus just stared back, unsure how to respond himself.
Mrs. Li however felt none of the tension between them as she broke her hug. "How was your day?"
Li hesitated before finally responding. "Fine," he finally muttered.
"Good, good. Did you stop by Mr. Fushigo's on your way home? Oh, yes, you did!"
She reached forward and grabbed the brown paper bag Li had been holding. On the side was the same Chinese lettering and picture of a mortal and pestle Marcus had seen in front of the odd shop on his way here. She reached inside and pulled out a few small paper envelopes that looked not unlike tea bags. Each had more lettering on their side, along with what appeared to be a picture of a man standing next to a short tree.
But Marcus didn't a chance to see any more, as Li suddenly grabbed the tea bags from his mother and started berating her in Mandarin. She argued back, but eventually she sighed and handed the brown bag over as well. And with that, Li silently scurried out of the room and down the hall.
"My apologies. Li can be...sensitive when it comes to his personal business."
"That's fine," Marcus replied, even if that was the opposite of how he felt about all this. "If he doesn't want to tell me, then he doesn't have to.
"I am a little curious, though. The picture on the bag looked a lot like this sign I saw on my way over. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
"Oh, that is just Mr. Fushigo's apothecary. He supplies medicine and herbal supplements to the community, brought over directly from back home."
"Hmm, interesting." And this time Marcus meant it. "Well, it's getting late, and I should probably get going."
Marcus made to leave, until the actual reason he had come here suddenly slipped back into his head.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Coach sent me over with this." He pulled out the form and handed it over, explaining it's importance to Mrs. Li. Once she understood what she needed to do, he insisted on leaving again. Mrs. Li tried to insist he stay, but he managed to convince her he needed to get going, and was soon back out the door.
But before he could start heading back, he turned around to look again at the unassuming house. Something weird was going on with Li, something strange, and possibly not all that natural. Marcus was determined to figure it out. But the only clues he had were the photo, proving how unusual Li's height really was, and the strange tea bags Li hadn't wanted to talk about in front of him.
The way he saw it, Marcus had two options. Either he could just talk to Li about it in the morning and hope he explains what's going on. Or he could head over to Mr. Fushigo's apothecary and see if he can find whatever those bags were. On the one hand, it would be more honest to try and give Li the benefit of the doubt. But on the other hand, it wouldn't hurt to make sure Li wasn't using anything...illegal.
Marcus just wasn't sure which option would actually get him the answers he wanted.
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