"I asked her, "Ma, what is Chinese torture?" My mother shook her head. A bobby pin was wedged between her lips. She wetted her palm and smoothed the hair above my ear, then pushed the pin in so that it nicked sharply against my scalp. "Who say this word?" she asked without a trace of knowing how wicked I was being. I shrugged my shoulders and said,"Some boy in my class said Chinese people do Chinese torture."
"Chinese people do many things." she said simply, "Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture."
"Vincent got the chess set, which would have been a very decent present to get at a church Christmas party, except it was obviously used and, as we discovered later, it was missing a black pawn and a white knight. My mother graciously thanked the unknown benefactor, saying, "Too good. Cost too much." At which point, an old lady with fine white, wispy hair nodded toward our family and said with a whistling whisper, "Merry, merry Christmas."
“When we got home, my mother told Vincent to throw the chess set away. ”She not want it. We not want it," she said, tossing her head stiffly to the side with a tight, proud smile. My brother had deaf ears. They were already lining up the chess pieces and reading from the dog-eared instruction book."
"Chinese people do many things." she said simply, "Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture."
"Vincent got the chess set, which would have been a very decent present to get at a church Christmas party, except it was obviously used and, as we discovered later, it was missing a black pawn and a white knight. My mother graciously thanked the unknown benefactor, saying, "Too good. Cost too much." At which point, an old lady with fine white, wispy hair nodded toward our family and said with a whistling whisper, "Merry, merry Christmas."
“When we got home, my mother told Vincent to throw the chess set away. ”She not want it. We not want it," she said, tossing her head stiffly to the side with a tight, proud smile. My brother had deaf ears. They were already lining up the chess pieces and reading from the dog-eared instruction book."