Obligations by Cheryce Clayton

Author:Cheryce Clayton [Clayton, Cheryce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Six Point Press
Published: 2014-10-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen - Earth: Taiwan - 1995

Lui Moih-Gan sat on her mother’s knee, and felt her unborn brother kick her from behind. She could hear her grandmother in the kitchen cooking, and her grandfather humming on the balcony as he painted. She watched her father come in the room from the kitchen, a steamed dumpling in his hand. He handed her half of it as he sat on the chair opposite of her and her mother. She knew something was going to happen, she felt it during breakfast, and again throughout the day as her normally happy grandmother cried. Even her grandfather called her out to his balcony: to show her how to paint, he said. But Lui Moih-Gan felt the tension in his hands as he showed her how to hold the brush.

She twisted her body around to see her mother, only to have her mother turn her to face her father. Lui Moih-Gan watched her father’s solemn face as she picked at the sweetmeats within her half of the dumpling.

“My son lives in America. Your teachers tell me you have learned English well, my daughter. It is time for you to join my son.” Her father took a bite of his dumpling.

“I am happy we’re going,” Lui Moih-Gan said with a smile.

“There will be a new baby soon; it is time for you to grow up, dear. We’re not going. You leave tomorrow. The schools in America are easier and you can go to college there,” her mother said gently into her ear, and Lui Moih-Gan was puzzled at the tears she could hear.

“But I’m not ready for college yet. My tenth birthday is months away, and grandfather promised to teach me how to paint. Must I go now?”

Her father set his unfinished dumpling on the table in front of them and frowned at her.

She was afraid; she had never questioned him before.

“You leave tomorrow. It is best for your future to go to school in America.” Her father stood and left the room and then the apartment.

Lui Moih-Gan did not move from her mother’s lap, and her mother continued crying long into the night.

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