Ghost Month by Ed Lin

Author:Ed Lin [Lin, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781616953270
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2014-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Ming-kuo had dressed in a shirt, tie and jacket. In the bright lights of the Korean restaurant, he looked like a chubby variety-show host minus the microphone and charm.

“This isn’t a job interview,” I told him.

“I wanted to look professional,” he said eagerly. “My mother always said that even though I wasn’t good-looking, I could at least dress well.” Man, was she right.

“Your mom was wrong,” I said.

“I don’t dress well?”

“You are good-looking,” I said as I wiped my mouth. I delved into the menu so I wouldn’t have to look at him.

“Thank you, Jing-nan! You’re a good-looking guy yourself!”

“Say, Ming-kuo. If I take you to Hsinchu City, do you think you could point out the stand Julia was working at?”

“I don’t know if I could. It’s been a few years and it was dark. No, I definitely couldn’t.”

“A few years? I thought you said it was a few months ago.”

He smiled and nodded. “Ah, you see how bad my memory is?”

“So which was it, a few months or a few years?”

He gave me an exasperated look. “Jeez, you’re making me feel like this is a job interview, putting all this pressure on me!”

I mashed my right foot into the ground. “Ming-kuo, could you please get serious about this? I’d like to know any details you can remember.”

“Well, then I guess we can choose something in between. Let’s say it was a year ago.”

“Last Ghost Month?”

“Sure, let’s say that.”

Gan! Could I believe anything this guy said? I sipped some water and swished it around my mouth. “Ming-kuo, I’m going to level with you. I’m actually asking for Julia’s parents. I’m seeing them after this and I’m going to have to tell them I couldn’t come up with anything useful.”

His eyes bugged out and he cracked his knuckles again. “You’re asking for her parents, Jing-nan? I thought you were trying to get to the bottom of things for yourself. I mean, you two were practically married.”

“Only in our minds.” I noticed that our silently furious waitress was standing at the ready. She took our orders for zhajiangmian, wheat noodles in bean sauce, without saying a word, and returned with several appetizers, ranging from salty to spicy, and steamed to chilled. There are a lot of different ways to make zhajiangmian, but for my money the best one is a dish that originated in the ethnic Chinese communities living in Korea. This variety includes a thick black paste made from roasted and fermented soybeans and tiny chunks of pork. The only place to find this type is in Korean restaurants that include Chinese items on their menu. Apart from that I didn’t know much about Korean food, and I knew even less about the little snacks. I didn’t want to ask our waitress about them because she was already mad enough that she had to serve us. It also didn’t help that Cookie Monster was looking at her like she was the daily special.

Classy as ever, Ming-kuo craned his neck and stared at her ass as she left.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.