Kino’s eight. Sian and Loan were there with Amit (we met him last when Luna was three months pregnant). In a first, Luna dressed Sophie
in shoes given her by Rosalind, their soft leather soles a good fit. Seated at his flaming cake, Kino made a bunch of faces. He was different from last year, I thought, less innocent. Luna gifted him a certificate from Borders Bookstore. The boys organized a game, each one sporting massive Nerf sidearms. At one point all the men had clustered around the big TV. Aunt Tuyet said that contractors doing their remodel have delayed the work. Loan’s travelled with Amit on some business trips, swimming, for example, in their hotel’s 47th-floor pool with 360° views onto Hong Kong. Nice. Hoang, wrapped in a scarf and sick as a dog, invited all to come to Jessalyn’s fourth birthday party on the 23rd. Noon the next day, Oanh hosts a gathering
sans Christmas tree. (Funny, Luna and I will also forego the tree this year.)
On the road home we happened across our neighborhood in Federal Way. I made a U-turn because Luna wanted us to drive past the old house. For a year, early in our marriage, we’d lived out of a tiny bedroom above the garage. We drove past the Old Country Buffet where Luna’s first job in the United States was busing tables: “A five hour shift felt like you had worked ten.” Their food turned her stomach; she only ever ate the salad and apple pie. Oh, there was the Group Health parking lot where I showed Luna how to drive. Big chunks of memory falling from the sky.
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This entry was posted Monday, December 5th, 2005 at 1:18 am and is filed under family, day in the life.
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