Next to Ander on one side was Spring. Spring was Lady Zhao's closest approximation to a number one friend, and was a part-time student at the university down the road who, to pay his way through life, worked as a leaflet distributor for LGBT venues. But he was too busy to pay Ander much attention, talking with the girl on Ander's other side excitedly, and using many apparently hilarious colloquialisms and homonyms to the extent that Ander could barely understand what he was saying.
Midway through the meal, Ander's predicament caught the attention of Dor-Yen, who made a point to engage him. He said, "Ander, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?"
Ander cleared his throat, then mumbled something in a mix of languages â basic Chinese, with English substitutions where the vocabulary got complicated. Others looked to one another in confusion â so Lady Zhao stepped in to provide clarity.
"Let me tell it. He's a mess. Where to start? His mother's mother," Lady Zhao began, "was a European wandering around Asia for some reason. Looking for souls to save in the name of Jesus Christ, right? Is that correct?"
Ander both bobbed his head in a nod and shrugged.
"Anyway. Instead of spending the rest of her life spreading holy truths, she found a nice man to settle down with in Macau, and they lived happily ever after on his junk boat. So romantic! Ander, tell me if I'm telling it wrong. The only ungodly thing that seemed to happen to them in their idyllic lives was bearing a miserable wretch for a daughter â Ander's mother. Maybe it was punishment for not fulfilling her higher duties or something."
"I'm not sure I'd say it like that," said Ander, meekly.
"You're the one who calls her 'The Big Downer,' Ander. So she ran off to the United States in her late teens wanting to somehow show solidarity with all those refugees filling up the South China Sea during the 1970s. Then somehow, years later, she found herself married to an ex-hippy businessman in California."
"I mean, my dad is actually Canadian. First nation... They bonded over ethnic â how to say â inequalities. My mom has very particular moral beliefs. Umm. But they're not together anymore." Ander stopped there. If he had the language skills, and if he were inclined to be totally open with this group of mostly strangers, he might have explained that his father had left a teenage Ander and his mother in a sprawling, highly leveraged, detached Berkeley hills house to live in isolation nearer the Arctic circle.
"He wants to explore his Asian roots!" declared Lady Zhao. "That's why he's sleeping on my couch for the next month."