Before the girl could answer, her mother cut in, pointing her chopsticks at her daughter. “I won’t let her. It’s just a waste of time to have a boyfriend so early. She’d better concentrate on her schoolwork.”
Ching said to Connie in English, “See what a bitch my mom is? She’s afraid I’ll go boy-crazy like her when she was young.” The girl’s eyes flashed behind the lenses of her black-framed glasses.
Both Connie and Tian giggled while the two older women were bewildered, looking at them inquiringly. Tian told them, “Ching’s so funny.”
“Also tricky and headstrong,” added her mother.
When dinner was over, Shulan was eager to leave without having tea. She said she’d forgotten to sprinkle water on the bean sprouts in her apartment, where the radiators were too hot and might shrivel the young vegetable, which she raised and would sell to a grocery store. Before they left, Connie gave the girl a book and assured her, “This is a very funny novel. I’ve just finished it and you’ll like it.”
Tian glanced at the title—The Catcher in the Rye—as Meifen asked, “What’s it about?”
“A boy left school and goofed around in New York,” Connie answered.
“So he’s a dropout?”
“Kind of.”
“Why give Ching such a book? It can be a bad influence. Do you mean to teach her to rebel against her mother?”
“It’s a good book!” Connie spat out.
Tian said to the guests, “Let’s go.”
The moment they stepped out the door, he overheard his mother growl at Connie, “Don’t play the scholar with me! Don’t ever talk back to me in front of others!”
“You were wrong about the book,” Connie countered.
Their exchange unsettled Tian, who knew they would bicker more while he was away. Outside, it got windy and the road iced over. He drove slowly. Before every intersection he placed his foot on the brake pedal to make sure he could stop the car fully if the light turned red. Ching was in the back dozing away while her mother in the passenger seat chatted to Tian without pause. She praised Meifen as an educated woman who gave no airs. How fortunate Tian must feel to have such a clearheaded and warmhearted mother, in addition to a beautiful, well-educated wife. Her words made Tian’s molars itch, and he wanted to tell her to shut her trap, but he checked himself. He still felt for this woman. Somehow he couldn’t drive from his mind her image behind the food stand, her face steaming with sweat and her eyes downcast in front of customers while her knotted hands were packing snacks into Styrofoam boxes.
He dropped Shulan and Ching at their building and turned back. After he exited the highway and as he was entering College Point Boulevard, a police cruiser suddenly rushed out of a narrow street and slid toward him from the side. Tian slammed on the brakes, but the heads of the two cars collided with a bang; his Volkswagen, much lighter than the bulky Ford, was thrown aside and fishtailed a few times before it stopped. Tian’s head had hit the door window, and his ears were buzzing, though he was still alert.
A black policeman hopped out of the cruiser and hurried over. “Hey, man, are you okay?” he cried, and knocked on Tian’s windshield.
Tian opened his door and nodded. “I didn’t see you. Sorry about this, officer.” He clambered out.
“I’m sorry, man.” Somehow the squarish cop chuckled. “I hit you. I couldn’t stop my car — the road is too damned slippery.”
Tian walked around and looked at the front of his car. The glass covers of the headlight and the blinker were smashed, but somehow all the lights were still on. A dent the size of a football warped the fender. “Well, what should I do?” he wondered aloud.
The police officer grinned. “It’s my fault. My car slid into the traffic. How about this — I give you a hundred bucks and you won’t file a report?”
Tian peered at the officer’s catlike face and realized that the man was actually quite anxious — maybe he was new here. “Okay,” Tian said, despite knowing that the amount might not cover the repairs.
“You’re a good guy.” The policeman pulled five twenties out of his billfold. “Here you are. I appreciate it.”
Tian took the money and stepped into his car. The officer shouted, “God bless you!” as Tian drove away. He listened closely to his car, which sounded noisier than before. He hoped there was no inner damage. On the other hand, this was an old car, worth less than a thousand dollars. He shouldn’t worry too much about the dent.
The instant he stepped into his house, he heard his mother yell, “Oh yeah? How much have you paid for this house? This is my son’s home and you should be grateful that Tian has let you live here.”
“This is my home too,” Connie fired back. “You’re merely our guest, a visitor.”
Heavens, they would never stop fighting! Tian rushed into the living room and shouted, “You two be quiet!”
But Connie turned to him and said sharply, “Tell your mother I’m a co-owner of this house.”
That was true, yet his mother also knew that Connie hadn’t paid a cent for it. Tian had added her name as a co-buyer because he wanted her to keep the home if something fatal happened to him.
His mother snarled at Connie, “Shameless. A typical ingrate from an upstart’s family!”
“Don’t you dare run down my dad! He makes an honest living.” Indeed, her father in Tianjin City was just scraping by with his used-furniture business.
“Knock it off, both of you!” Tian roared again. “I just had an accident. Our car was damaged, hit by a cop.”
Even that didn’t impress the women. Connie cried at Meifen, “See, I told you there’d be a snowstorm, but you were too vain to cancel the dinner. Did you mean to have your son killed?”
“It was all my fault, huh? Why didn’t you learn how to drive? What have you been doing all these years?”
“I’ve never met someone so irrational.”
“I don’t know anyone as rude and as brazen as you.”
“Damn it, I just had an accident!” Tian shouted again.
His wife looked him up and down. “I can see you’re all right. It’s an old car anyway. Let’s face the real issue here: I cannot live under the same roof with this woman. If she doesn’t leave, I will and I’ll never come back.” She marched away to her own room upstairs.
As Tian was wondering whether he should follow her, his mother said, “If you’re still my son, you must divorce her. Do it next week. She’s a sick, finicky woman and will give you weak kids.”
“You’re crazy too!” he growled.
He stomped away and shut the door of the study, in which he was to spend that night trying to figure out how to prevent Connie from walking out on him. He would lose his mind if that happened, he was sure.
On Monday morning Tian went to Bill Nangy’s office. The manager looked puzzled when Tian sat down in front of him. “Well, what can I do for you, Tian?” Bill asked in an amiable voice. He waved his large hand over the steaming coffee his secretary, Jackie, had just put on the desk. His florid face relaxed some as he saw Tian still in a gentle mood.
Tian said, “I know our company has been laying off people. Can you let me go, like Tracy Malloy?” He looked his boss full in the face.
“Are you telling me you got an offer from elsewhere?”
“No. In fact, I will appreciate it if you can write me a good recommendation. I’ll have to look for a job soon.”
“Then why do you want to leave us?”
“For family reasons.”
“Well, what can I say, Tian? You’ve done a crack job here, but if that’s what you want, we can let you go. Keep in mind, you’re not among those we plan to discharge. We’ll pay you an extra month’s salary, and I hope that may tide you over until you find something.”