10 #2
Nari had a plain way of speaking that Helen understood. She wasn’t putting them down. She was trying her best to protect the people she claimed, and Nari was claiming her family. Helen felt grateful.
Both Nari and Helen had grown up with very little, and though they’d seen far better times, they wouldn’t complain now.
This was no time for self-pity. Their children had lived for most of their lives with money, but they had lived without for far longer.
Helen didn’t like mice. Growing up, there had often been rodents where she and her siblings lived.
She could remember mice running across her feet when she went to the bathroom at night, and how if she screamed, no one would come to make them go away.
Nari went to the door and slipped on her clogs. Mido bowed deeply to her.
Nari patted Mido’s shoulder. She’d been worried about her daughter’s best friend, who’d left Australia without finishing her degree, and she looked at the girl with great affection.
“Things will get better. You have nice, educated parents. They’re going to figure things out that I don’t know how to do. They speak English so well!”
Nari opened the front door as if she were leaving her own house, and the family bowed to her as she left.
The apartment felt quiet again, and Helen got on her knees to straighten out the shoes by the front door.
John glanced at his wife’s white cotton socks, their soles already black from the dirty floors.
Bo found parking for the van not too far from the main entrance. When his family couldn’t contain their shock at the gargantuan scale of the store, he burst out laughing.
“Welcome to Costco,” Bo said.
“I read about this store, but it’s even bigger than I imagined,” Helen said.
“We don’t have a lot of time. I have to drop you off, return the van, and get back to work.”
Mido pulled out the list of things they needed.
The store was cold, and Mido rubbed her hands. Helen and John had worn fleece vests, but Mido wore only a T-shirt, so Bo gave her his blue Exodus Academy windbreaker, which had the word “DRIVER” written on the back.
“If we want to get a television, they have some on sale,” Bo said.
“We can wait on that, but we’ll need to buy a phone and an answering machine today,” Helen said. “We need to find jobs and can’t miss messages.”
Along the way to electronics, they picked up jars of instant coffee, boxes of tea, and laundry detergent and tucked them away in the giant cart.
Bo moved quickly while his family continued to marvel at the store. They passed rows and rows of goods, and Helen picked up two boxes of water glasses and coffee mugs.
She tried not to think of all the beautiful dishes she’d given away to her friends at church. If she had been living in Seoul, she would’ve been able to leave them with Sonya, but it hadn’t made sense to ship them to her, either.
Helen had crisscrossed the world with her possessions, but always the container shipments had been paid for by John’s employers, and when she looked into the cost of shipping their things herself, she’d realized that they couldn’t possibly afford it.
“Here.” Bo held up a box containing a white Panasonic phone with a built-in answering machine.
Alarmed at the price, Helen scanned the lower shelves for a cheaper model.
“I think this is the best one,” Bo said. “I have a job, Umma. I can get it for you.”
“No, no. I’ll buy it,” Helen said, plucking it from his hands. “There’s another kind here. Besides, it’s a better color,” she said. The one she’d selected was a third of the price at $49. “It’s black, so it won’t get dirty.”
John looked over the Panasonic phones and found an even more expensive one that was also black.
“No, we’ll get this one,” John said. “This is black, too.”
Helen said nothing, pushing the cart toward the pots and pans, and Mido walked beside her.
Behind them, John asked his son, “Bo, where is Shrimp Castle?”
“It’s not far. We’re already in Garden Grove.”
“Can you take us there after this? I’d like to see it. Do you have time?”
Bo checked his watch.
“What do you think Shrimp Castle can pay?” John asked.
“Lion said they’d have paid someone $900 a week, but they’re only paying Alex $350 because he arrives exactly at eleven and leaves at three p.m. and takes a half-hour lunch break, which is making Yun’s mother crazy.
That’s why they can’t afford two men. The other guy, Lenny, who’s always worked there, gets $500 a week. ”
After they packed up the car with their purchases, Bo drove them to Shrimp Castle, and John went inside while the family waited in the van.
The front door bell tinkled when John entered, and Nari turned.
“Hello! What are you doing here?”
“May I see your kitchen?” John asked.
Nari couldn’t understand but brought him back to where Lenny was washing the cabbages.
“Where’s Alex?” John asked.
“He’ll be here soon. If he shows up.”
Before leaving the kitchen, John turned to Lenny to say goodbye, then went to the cashier station, where he could speak privately with Nari.
“There’s enough space,” John said.
“Huh?”
“You could have all three of us in the kitchen. I can work for $550 a week in cash. If either of your guys quits, then I’ll do his work and make his salary.”
“You can’t do this work,” Nari said out loud, then turned to see if Lenny could hear them, not that he could understand Korean.
“I worked in kitchens when I was in high school and college, and I’m still strong.
I can’t work on the books, because it will affect our green card application.
Lion’s sister, Sarah, already explained all this to us.
In a few months, we have to adjust our status, and Bo will sponsor us since he has a job.
In the meantime, my wife and I have to find work that pays in cash. ”
Nari wasn’t sure how to respond.
“I can start today,” John said. “I just need to change my clothes.”
“Have you asked your wife?”
John smiled, knowing that Helen wouldn’t like it.
“A man with your education should not be in the kitchen frying shrimp and making fish sandwiches. Do you know how terrible you can smell? Your hair, your skin, it gets into your pores. I think my husband went to Brazil just so he could get that smell out of his nose.”
“I’m sure your husband had good reason to do what he did. You don’t know what a man is thinking until you’ve walked in his shoes. I have a good reason, too, for wanting this job.”
“I don’t know,” Nari said, because she really didn’t.
“I have a request, though. I will work as hard as possible, but I’d appreciate it if you could drive me to and from the apartment, and I will pay for part of the gas until we get a car.
My wife will be looking for work, and it would be ideal if she could find work on this shopping strip so she can commute with us,” John said.
“I can ask Mrs. Chung. She’s always looking for someone at her store,” Nari said, though a frown flashed across her face, and John picked up on it.
“What’s she like?” he asked.
“Picky,” Nari said.
John wanted to spare his wife another trial.
“But she’s not a dishonest person, and she’s an alumna of your wife’s school. Ewha. Don’t people have to be nicer to you if you went to the same college?”
“It depends,” John said.
For once, Nari felt hopeful, believing that Mrs. Chung would give Helen a job and that with John’s help, she could pay off the promissory note on Shrimp Castle on time. She knew her husband expected her to lose the business and join him in S?o Paolo, and Nari wanted to surprise him.
Things had been so difficult, and suddenly a path was cleared.