New From Here, page 16
Mom doesn’t tell us.
Instead, she scoops up the rest of the chicken broth from the pot and tells us to eat up. There’s not much left, and she gives all of it to me and my siblings. I take one of my pieces of chicken and put it in Mom’s bowl.
Afterward, we help Mom with the dishes. When the dishwasher’s all loaded up, we ask her if there’s anything else we can help with.
Back in Hong Kong, we had a wonderful lady named Wong Tai Tai who came by on the weekends and helped us clean the apartment. But here, Mom’s all on her own. She smiles.
“It has been a while since I vacuumed,” she says.
Bowen, Lea, and I pick up a mop, a rag, and a vacuum each.
Lea runs upstairs to clean the bathroom, while Bowen mops the kitchen floor and I vacuum all the carpets. It’s hard work at first, until Lea comes up with the brilliant idea to make a dance party out of it.
Lea puts on the song “We Are Family” and cranks up the volume as we sing our hearts out with our Clorox sprays. Mom puts a gloved hand to her heart as she watches us—her new helpers. I suddenly get an idea.
“Hey! Let’s FaceTime Dad!!!” I say.
“Great idea!” Mom says.
Dad answers on the first ring and laughs when he sees us. To our great surprise, he gets up from his mountain of legal contracts and starts cleaning with us. It’s a clean-off ! Lea and I sweep and wipe as Dad does silly dance moves. Bowen jumps in front of the camera and does air guitar with the vacuum extension hose. My sides hurt from laughing. It makes the time go by so fast. Before you know it, the house is spotless.
Mom takes a picture of us virtual cleaning with Dad and warns him, “This may become a weekly tradition!”
“Oh, it’s on!” Dad grins.
I smile too. I’m glad they made up. It makes me feel all warm and toasty inside that we can still have fun as a family, even if Dad can’t be here.
(Though I hope he can. Really soon.)
Chapter 55
I can’t believe we were homeless once,” Bowen mutters in the dark from the bottom bunk.
I know! I roll onto my tummy. “Mom’s stories are so different from Lao Lao and Lao Ye’s.…” All my grandparents ever talk about is how big the yards are in America and how they got free samples of guacamole at Trader Joe’s. I thought they had a really nice life here when they used to live here.
I close my eyes and try imagining living in a car with my siblings. We’d have to put up some dividers. And curtains. Before long, I am full-on redecorating our car in my mind and am wide awake.
I think about the tents under the freeways in Berkeley. I ask my brother, “Hey. How come there aren’t a lot of homeless people in Hong Kong?” I don’t think I’ve ever seen cars with curtains or people living in tents in Hong Kong.…
Bowen replies it’s because families in Asia are always taking care of each other, even extended relatives. “That’s why they all live together.”
I smile, strangely comforted by this. I think of my lao lao and lao ye living with us when we were babies in Hong Kong. That was so fun. “Will you take care of me if I’m down on my luck?”
Bowen thinks for a long while before replying, “I guess you can live in my guesthouse. But you’d have to clean the pool.”
“You’re going to have a pool when you grow up?”
“ ’Course!” he says. “When I grow up, I’ll be super successful.”
I see the gleam of Bowen’s smiling teeth in the moonlight. To each his own, I guess. I just hope Bowen knows it’s okay even if he ends up living in a hut.
“What about you…?” he asks back quietly.
I turn my head and glance down, amazed he’s even asking. Of course I’d take care of him. And not just because I’m Asian.
“Only if you don’t hog the remote,” I reply.
Bowen yawns.
I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, imagining our future life together, hanging out by the pool, having cookouts, and all the video games we’d play. It feels nice to know that one day, we’ll be friends, even if we can’t be right now.
* * *
At school the next day I tell Christopher I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since we’ve been in America. He grins and asks how we celebrated. I tell him by having a dance cleaning party with my dad!
“My sister and I forgot to rinse the soapy floor with water,” I laugh. “It was so slippery, you could go sock skating on it!”
“I love sock skating!!!” Christopher says. “I did it once in the kitchen at the restaurant!”
Tyler overhears us talking and makes a face. “Who still cleans their house themselves?”
“Um, everyone I know?” Christopher replies. I mouth, Thank you.
“Well, we have a cleaning lady,” Tyler brags.
I look at his smug face. It makes my insides bubble the way he says it, like we’re not as good as his family. I want to tell him that not everyone has a hundred dollars to hire someone else to make their bed. We used to in Hong Kong, but now, even if we did have the money, we’d put it into our Dad fund.
But then he’d probably make fun of that.
So instead I say, “You know what you don’t have? Virtual sock-skating dance parties!”
Tyler rolls his eyes as Christopher and I giggle on the walk toward our classroom.
* * *
My eyes bug out in class when Bowen forwards me an email from LinkedIn—Dad’s up to 520 connections now! Holy mackerel! All the strangers added him back, especially the professional cuddlers!
I tell Christopher about my dad’s LinkedIn. “That’s great! So now you can start applying for jobs! What kind of jobs are you thinking?” he asks.
I rattle off a list of all my favorite businesses. “I’m thinking Jamba Juice, Best Buy, Hershey’s, and Six Flags.” I grin. “It’d be so cool working at Jamba Juice. Think of all the free smoothies he’d get!”
“Totally!” Christopher agrees. “Six Flags, too.”
We pretend to go on one of those upside-down roller coasters together at our mat, until Mrs. Turner gives us a funny look. And reminds us gently to get back to our reading.
“So how’d you do it?” Christopher whispers, getting his book out. We’re both reading graphic novels.
I whisper back my strategy of adding strangers.
“You’re really a whiz at that thing,” he chuckles. “I wish I could connect with five hundred strangers. We sure could use more customers.”
“You totally can!” I say. “You can make a page—maybe not on LinkedIn, but…”
Christopher thinks for a minute. “What about Nextdoor?”
I ask Christopher, “What’s Nextdoor?”
He says it’s an app for people in the neighborhood to talk about what’s going on.
“Have you been on it?” I ask.
“Yeah. All everyone talked about was how good Zachary’s Pizza was,” Christopher sighs. “I always want to say something about our restaurant, but I’m afraid people will tell me I’m biased because I’m the owner’s son.”
“Well, I’m not! I can be your online publicist!” I volunteer.
“Really?”
“Sure, I’m already managing my dad’s LinkedIn. And look how well that’s doing! I’ve got this!” I grin at my friend. “We’re gonna get your parents’ restaurant back on track in no time.”
Christopher grins as Mrs. Turner walks by and passes back my math test. I gaze down wearily at my paper, as I do whenever I get a test back. I give myself my usual pep talk—D is for Done and Over With. C is for Cool, and anything B and above is just a Bonus! Still, I can hear the crickets in my ear as I turn around my first official test from my American school.
To my surprise, it’s an A– staring back at me, along with the words, Great job, Knox. Keep it up!
I grab the paper to my chest. All this time, I thought A was for Are You Kidding, Never Gonna Happen! Turns out, it can happen!!!
Chapter 56
Mom!!!” I cry, running toward her in the parking lot. I hold up my test—my very first A!!!
“That’s incredible!” Mom says, smiling at my paper.
“Yay!” Lea says.
“I’m so proud of you.” Mom smiles, pulling out of the lot and continuing on to the middle school. “It’s a huge accomplishment.”
She points to a black bag in the back and tells me to get it ready for Bowen. “That’s his track stuff. He forgot it this morning.”
As soon as I see Bowen waiting in the middle school parking lot, I flash my test to him.
“Look, Bowen, I got an A!” I cry out.
Bowen glances at it, then frowns. “Still an A minus,” he mutters.
Here I thought we could both celebrate Dad’s new LinkedIn connections together, but he had to pour ice on my good news.
“Bowen!” Mom scolds him. She looks me right in the eye. “Don’t listen to your brother.”
Mom hands Bowen his track bag. “You ready for your track tryout?” she asks him.
Bowen nods, gazing over at the track. I notice there’s a soccer pitch on the side. I grab my soccer ball.
“Can I come watch? And kick my ball around?” I ask. It’s been so long since I’ve played on Astroturf. “Please???”
“Sure!” Mom says.
Bowen rolls his eyes. “Fine. But Mom, you have to make sure he stays away from me and my new teammates. He can’t embarrass me!”
“He won’t,” Mom says, letting us off. “I’ll be back as soon as I drop this off.”
She points to a stack of papers on the passenger-side seat. “I’ve got to get these to New York. They’re for my interview.”
Speaking of interviews… I crane my neck. “Hey, Mom, how do you apply for jobs on LinkedIn?” I ask.
Mom tells us it’s pretty simple. All you have to do is search and click apply on the job listing page. Then if the company wants more information, they’ll contact you.
“Can I come to FedEx with you?” Lea asks Mom.
“You’re going now?” Bowen asks Mom. “You promised you’d make sure Knox doesn’t embarrass me!” He holds the door open as he frowns at Mom.
“It’ll only take a few minutes—it’s important. I’ll be back before you know it,” she promises. Bowen slams the door. I slide the back door open, but before I can scramble after my brother, Mom reaches out an arm and catches me. She holds me back.
“Hey, kiddo. Promise me you’ll take it easy—remember, we still don’t have health insurance.”
I nod. I remember every day.
“I’ll be careful,” I tell Mom.
“No heading,” she instructs me sternly, pointing her index finger at me as I reach for my stuff.
“Fine…,” I say to her, flying out of the car with my soccer ball.
I run toward the soccer pitch and the track. “Bowen! Wait for me!!!”
Chapter 57
Stepping onto the soccer pitch for the first time in a month, I kick the ball high into the wind. Though the turf is patchy and worn at Bowen’s middle school, it still feels like greeting an old friend.
“Oh, Astroturf, how I’ve missed you!” I say to the turf.
I run toward the goal, breathing in the fresh air as I dribble the ball. I was worried for a second that all the quarantine and time away from soccer meant I’d somehow lost it, but as my feet tap the ball along the grass, I feel the adrenaline soaring through me. I still got it!
SCORE!
I close my eyes and picture Dad at the goal. Then I throw my arms up high and run around the field. I see my brother on the track. I stop for a sec to watch him run. Whoa. The other kids are really fast. They zip by him as they run the two hundred. Bowen comes in last. He gasps for air, with his hands on his knees, shaking his head.
I look around for Mom, but she’s still not back from FedEx.
I dribble my ball over to him, practicing my inside touch, like my old coach in Hong Kong taught me. When I get close to Bowen, I see the other kids looking at him funny as he struggles to catch his breath.
“Hey, are you okay?” I ask.
“Get OUT of here!” he shouts at me.
“Is that your little brother?” the other kids ask Bowen. My brother starts coughing.
“Oh my God, he’s coughing!” one kid says. They hurry away from Bowen. He sits down on the bench, mortified, and glares at me like it’s all my fault.
The track coach walks over. He’s a tall African American man with a visor and clipboard.
“Are you okay?” he asks Bowen.
Bowen nods and says, “Yeah… I’m fine. Just catching my breath.”
“Here, have some water,” the coach says. I notice it says COACH CARTER on the back of his sweatshirt. He hands Bowen a water bottle.
Bowen takes big gulps from the bottle, the water dripping down his neck.
“They’re probably just cramps,” the coach says as Bowen drinks. “You’re not used to training this hard, are you, son?”
Bowen shakes his head.
“I think I’m out of practice,” he says. “I haven’t exactly been training these past few weeks.…”
None of us have. We’ve been stuffing ourselves with moo shu pork and frozen pizza.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll get you in top form in no time.” Coach Carter smiles at Bowen, putting a hand on his back.
Bowen looks up, surprised. “Are you sure?”
Coach Carter nods. “I’m positive. Welcome to the team.”
Bowen smiles as he gets up and follows Coach Carter back to the starting line. He drinks the last of the water and gets into position. When Coach Carter says, “GO,” Bowen bolts toward the finish. Even though he’s still the slowest, there’s mad determination in his eyes.
* * *
Mom finally comes to pick us up after most of Bowen’s teammates have already gone home.
“What took you so long?” Bowen says to Mom when she pulls up. “You said you were only going to be a couple of minutes!”
“I’m sorry, there was traffic,” Mom explains. Lea shows me the stack of free envelopes she picked up at FedEx as we get in the car. “We can use one of these to mail Daddy his plane ticket,” she whispers.
“So? Did you make the team??” Mom asks Bowen.
“Yeah,” he says. He doesn’t say it with a lot of confidence, so I add, “The coach said he’s going to get Bowen in top form in no time!”
“I knew he’d see potential in you!” Mom says to Bowen. “How were the other kids?”
“Fast.”
“Faster than you?” Mom asks.
“Much faster.”
“I’m sure you’ll catch up to them, gege,” Mom says as she turns onto the freeway to go home.
Bowen doesn’t respond. He just gazes out the window. The Bay Area traffic is so slow, it’s like waiting for a GIF to load. Next to me, Lea doodles on her iPad.
“You should change lanes,” Bowen instructs Mom.
“But if I change lanes, I’ll have to cut right back in!” Mom hates changing lanes on the freeway, especially when things are slow. She’s not the most confident driver in the world. That’s because in Hong Kong, she never needed to drive. We always took minibuses everywhere.
“Ugh! If Dad were here, we’d be home already,” Bowen fumes in frustration.
Mom turns and stares at him, shocked by the outburst. “What’s gotten into you?”
She waits until we’re finally off the freeway before pulling the car over and turning to face Bowen. “Is this about me going to FedEx? I couldn’t help it. I’m sorry I wasn’t at your practice, but you don’t get to take it out on me.”
I reach to tap Mom’s shoulder. I want to tell her that’s not why Bowen’s mad. He’s mad because the other kids weren’t very nice to him. And he came in last. It has nothing to do with FedEx.
“Not now, Knox,” Mom says.
As she restarts the car, she tells us, “Life is hard enough already. But if we’re not kind to each other, it’s a double whammy of hard.”
I look to my brother, hoping Mom’s words sink in.
* * *
Bowen stomps up to our room when we get home. I follow him up. He drops to the floor and starts doing sit-ups.
“Didn’t you have enough training today?” I ask Bowen, climbing onto the top bunk and taping my A– test up on the wall next to my bed. Most of my other tests are like toilet paper: I look at them and then I throw them away. But this one I’m keeping forever.
“No,” Bowen says. With every sit-up, he huffs, “I. Have. To. Outrun. The. Other. Kids.”
I raise an eyebrow. Slowly, I climb down from my bunk and sit next to him on the floor. While Bowen does sit-ups, I get out my computer and pull up LinkedIn. “Now that Dad has over five hundred connections, we can start applying for jobs.”
Bowen stops doing sit-ups and peers over at my computer. We scroll through the job bank together, clicking through all the various available lawyer jobs that we see. Plus a few other ones.
“How about this one? Virtual game show host.” I point to an ad.
“That sounds cool!” Bowen says, and whips up a simple cover letter.
I marvel at my brother’s lightning-fast typing speed. I read over his shoulder as my brother writes:
Dear people in charge recruiting managers,
My name is Andrew Evans, and I’m interested in applying for the job available. As you can see from my résumé, I have TONS a great deal of experience and you should hire me because I’m the best!!! I think I would make an excellent addition to your team.
Please contact me by phone or email if you would like to speak further.
Sincerely,
Andrew Evans
Nice! I give Bowen a thumbs-up sign. And just like that, we click and apply. Mom was totally right—applying for jobs is super easy! Within ten minutes, we apply Dad for five lawyer jobs, plus a weather reporter opening, a wine club manager, and a country club supervisor job.
