Ha Jin - A Free Life

"Oh, I just had laser surgery." She touched the root of her plump nose with her fingertips as if she were still wearing glasses. There was a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks.

"So you can see better now."

"Absolutely. For the first time in my life I can see individual leaves on treetops with my naked eyes. I began to wear glasses at seven, and before that, my poor eyesight had always made me think a tree crown was just one block of green, not made of individual leaves. This is wonderful. I can drive without glasses on now."

The door chime rang and two couples stepped in. Christine knew the new arrivals and hurried to greet them. Janet, holding a plate of lox, stopped on her way to the dining room and asked Pingping to help her remove the spinach turnovers from the oven, because she had to go and welcome the guests. Gladly Pingping entered the kitchen, put on a mitt, and began taking out the hors d'oeuvres. After that, she resumed the work left by Janet, mashing avocado to make a dip for corn chips. Janet had cooked the buffet dinner already, and several platters were filled with meats and there were also two large bowls of salads, mixed organic greens. Presently Janet came back and together the two of them started carrying dinner to the oval table in the dining room.

The house was noisy now, ringing with chuckles and chitchat. After everything was ready, Pingping went to join the guests. A rotund man with a domed forehead was sitting alone on a love seat. He looked sleepy on account of his doughy face and thin eyes. Despite his fleshy lips and fair skin, he somehow reminded Pingping of Vladimir Lenin. She went up to him and said pleasantly, "Hi, how are you?"

The man raised his eyes, and his face suddenly tightened, his pupils shifting. He seemed flustered and didn't know how to respond. As Pingping wondered about what to say, a raccoon-faced woman came over with two glasses of red wine. She glared at the man, then asked Pingping sharply, "Can I help you?" The plunging neckline of her dress revealed her tanned cleavage.

Confused, Pingping stammered, "I-I'm Pingping. Janet and Dave are substitute parents for my son." In panic she forgot how to say "legal guardians" in English.

"You mean godparents?" the woman asked, handing a glass to the man.

"Something like that."

"Oh… I'm sorry. I'm Kim and he's my boyfriend, Charlie. So you adopted a baby too."

"No. My son already in middle school."

"I see. Charlie is Hailee's godfather and I'm her godmother."

Pingping thought of mentioning herself as a kind of godmother to the baby too, but refrained. She was amazed that the Mitchells had an unmarried couple as their daughter's godparents. Somehow she felt uncomfortable talking with Kim and Charlie, though she couldn't say why. She was sure Kim had been rude to her just now, so she said a few more words, then went away to play with Hailee.

She didn't enjoy Janet's cooking and ate just a piece of chicken breast and some cherry tomatoes, which she always liked. Yet she had a good time with the baby, who was chewing on a tiny rubber fish. She removed the teether from Hailee's mouth and tried to teach her how to say "Mommy" and "Daddy" in Mandarin, but the girl could speak only one syllable at a time. Hailee laughed a lot, her mouth drooling, and she held Pingping's thumb and dragged her along when she crawled around on the Persian rug. No guests stopped to talk with Pingping, probably assuming she was a nanny. Indeed, she looked as young as if she were in her late twenties.

When the large birthday cake was brought out, the house turned noisy again. As people began singing "Happy Birthday," Pingping carried Hailee to the living room while a few ladies, Susie among them, walked backward in front of the cake, chorusing and clapping their hands. Hailee was puzzled and wouldn't blow at the single candle, so Janet did that for her.

After nine o'clock, Nan arrived to pick up his wife, having left the restaurant for Niyan to close up. This time he mixed well with the Mitchells' guests, especially with a wiry man sporting a goatee, who was a librarian in Decatur and liked Chuang Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher. The man also knew Dick Harrison and had invited him to read in his library. Nan and he conversed over wine for a good while. Then Nan turned to talk with Christine about which Chinese cities she should visit, because she had applied for a teaching fellowship. If that came through, she'd love to go to China to teach.

Dave came, beaming, and placed his hand on Nan 's shoulder. "Did you try the Parmesan chicken I made?" he asked.

Nan hadn't but prevaricated, "I didn't know you can cook."

"I've just begun to learn to make a few things."

Christine chimed in, "He's a father now and should be a well-rounded family man." She laughed; so did Nan and Dave. In fact, the chicken was undercooked, half of it left in the two platters.

On their way back, Pingping was unhappy and wouldn't speak to Nan. She had often complained that Nan would leave her unaccompanied whenever they went to a party. This time he had done that again, not staying with her for a single minute. She shouldn't have gone to the Mitchells' today. She simply didn't like some of Hailee's godparents. Nan knew why his wife was fuming, so he remained quiet.

The next morning, Pingping dropped in on Janet at the jewelry store on her way to work. When Janet asked her if she had enjoyed the party the night before, Pingping said, "Not really. I like Christine, but to be honest, I don't like Kim and Charlie. They're rude to me, like afraida me or something."

Janet smiled quizzically. Pingping pressed on, "What? I'm never nasty to them."

"You know, Kim is vulnerable. Charlie has been her boyfriend for almost two years, and she cannot afford to lose him."

"Crazy. How can she think I want her boyfriend, that chubby Charlie? I have Nan, he's already more than I can handle. One more man will kill me."

Janet stowed away a box of assorted beads on the shelf, turned back, and said, "A few years ago Kim lost her boyfriend to a Japanese girl, so she must've feared you might do the same to her."

"She's sick."

"Come on, Pingping, you don't know how pretty you are. You can easily bewitch a lot of men. In fact, after you left yesterday, both Kim and Charlie said you and Nan were a lovely couple. Kim was really relieved to know you were married." Janet tittered, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. "Have you heard the expression 'yellow fever'?"

"Yes. A kinda disease?"

"Yeah, you're right. It also means that a lot of men are crazy about Asian women. Believe me, if you weren't married, you could have lots of dates."

"I don't want to date man, I want marriage. Nobody, only Nan want to marry me."

After Pingping left, Janet thought about their conversation, amused by her friend's innocence. She often talked with Dave about Ping-ping and Nan, knowing they'd had marital trouble all along. Dave would say Nan was a lucky man who didn't seem to know how to appreciate his luck. What amazed the Mitchells was that Nan and Pingping, in spite of their rocky marriage, seldom quarreled and wouldn't have extramarital affairs, as if both were content with the situation and would make no effort to improve it. Janet once urged Pingping to take Nan to a marriage counselor, but her friend refused, saying, "We don't need shrink." Probably thanks to the hard work at the restaurant, neither Pingping nor Nan had the time and energy to look for another lover. Also, their son kept their hands full and held them together.

More amazing was that the Wus always shared everything-they had the same bank accounts and paid all the bills together. Whatever they owned was under both names. In fact, Nan let Pingping handle all the money that went through the Gold Wok. By contrast, Janet and Dave each had personal bank accounts and each would contribute $3,000 a month to their joint account, from which all their household expenses, including the mortgage and dining out, were drawn. On holidays and birthdays, they'd buy each other presents paid out of the givers' own pockets. Janet noticed that when Ping-ping bought clothes or shoes for her family, she'd get the same kind for both Nan and Taotao, as if Nan were just another child of hers. In addition, the Wus never got presents from each other. Once, on Pingping's birthday, Janet asked her why, and her friend said, "I don't need gift from Nan. He spend my money if he buy anything. If I buy something for him, I spend his money."