What was cooking
was Leona’s cousin was coming by at 1pm to take us out for lunch at a coffee
shop she knew. It turns out she knew the coffee shop because it was owned by
the cousin of her deceased husband. She picked us up with her college-aged son
(I forgot his name); his sister was “angry about something” and stayed home. We
drove down Tai-Yuan Road to the other side of town and headed to the Westside.
We drove all over the place because Leona’s cousin didn’t know how to get to
her in-law’s coffee shop. It was pretty boring except I was paying attention to
the streets. We went so many ways after Taichung Port Road (soon to be renamed
Taiwan Road) that I lost track and direction. We finally arrived at the
two-week-old Tommyboy (sic.) coffee house with “flavorfull” food except there
wasn’t much selection to be had. I ended up eating a slice of white bread with
garlic-oregano spread. Leona had a waffle that was crunchy outside and raw
inside. The cappuccino in paper cups wasn’t bad but the conversation in
Mandarin and Taiwanese between Leona, her cousin, and nephew was too boring to
try understanding. All the other customers were relatives, too, and
occasionally one would come by our table and say hello. We sat there too long
and l felt was fatigue in the car. We were going to eat somewhere but Leona and
I weren’t hungry yet. I suggested we eat later at our house where I would make spaghetti
and meatball dinner that had come up in the conversation earlier; why wait for
a separate engagement? To give her husband a rest, Leona suggested we drive
home and not stop off at her cousin’s apartment, but we drove there anyway, in
Beitun near the abandoned Taichung airport to pick up her cousin’s daughter who
wasn’t angry anymore and wanted to join us for dinner.
By the time we
got back to our place four hours later (it seemed like more) it was five o’clock.
I didn’t want to go up to rest in bed while they chatted in the living room. It
was more restful to get my ears away from their mouths and take a walk to the bakery
and supermarket on Dong-Shan Road. I took my time walking there and back and
was glad I had something to keep me in the kitchen.
Leona made the meatball mix, salad, and set the table. I cooked and poured the
wine, another bottle of the same Spanish Merlot we got from 7-11! The dinner
was excellent. The cauliflower came out well and we dipped dinner rolls instead
of Italian bread into the olive oil seasoned dip.
After dinner,
they sat in the living room and chatted some more. I sat at the table and
commented occasionally when Leona filed me in. I printed two photos of 60
Cayuga Street in Seneca Falls when the ladies were talking about real estate. I
tried to be polite (not that anyone would have cared) but finally left to lie
down in the bedroom. I came out but left again a few more times to save my
soul. Leona had a wonderful day but all I did was behave. At least it was
better than doing nothing all day which is what we probably would have done if
there wasn’t someone to do nothing with. The only good part of the day was
riding the bike, cooking and eating dinner. The rest I did for Leona’s sake.
After they left, Leona did the dishes and I went to take a real nap.
By 2:30am, I wasn’t sleep and
started having writing ideas for Taiwan Wieners and Losers. I came into
the home office to begin writing the fifth short story of the book. It is tentatively
called “The Vast Sea of Life in Taiwan.” It is about the random people around
me on scooters while I wait for a light to change, their brave
lives as oppressed people in their own homeland, victims of the KMT Chinese,
industrialization, and American bourgeois materialism. The personality sketches
will come from Chinese Working Class Lives by Hill Gates. I will take
the nine people she interviewed, modify them, and bring them back to life. They
will travel through their histories, remembering every face that put them here,
and end up with me on my bicycle, they on their scooters, waiting for the light
to change on a smoky, crowded, Taichung road. I’m using the ocean motif because
I was reading Pi for so long. I don’t know if I’ll carry it through. So long as
I don’t mix metaphors, it will be okay.
Leona left a
half hour ago to go spend time alone with her Tainan friend at a coffee shop in
Tan-Zih. I’m going to bring Sweeney-Poo upstairs now, read my book, and then
come down to ride the bike. I want to check out the Taichung street map again
and find some new places to visit.
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