So Happiness to Meet You by Karin Esterhammer

Author:Karin Esterhammer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781938849985
Publisher: Prospect Park Books
Published: 2017-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Aside from District 1’s decorations, it wasn’t Christmas anywhere else in the city. In fact, December 25 was a school day like any other. In an effort to help the Westerners feel less homesick, the director of Robin’s language school decided to throw a party, except it had a decidedly non-Christmas motif: Come as your favorite movie character. For Robin, the theme was a dream-come-true opportunity. He spent the next several days planning his costume in secret.

The night of the party (to which spouses were not invited, thankfully) was his big reveal. I was on the top floor. I could hear him heaving himself up four flights of stairs, his breathing getting heavier with each step. He opened the door and panted, “Guess [huff] who [puff] I [huff] am.”

I must have looked like the poor soul in Edvard Munch’s The Scream because he quickly said, “It’s okay, it’s okay! It will grow back!”

“Please tell me you are wearing a latex bald cap.”

“Nope. I shaved my head!” And then, with a satisfied smile, he chirped, “I’m Blofeld.”

“Who is…?” I meant to finish my question, but I just couldn’t take my eyes off his head. Who knew my husband had such a lumpy skull?

“You know who he is,” he coaxed, “the evil mastermind in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.” I shook my head. “Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies!” he intoned. I nodded.

He bent his head down toward me. “Touch it! It feels weird.”

“It looks weird. Get it away from me! My God, what will the neighbors think? A shaved head is a gesture of mourning. You’ll worry them!”

He wasn’t listening. He stood in front of a full-length mirror, exploding with pride. The rest of the costume, a gray Mao-style suit that a shirtless tailor on Đoàn Văn Bơ Street had made for him, actually looked pretty good and could be used for work. Other accessories included Blofeld’s cat (Robin had ransacked Kai’s toy box for a stuffed kitty) and a monocle (from a plastic bottle cap).

Outside in the alley, neighbors gawked as Robin’s bare-naked head streaked by. Homie asked in all earnestness, “Did someone die?”

“Nobody died,” I answered, as we stood watching him pull his bike out of the Dragons’ house. “It’s part of his costume for the Christmas party tonight.”

Homie shook his head.

Straddling the bike, Robin stuffed the toy cat and monocle into his jacket pocket, wiggled his sweaty bald head into his helmet, and drove off.

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