Chapter 9
Saggio’s - one of the fanciest and best restaurants in town ( and one of the few that Kermit and the missus didn’t practically own because of their constant repeat business.) It was a quaint little place- eclectic, yet elegant. On the side walls and the front doors, it had paintings of statues of famous figures like Babe Ruth and Marilyn Monroe. The ceiling itself was even a spectacle-- it was adorned with phrases in all different sorts of languages and writing systems. Directly below that and to the right, there was a pillar adorned with plastic green vines in the form of a Greek style setting. The most dazzling and beautiful sight, and probably the most overlooked sight, was the back wall. This was the most eclectic, yet artistic and beautiful wall, as it had all sorts of things that one would probably never see anywhere else.
This wall was so large and unique, that it was actually impossible for one to see everything in the wall on just one visit. Hence, if you were the artistic type, it was an open invitation to come back, and see what else you could find. If you weren’t the artistic type, then it’s just something pretty to look at whenever you would come there. The entire wall was a painting--at the very bottom of it were the Supremes in a swimming pool. Just above that was a seven eleven-only instead of seven eleven, it said ‘Seventh Heaven.’ Standing on top of the ‘Seventh Heaven’ was Superman. To the right of Superman was King Kong. Beneath King Kong was Albert Einstein playing chess with Frida Cahlo. John Wayne was fairly central in the painting, with Looney Tunes characters chasing each other behind him. To John’s right was E.T. on the beach, and directly under that was a curious looking Billy Zane as he looks on at the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic.
(There were many other things on this wall as well, but the other things are far too numerous to mention)
It was here that Piggy had just taken her seat to wait for her dearest, most trusted friend, with two glasses of champagne to celebrate this wonderful occasion. Over the years, the two had kind of lost contact, but recently they came back together over a very joyous affair.
Piggy hadn’t even been waiting there for a minute when one Ms. Samantha Jones sauntered up to the table Piggy was sitting in. She was rather tall for a woman, about 5’10, with beautiful, flowing blonde locks, and blue-green eyes. Samantha had the kind of face that would look gorgeous with or without makeup-but today was somewhat of a special occasion for her, so she decided to grace herself with some. She was donned in a knee length red dress with spaghetti straps, clear pumps, a large red handbag, and was bathed in Imari perfume. Yes, Samantha had a keen fashion sense of her own, one might say-over the years she had become quite the diva herself.
Samantha was an actress as well, converted to the movies by her husband. She and Piggy met when they were teenagers after having similar home situations, went to college together, got married, and the rest is history. The only significant difference in their careers is that Samantha was more of a dramatic actress while Piggy liked to work more on the comedic side. Samantha could do both, she just preferred drama. She also never tried her hand at modeling as Piggy had, despite many of Piggy’s pleas to get her to do so. She felt she didn’t have the patience for it, and she was probably right.
She walked up to Piggy’s table absolutely beaming at her-one, because she was nothing short of delighted to see her, and two, she was still feeling jittery and euphoric from her honeymoon. This was the first time since her return that she had gone anywhere without her new hubby, but Piggy’s company would definitely make up for that.
Piggy cooed at the sight of Samantha, and they both ran into each other’s arms, squealing with delight and kissing each other twice on each cheek. It was their thing, one might say. Having gotten that out of the way, the two ladies sat down, and got down to business- gossip. Of course, it was gossip about themselves and their personal lives, but gossip nonetheless.
‘’Samantha darling! How good to see vous! Why did vous stay away so long?’’
‘’Oh trust me, honey, if I had my way, I’d still be on my honeymoon!’’ The two shared a little giggle and they perused the menu. This time, Samantha spoke up. ‘’So what’s been going on? What have I missed?’’
‘’Oh nothing unusual, dear, just the same old things. Moi am busier than ever now-what with all the photo shoots moi have been doing.’’
‘’Oh I know, I heard about that,’’ Samantha observed. ‘’Sounds like your agency’s got you hopping. That could be good or bad. But…let’s hope for the prior.’’
‘’Here here!’’ Piggy giggled, and the two clanked their champagne glasses together, laughing all the way. Right in the middle of a gulp, Samantha belted out another catch up question.
‘’Oh, and speaking of hopping--how’s that husband of yours doing? He’s not up to his old tricks still, is he?’’ She said this with a wide grin. She had known Kermit almost as long as she had known Piggy. And when the two of them met, it was a chaotic, mischievous, playful friendship made in heaven. One could always infer that when Kermit and Samantha got together, craziness ensued. Needless to say, she loved to tease Piggy about her marriage to him- as she was a major catalyst at getting the two of them married, after all.
‘’I’m afraid so, darling,’’ she said, giggling girlishly. ‘’You know Kermie. Except he’s all work and no play these days. Moi cannot remember the last time we went out for a romantic evening. He’s quite wrapped up in his work-always up in his office, typing away. And when he’s in his office, nothing can get his attention-except for a little piece of lace, perhaps…’’
Samantha covered her mouth with her hand, half in amusement, half in shock. She let out a little giggle, and waved at Piggy with her other hand.
‘’Oh Piggy, you’re terrible! I’ll have to try that on my husband!’’ The two ladies exploded into laughter, and only quieted down when a waiter eyeballed them from the back. Samantha stifled a giggle while Piggy tried her best to grow serious and continue their little girl talk.
Samantha turned her attention back on it too-for now was her moment of truth. It was her big moment-her kiss and tell moment; the time where she would tell her best girl friend all about her experiences thus far as a ‘’Mrs.’’
Recently, Samantha Jones had become Mrs. Braden Zenos, the wife of a well-versed and much accomplished actor. He was rather a handsome man, about 6’2, 210 pounds, very muscular. He was half Greek from his father’s side and half Chinese from his mother’s side, gifted with sexy dark, slanted eyes and short, dark hair. Needless to say, Braden was a lot of womens’ eye candy- lucky for him though, his wife wasn’t the jealous type- yet. For most of his adult life, he had been converted to the movies; prior to that, he was solely a stage actor and professional choreographer. When he was a senior in high school, he was scouted out by a talent agent, and was offered a contract as well as a full scholarship to Danhurst College, where he met his best friend and roommate, one Mr. Kermit the Frog (and his future wife.)
Since then, the two couples had been the best of friends and often double dated-but upon the last two years, they went their separate ways. They attended each other’s weddings (actually, they were each other’s best men and maids of honor), but other than an occasional Christmas or just happening to be in town, the two couples saw each other pretty infrequently.
It was all catch up time for that now. The two girls sat at the table, simply giddy as Samantha waited for Piggy to ask her about her honeymoon, which actually, didn’t take long.
‘’Well, girly, spit it out! How was Greece? Was it as beautiful as the brochures?’’
‘’Oh Piggy, even better! I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life! The Parthenon, the numerous flower stands, the outdoor diners….it was all gorgeous! And-it helps to have a half Greek husband to help you translate the stuff you can’t understand!’’ They shared another laugh, each of them taking another sip of champagne.
‘’And-oh, I tell you- it was so romantic, Piggy! We were never apart the whole time we were there! Aw, he made me feel like I was the only woman alive-’’ she lowered her voice, and leaned in closer to Piggy. ‘’Because let me tell you, there are a lotof lovely young beauties in Greece. He didn’t look at a one of ‘em.’’
‘’Enjoy that while you can, dear,’’ Piggy said wistfully. ‘’That won’t last for long.’’
‘’Oh, not if I can help it,’’ Samantha guffawed.
Now, it was Piggy’s turn to lean in close to Samantha and whisper. ‘’And I assume vous took pictures for moi to look at?’’
Samantha pulled her head back in sheer shock. ‘’Did I?’’
She reached to her side, pulling a large red binder out of her bag. It had white rose petals on it and read in gold letters: OUR HONEYMOON.
Piggy looked at it, then at Samantha with a wide eyed look. This was going to be good.
Samantha opened the front cover, flipping to the first page. ‘’Volume one.’’
………………………………................................................................................................
‘’There now. We’ve got the boxes, so I guess we better start packing.’’ Penny distributed some to Zhen-Yi, and took her share to the kitchen. Zhen-Yi excitedly went straight up to her room to start packing up her things. She was just so elated, she could bust. Penny saw the excitement in her face, and in made her want to bust too, but in a different way.
The closer it got to moving day, the more frightened she became about it. She already felt bad about breaking her promise to Jen-Li, but now, a constant reminder of that everyday made her feel even worse. She felt like a horrible wife, and yes, even a terrible mother. Penny was really starting to believe that, underneath it all, Jen- Li was right.
She opened up her first box, of a fairly moderate size, and looked around the kitchen. Where on Earth do I start? Maybe starting with the kitchen was a bad idea. There was so much to be done in the kitchen; so much to be packed. There were, of course, the cooking utensils, then there were the pots and pans, the spices, all the contents of every cabinet, drawer, shelf, rack, and every other imaginable nook and cranny. Penny had always complained of how small their kitchen was; now for the first time, it seemed enormous.
‘’Oh my,’’ Penny gulped, almost whispering. It was going to take a lot of work on her part, as she wasn’t just going to pack it up, she was going to clean it as well. Not only was Penny going to clean the kitchen, she wasn’t going to stop until it was spick and span- in better condition that it was when she and Jen-Li moved in. That’s just the way Penny was- somewhat of a perfectionist. She wasn’t looking forward to doing it, but nonetheless, it needed to be done.
She began over by the stove, and began to put her cooking utensils in the sink for washing. As she did though, she stopped. She stepped back from the sink, and felt a slight pain in her heart. It went away after a few seconds, but the initial shocked certainly grabbed her attention. For a moment, she couldn’t help but think that this was a twinge of guilt, because in her mind, she was doing a terrible thing. Penny was always a panda of her word, and this would be the first time in her life she had ever broken a promise. Not only that, the weight of the promise itself really was taking its toll on her as well. She felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and it felt terrible.
Penny tried to clear her head by shaking it a little bit. Of course, this didn’t help much, if at all. In fact, it only really made things worse for her. As Penny began to pack up her spices, she swore she could hear a voice. A soft voice, a gentle voice, a man’s voice--Jen Li’s voice. She was remembering, remembering it all. She was recalling her guilt; why she was a bad wife…..
(Flashback)
‘’No, Chun, we just can’t do that sweetheart, It’s absolutely out of the question. It would ruin everything we stand for.’’
‘’But Jen, I still don’t understand what the difference is. Here, America, how will it change anything?’’
‘’It will change everything, Chun! It will change our culture, our language, our way of life as we know it! Why are we discussing this?’’
‘’Because it will be an issue that our cub will bring up sooner or later! Our cub will want to know what is so bad about America, and why they can never go there. Then I will be the one responsible for crushing their dreams, because I know I will be the one who will have to explain it to them!’’
‘’Chun, I-’’ Jen-Li lowered his voice, and stooped down to wher
e his young wife was seated on the couch. He touched her swollen middle, rubbing it up and down, and kissing it softly. He smiled up at her, and kissed her too. What Jen-Li was insisting really was for their cub's best interest, but what he was having trouble with was making her understand that. Maybe he wouldn’t have to…
‘’Chun, I want you to make me a promise. Promise me that no matter what- no matter what happens or what obstacles we face, that you will never take our cub to America. It will ruin his life. It our baby ever comes to America, he will be expected to walk and talk and act like they do. They will expect him to spend money so frivolously like they do. They will expect him to be every stereotype out there about Asians. Worst of all, if you take our cub to America, sooner or later, he will be Americanized. He will forget all about the Chinese culture, he will forget the language, he will forget our traditions, he will forget everything- and all so he can fit in in America. I want our cub to preserve and embrace his heritage. I want him to be proud that he is a Chinese, not to be ashamed of it. And that’s what will happen to him if he goes to America, Chun.’’
‘’Not if I teach him-’’
‘’Promise me. Now, Chun,’’ he said, somewhat forcefully. This time, he said it somewhat softer. ‘’Promise me.’’
Chun sighed and ran a hand through his silky hair, finally ready to comply. ‘’I promise, Jen- Li. I promise.’’
(End of Flashback)
Penny sobbed, holding her face in her hands, and clenching her teeth.
‘’I’m so sorry, my love.’’
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