Golden Child

“Mrs. Ling!” I spin around to see Mei’s mother standing in the door to The Great Wall with an icy scowl. Terry had once called Mei an ‘ice queen’ but even at her coldest I’d never gotten frost burn like this. Now that I knew to look for it the family resemblance to Mei is obvious, though unlike Mei there were ‘sliming eyes’ here. “I was just talking to Mei.”

“Why?” She asks, the word as sharp as a razor blade.

“We’re…friends.” I give her my most charming smile which only causes her to narrow her eyes further. “Just saying hello.”

Her gaze slices me to the bone as she pauses a long moment before replying. “The parking lot is for customers.”

“Oh, uh, I’m not parked…” As I was about to say I wasn’t taking up a spot I realize it wasn’t going to help me. Had this not been Mei’s mom I might have said something ungentlemanly but as it was my smile never falters. “Truth is, I was just coming to get some lunch.” I step foreword. “Best darn Chinese food in the Dakotas.”

Her jaw clenches as she stays in the doorway, blocking my progress. Standing closer now I can see Mr. Ling standing at the counter at the back of the dining area watching the interaction closely. “Why are you friends with Mei?” She demands. “Why?”

The unexpected question leaves me off balance. “Why?” I say. “Er, I mean, why is anybody friends? She and I get along. I think she’s cool.”

“Mei’s not cool!” Her mom snaps. “Not for you. Not for anyone. And you’re trouble. Not good for friends.”

“Um…”

She steps out of my way and, with rising irritation, waves me toward the counter. “Take out only for you.” Before I could ask why she answers. “You start fights.” She waggles a stern finger at me. “No trouble in here!”

“No, Ma’am. No trouble.” I promise as I walk to the counter as directed. The single other customer sitting the corner scrolls on his phone and he shovels noodles into his mouth, blind to the drama playing out in front of him. “I should explain. That situation at The Post last night…”

“Stand there.” Mrs. Ling cuts me off as she points to a very particular spot just beside the till. “What do you want? Order.”

“Uhhh…” I look to Mr. Ling only to be greeted with a hard, silent stare. “Combo B, for two.”

“Why two?” Asks Mrs. Ling.

“I’m hungry.”

“You’ll get fat.” She snaps back. “Combo B, for one.” She storms past me to take up the post behind the counter as her husband heads back to the kitchen to put my order together. “You work at the motel. Why?”

Another why! “Well, I needed a job and…”

“You have no money? What did you do before this?”

“Just stuff, ya know?”

“I don’t know that is why I asked.”

“Pumping gas, waiting tables, delivery, whatever I could get my hands on.” I say, standing straighter and smoothing out my shirt under her harsh scrutiny. “I haven’t settled on a career yet.”

“Too old.” She waves her hands. “You should know by now.”

“Ahem. Just a late bloomer I guess.”

“More like a no bloomer.” She scoffs. “Some friend. Why are you here?”

“I was just…passing through and…”

“Going where?”

“Uh, West.”

“Hrf! That’s a direction not a destination.”

Some parental protectiveness I would have expected but Mrs. Ling’s unabashed contempt had me reeling. For Mei’s sake I had to keep things as cordial as possible but I was struggling mightily to hold my tongue. Desperate for an escape, or at least a change of subject, I glance around and spot some pictures that I could see just around the corner behind the counter.

My gaze is caught by a photo of Mei and her sister. Mei stood in graduation robes and a hat, her hands folded in front of her holding her diploma, with that signature masked expression of hers. Her eyes were not smiling then. With her arm around Mei, Grace, a year or two younger, stood with her other arm raised as in celebration. She wore a fetching blue dress that hugged her slimmer and fitter body. The picture had caught her mid laugh, her vivacious personality beaming through the still photo. The pair of them stood on the south side of the local school, which I could tell due to the mural behind them.

My tone softer, more respectful, I say. “So that’s Grace.”

Mrs. Ling’s frigid scowl melts, just a little, as she follows my eyes to the photos, though she doesn’t say anything.

From that photo I begin to look over the others. The next reveals something interesting. It was a photo of Grace holding three first place medals and two second place ribbons at some sort of school track and field thing. What caught my attention was not her athletic achievements but the fact that she was wearing shorts. Shorts tight enough to reveal any ‘secret’, not matter how carefully concealed. Grace’s difference from Mei went further than simply a more vibrant personality. I continue looking around the photos. I see Grace with her naturally ebullient smile receiving an academic award, a sword wielding Grace in a vibrant yellow silk uniform in some kind of kung-fu stance, Grace among a group of canoeists alongside a rushing river, and so it went. A rotten feeling in by belly begins to twist as I realize that every single photo on that wall was of Grace, Mei only featuring in the picture of her grad night and even in that one her younger sister stole the spotlight. They didn’t save her one single spot for her alone. Not one.

“That’s my Grace.” Mrs. Ling says at last, her voice brimming with maternal pride. “She was a special one. My perfect girl. She had the whole world in the palm of her hand. She could have done…anything.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Gone too soon. Far too soon.”

Slowly I look back at her. “Mei’s pretty special too.”

“Hrm.” She grunts with ambivalence. “Mei is…different.”

A shiver runs straight through me. I knew that tone. I’d heard it before. It was just like how Dad sounded when he talked about Ric in polite company. When he talked about me it was in with exasperated disappointment as he expected more from me. But with Ric it went deeper. With Ric it wasn’t disappointment, Ric couldn’t help being the way he was. No, with Ric it was…resentment.

“Combo B.” Mr. Ling unceremoniously drops a styrofoam container on the counter and without meeting my eyes says. “That’ll be $9.99.”

There is a moment of silence, just the quiet ticking of the little cat with the swinging arm to fill the pause. In the corner the other guy continues to look at his phone oblivious to the world. I look back and forth between Mei’s parents wanting to say something without knowing what it was. Finally I shove my hand into my pocket and pull out a ten and slap it on the counter. Biting my tongue I grab my lunch, turn and exit from The Great Wall as fast as a walking stride would take me.