One late afternoon, Kei Ying
noticed something was not right with Eddie. Usually after
school, Eddie, always wearing a big and occasionally goofy
smile, would "space-walk" into Kei Ying¡¯s home
office, and proceed to ask for Kei Ying¡¯s permission to
take Fei Hung out for some dance lessons. Eddie really
liked Kei Ying, and Kei Ying adored the teen, perhaps
because of the very fact that Eddie did look like him, A
LOT.
But this day, Kei Ying noticed Eddie was not smiling, nor
was he space-walking, when he came to look for Fei Hung.
He looked visibly upset.
"Is there something wrong, Eddie?" Kei Ying
asked.
"I had a terrible day in school." Eddie¡¯s
voice was breaking down, and his eyes were red.
"Principal Kington said in today¡¯s chemistry class
that I was a disgrace."
"Sit down, take this drink." Kei Ying handed
Eddie a glass of ice tea, and said gently. "Tell me
about it."
It turned out that Principal Kington was explaining to his
students the basic nomenclature in organic chemistry, meth,
eth, prop, but, pent, hex¡. Etc., - when he suddenly
broke into his Bruce Lee mode again.
Principal Kington was famous for using Bruce Lee as an
example in all sorts of subjects,
"Prop- means 3, it¡¯s nothing significant. -ane,
nothing significant again, but when put together, the two
become propane. Propane gas is clean and powerful, and can
be used for BBQing, heating, cooking¡"
"I want to remind everyone that the power of
nomenclature should not be underestimated, not just in
chemistry, but with human¡¯s names as well."
The entire class immediately mentally prepared themselves
for the principal to utter the very name of Bruce Lee. And
sure¡
"Bruce Lee. Yes, Bruce Lee. "Bruce,"
¡ a common name, there are millions of people named
Bruce out there. But "Lee," in Chinese, means
"power" or "strength" so you add the
two together, it now becomes BRUCE with STRENGTH, with
POWER! No wonder Bruce Lee is the greatest man in the
world."
The class gazed at the principal in awe. (Had to admire
the principal for cooking something up like that.)
"Can someone give me more examples?"
77, the smartest and the prettiest girl in the class
immediately raised her hand. "Mr. Kington, I have
one. ¡®BOXER¡¯."
"Yes, 77, please elaborate."
" ¡®Box,¡¯ is a harmless container sometimes
cubic-shaped, sometimes round, that people use to hold
stuff. "er," is a room full of patients waiting
for doctors to check on them. In their separate entities,
neither of the two is powerful, but when in combination
you have BOX-ER, which amounts to a man who can punch
someone with extreme power."
"It is a great example. Well done, 77." Kington
gave 77 an approving smile. "Anyone else?"
Raphy, a cute girl who just transferred recently from a
school in Japan, thought hard for a while, then raised her
hand, " Mr. Kington, I do not know if this one is
good or not. But in Japan, the currency we use is called
Yen¡"
"Right." Principal Kington concurred.
"People say that a good person with a good heart is
priceless, but in this world, who can go anywhere if he
does not have a single Yen?"
Principal Kington had a puzzled look on his face.
"Yes?"
"But people also say that 100 million Yen would mean
nothing if it is not used by a good person for good
reasons."
"So?"
"I know a good-hearted boy named Donnie-- the name of
Donnie itself is not really that powerful,-- but once it
is put in combination with Yen, we now have a boy
called Donnie Yen. He has money, and the money is in good
hands. The two add to a very powerful combination!"
Principal Kington scratched his head. He did not
expect such a convoluted explanation from Raphy. "It
is a little far-fetched, but Raphy, your reasoning is not
bad."
"So, who is this Donnie Yen?" Ephrin asked Raphy
in a whisper, a devious smile on her face.
Raphy¡¯s face turned bright red. She did not immediately
answer the question. 77 hushed Ephrin up. "Hush, Mr.
Kington is still talking¡"
Eddie, looked at 77 and Raphy with great admiration. He
really, really liked them. He desperately wanted to
impress the two girls.
"Yes, Eddie." Principal Kington saw Eddie raise
his hand.
"Mr. Kington. I think I have a good one¡"
"Ne is the atom symbol for Neon. Neon gas is
odorless, colorless, tasteless, nontoxic, monatomic and
chemically inert, besides being used in pretty lights and
some lasers, amounts no danger to anyone. O is the symbol
for oxygen. But when it is not O2 or O3 or without 2 free
electrons, it is inactive. O is also just another English
letter, when not used in names such as Othello, is not
dangerous. But when Ne and O are combined, they form NEO,
or the ONE also known as Keanu Reeves, who freed human
mind from the deceiving and evil MATRIX¡"
"Stop!!!!!!!" Principal Kington¡¯s face had
turned purple in a rage.
"First of all, Neon means NEO, NEW, itself¡"
"Second of all, you, you have read way too many
fantasies and watched too many movies."
"Third of all, when can you ever learn that Keanu
Reeves could not, would not, should not be the ONE? Only
Bruce Lee CAN!"
"Eddie, you are a disgrace!" Principal Kington
finally concluded.
77 and Raphy looked at Eddie sympathetically. Eddie just
wanted to get away¡
¡
Eddie broke down into tears once again. Kei Yin sighed.
"Eddie, don¡¯t cry anymore¡You are not a disgrace.
You are wonderful. Look, Fei Hung looks up to you. You are
everything he wants to be¡"
Eddie raised his eyes in tears, "Really?"
"Yes." Kei Ying smiled. "I promise, I will
make this up for you. There, Fei Hung is here. You two
now, go out for some fun."
Eddie was still a child. Soon after he started
break-dancing with Fei Hung the unhappy event was
forgotten.
That night, Principal Kington learned a serious lesson on
the power of nomenclature: He returned home with 35
footprints on his chest.
The masked attacker, after carefully planting 35
footprints on the principal¡¯s chest, remarked in a very
cool voice. "'Shadow'---is not powerful, 'less' is
even more powerless, but when you have 'Shadowless', that
is, my dear sir, what this kick is called...What do you
think? Is it powerful or not?"
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