Queens Noir by Robert Knightly

Author:Robert Knightly
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 1933354402
Publisher: akashic books
Published: 2008-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

THE FLOWER OF FLUSHING

BY VICTORIA ENG

Flushing

et's get this party started!" Lily calls out to me from across the street. She's late, as usual. I've been waiting for her by the train station on the corner of Main and Roosevelt, breathing in the greasy aroma of hot dogs and frying noodles from various sidewalk carts. Sunlight washes over Main Street and its procession of festive store signs, all red and yellow with black Chinese lettering. As Lily approaches, the traffic lights change; cars brake at the crosswalk in succession, like they're bowing to her. She smiles brightly and bumps her hip against mine. I roll my eyes at her and don't bump back, but inside I'm relieved that she even showed up. Today is important: I'm determined to talk to my crush, Jimmy Lee, a junior at my school. I know he plays basketball at Bowne Park on the weekends, so I made Lily promise to come with me so that I could "run into him" there. We head down Main toward Sanford Avenue, weaving around weekend shoppers and double-parked trucks.

"Think he'll be there today?" I ask.

"Who? Yao Ming?" she says, her dimples showing.

"Stop calling him that." I poke her arm. "You know his name.

"Hey, look! There he is."

My breath catches in my chest. I look around without moving my head, hoping that he's too far away to have heard me talking about him. We're approaching the underpass of the Long Island Rail Road station and I expect to see him perusing magazines at the newsstand, or worse, walking right toward me. But Lily points to a store window with a life-sized poster of Yao Ming, the NBA player from China, and starts cracking up.

"Oh, reeeeally funny, Lil," I say with as much sarcasm as I can muster. I exhale through my mouth, the tension in my neck subsiding. "You almost made me puke, you know."

She's laughing so hard no sound is coming out of her mouth.

"Um, maybe you're the one who's gonna puke. You okay?"

She nods and gasps. I'm tempted to tickle her sides to make her throw up-she's always been sensitive like thatbut I'm too anxious to get going.

Jimmy Lee looks nothing like the famous athlete, but he's 6'2"-way taller than most Asian guys-and he plays on the basketball team. That was enough for Lily to make fun of him. It made no difference to her that he's Korean.

"Really, quit calling him Yao Ming. Jimmy's not even Chinese."

"I know," she sighs. "Well, he's far from perfect. A jock. What's he going to do for you? Buy you pom-poms?" She catches her reflection in the window of a cafe and runs her fingers through her hair.

Lily Tong is the kind of girl who makes heads turn. She's only fifteen, one year older than me, but she looks at least twenty. She's curvy like the women in the music videos, and she wears her makeup and hair like she's one too. As usual, she's dressed in something slinky: an expensive, cut-up T-shirt that keeps falling off her shoulder, low-cut jeans that hug her curves, and black pumps.

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