Mismatch

by Lensey Namioka

  Suddenly the telephone rang. Rochelle jumped up eagerly. “I’ll get it.”

  Nine times out of ten, the call was for Rochelle, so nobody else even tried to pick up the phone. Sue could hear her saying, “Yes, this is the Hua residence. . . . You want to speak to who?”

  Rochelle came back to the dining room looking bemused. “It’s for you, Sue. Some boy wants to talk to you.”

  Sue’s heart thumped in her chest. It could only be Andy. Sue didn’t know any other boys well enough for them to call her at home. But how did he get my phone number? She could see the surprise on her family’s faces as she got up and walked to the hallway. The sadness even faded from Grandma Mei’s eyes, and she looked pleased. “A boy? Good for you, Sue!”

  Sue’s hands were shaking by the time she picked up the phone. For privacy, she retreated into the kitchen and pulled the door shut. “Hello?” she croaked. Then she cleared her throat and said more clearly, “Hello? This is Sue.”

  “Hi, this is Andy. Is this a good time to call?”

  Sue’s heart gave another thump. She was thrilled to hear Andy’s voice, but she wasn’t sure it was such a great idea for him to call her at home—especially on a Grandma Mei night. “Um . . . actually . . . ,” she began. “How did you get my phone number, anyway?”

  “Uh-oh, caught you at a bad time, huh?” Andy asked. “Well, I know which bus you take. So I looked up all the people called Hua in the phone book who lived in the right neighborhood. Hua isn’t that common a name around here.”

  Sue couldn’t believe he’d gone through all that trouble to find her phone number. She heard the murmur of voices in the dining room, and she became nervous. Can they hear me?

  “Anyway, I called because there’s this great jazz concert coming up at Key Arena,” said Andy, “and I thought I might try to get tickets for us.”

  Sue’s heart leaped, but she quickly came back down to earth. “I thought we were going to wait a while to go out.”

  “Yeah, I know,” said Andy. “But the concert isn’t for a couple of weeks. The tickets are going fast, so I want to get them now.”

  Suddenly, the kitchen door opened. “Why are you hiding like this?” Rochelle’s voice piped up behind Sue.

  Sue jumped so hard she nearly dropped the phone. “I’m just talking to a friend, do you mind? I thought it would be quieter in the kitchen.”

  Rochelle was carrying a tray of teacups, and she started loading them into the dishwasher. “Don’t let me interrupt you. Go ahead and talk.”

  “It’s too noisy in here,” Sue said into the phone. “Let’s talk tomorrow. There’s something I have to tell you.”

  “Okay, I get the idea,” said Andy. “We’ll talk at lunch, all right?”

  “All right,” breathed Sue. She hung up, turned around, and found Rochelle staring at her.

  “Kind of jumpy, aren’t you?” Rochelle asked. “What is it that you don’t want us to hear?”

  Sue tried to control her temper. “You may enjoy talking to everyone about your boyfriends, but I don’t.”

  Rochelle grinned. “Then the guy on the other end of the line is your boyfriend! Why do you have to keep him secret?”

  When Sue hesitated, Rochelle’s face became serious. “Sue, is something wrong? You’ve been kind of weird lately. Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  Rochelle’s face looked so solemn, Sue had to suppress the urge to laugh. Before she could say anything, Rochelle came over and put her arms around her. “Sue, you’re not, like, into drugs or anything? I won’t tell Dad or Mom if you don’t want me to, but you can come to me with anything, you know.”

  This time, Sue had to concentrate on not cracking up. She knew Rochelle meant well, but she was so far off the mark it was ridiculous. She knew kids at school who smoked pot or took ecstasy, but using drugs wasn’t something that had ever interested her. She never felt like doing something just because others did it.

  “Or is it something to do with the boyfriend himself?” asked Rochelle gently. She paused, and then whispered, “Is he . . . you know . . . putting pressure on you to . . . you know . . .”

  This time, Sue couldn’t hold back her giggles. She put her hand over her mouth to smother her laughter.

  Rochelle dropped her arms and stood back. “Well, excuse me for asking! I didn’t know it’s all a big joke!”

  Sue saw the hurt on Rochelle’s face and felt bad. She realized how far apart she and Rochelle had grown. She remembered how she used to run to her sister and tell her everything. She’d always been able to count on her to listen sympathetically. “Rochelle, wait!”

  Rochelle turned around and looked at Sue. “What is it, Sue?” she asked quietly.

  Sue took a deep breath. “You’re right, the problem is with Andy.”

  “Andy? The boy I saw you with at Hero’s?”

  Sue nodded. “His name is Andy Suzuki, and he’s Japanese American.”

  Rochelle was quiet for a minute, and then whistled. “I get it. You think Mom would freak out if she knew.”

  Sue nodded again. After a long silence, Rochelle spoke. “Look, Sue, you and Andy aren’t exactly running off to get married tomorrow. I mean, he’s just asking you for a date.” She peered at Sue. “Right?”

  “I don’t want Mom to know I’m seeing a Japanese American boy,” Sue said miserably. “Please don’t tell her, Rochelle.”

  Rochelle sighed. “Okay, I won’t tell her. But you can’t keep this a secret forever. She’ll want to know who you’re going out with. She asks about my boyfriends all the time.”

  Sue smiled. “No, she doesn’t. She’s given up trying to keep track.”

  Rochelle smiled back, then turned serious. “Look, Sue, take my advice and come clean soon. Maybe not tonight when Grandma’s around, but soon. It’s easier on the nerves—especially my nerves. Besides, I don’t think Mom can hate the Japanese forever. Dad can talk her around.”

  “Mom’s been brainwashed about the Japanese from the day she was born!” said Sue. “No matter how I tell her, she’s going to freak out. And if she knew about Andy, she’d tell Grandma.”

  “So she’ll tell Grandma,” said Rochelle, and shrugged. “It’s not the end of the world. So she’ll be a little upset.”

  Sue thought of the incandescent hatred on Grandma Mei’s face, so intense that you could almost feel it radiating across the room. If Grandma knew Sue was dating a Japanese boy, she would be devastated. “I can’t hurt Grandma like that, Rochelle.”

  Rochelle looked exasperated. “I don’t get why you care so much about what Grandma Mei thinks! It’s your life! And it’s not like she’s living with us!”

  Sue shook her head. Rochelle doesn’t care about Grandma. She isn’t close to Grandma, like me. “Please, Rochelle,” said Sue. “For me, just keep quiet about Andy!”

  Rochelle sighed. “All right, Sue. I won’t be the one to blow the whistle.”

  Come clean soon. Later that night, as Sue unloaded the dishwasher, she kept thinking about Rochelle’s words. She knew she had to tell her mom about Andy sooner or later. But when?

  After driving Grandma Mei home, her mother came into the kitchen and began to put away the leftovers. “So that was your boyfriend you were talking to?” she said brightly to Sue. “What’s his name?”

  “Uh . . . uh . . . Andy,” said Sue. “His name’s Andy, and he plays first violin in the orchestra.”

  “Good, good,” said her mother.

  Before her mother could ask more, Sue took a deep breath. “Mom, are you really upset about our orchestra planning a trip to Tokyo?”

  Her mother put down the dish of leftover prawns. There was a silence. “You know how I feel about the Japanese, Sue,” she said finally. “I hate the very thought that you’d be breathing the same air as those people.”

  “But Mom,” protested Sue, “the people in Tokyo today aren’t the same ones who invaded China!”

  Her mother’s face was stony. “I know how much the orchestra means to
you, so I’m not stopping you from making the trip—if it’s really in the works. But I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”

  This was definitely not the right time to tell her mother about Andy’s last name.

  At lunch the next day, Sue and Andy sat alone at their own table, away from Mia, Ginny, and the others. They both knew they had to talk. Andy started speaking before he even unwrapped his sandwich. “I’m beginning to like you a lot, Sue. If my dad had a bad time during his trip to China, he can get over it! I know that our families have their own weird prejudices. But we can’t let them control us. If you come over and meet him, he’ll see that not all Chinese are the same.”

  “The same as what?” asked Sue.

  Andy looked down and pulled at a piece of lettuce in his sandwich. “My dad said somebody spat at him,” he muttered, finally.

  Sue felt herself growing angry. “So. We’re backward, and we spit in the streets. That’s just great.”

  “Hey, what’s up with this ‘we’ stuff?” protested Andy. “One Chinese guy spat on my father once. That doesn’t mean anything about you, or about your family. Besides, I thought we’d agreed that we were Americans before anything else.”

  Sue tried to take a bite of her sandwich but put it down again. “We are, but that doesn’t mean we can shake off our cultural heritage.”

  Andy snorted. “Heritage, shmeritage! You’re beginning to sound like a social studies teacher!”

  Seeing that Andy was growing more and more impatient, Sue tried to explain. “It’s not just the heritage thing. My mom really hates the Japanese. See, my grandmother was in China during the Japanese invasion. It was a terrible experience, and it really scarred her. She tells us about it every chance she gets. You can imagine what it’s like for my mom, who’s been hearing all that since she was a baby.”

  Andy frowned and nodded sympathetically. He didn’t seem to know what to say. Sue drank some of her milk. She was so miserable that she didn’t see how she could finish her sandwich.

  Finally Andy said quietly, “Tell me about what happened to your grandmother. I’ve read The Rape of Nanking. Was she . . .” He stopped, then started again. “Was she . . . um . . . raped by the invaders?”

  Sue shook her head. She knew that abuse of Chinese women had been common during the Japanese invasion, but Grandma Mei’s family had been lucky, at least in that respect. She told him about the bombings and the soldiers breaking in and the beating. Andy looked a little pale when Sue finished. “How badly were they beaten, your . . . let’s see . . . your great-grandparents?”

  Sue’s grandmother had gone into a lot of detail during some of her visits. “Badly. Her father’s arm was broken, and her mother lost a couple of teeth. I can imagine how horrible it must have been for her to watch and not be able to do anything.” After a moment, she added, “But the thing that always makes my grandmother cry is when she talks about how one of the soldiers smashed her favorite doll. It just represents the whole terrible experience for her. What kind of monster would destroy some little kid’s favorite toy?”

  This time the silence between them lasted even longer. Andy was first to speak. “I know that terrible things went on during the Japanese invasion. Do you think I might be a monster like those soldiers?”

  Sue quickly shook her head. “I don’t believe that you could ever be like that,” she protested.

  “But do you think my family could be like that?” continued Andy.

  Sue took a breath and tried to think. What did she believe? She tried to picture the men who had beaten her great-grandparents. Had they been anything like Andy? Could that kind of cruelty really be carried in the blood?

  She’d grown up listening to her grandmother’s stories, never quite believing that all Japanese were evil but still unable to explain the cruel acts of the Japanese soldiers. She knew Andy would never behave that way, but the truth was that she wasn’t sure what she felt about the Japanese people.

  She looked into Andy’s eyes, and for the first time she saw not understanding but anger. She realized with a sickening thud that her hesitation was really hurting him. How did it feel when a person you liked thought you came from a race of monsters? Sue wanted to open her mouth and explain, but she was afraid that it was already too late.

  Andy took a deep breath. “Let me tell you a little about my family. My mother’s grandparents came over from Japan, and they became truck farmers. During the Second World War, her grandfather and his whole family were rounded up as enemy aliens and put in a camp.”

  Sue couldn’t seem to push any words out of her mouth. She had heard about the so-called relocation camps, called concentration camps by some people. The Japanese immigrants on the West Coast were imprisoned there under harsh conditions because there was doubt about their loyalty to their new country.

  Andy continued, his voice low but shaking with anger. “My grandfather was able to leave the camp when he enlisted in the army—the American army. He fought in Italy, where he was wounded. The American government awarded him the Purple Heart. Does he sound like the kind of monster who terrorized your grandmother?”

  Before Sue could think of anything to say, Andy stood up abruptly and left the lunchroom.

  The next orchestra rehearsal was almost a week away, so it would be several days before Sue and Andy could have a private talk at Hero’s. Sue decided to approach him during lunch the next day to apologize. She felt terrible for making him so angry.

  At lunch, though, Andy sat at a different table. He didn’t even glance in Sue’s direction as he walked by with his tray. Mia’s eyebrows rose so high they practically disappeared into her hairline. “Hey, why is Andy sitting over there?” she hissed to Sue.

  “Maybe he got tired of your jokes about being my boyfriend,” snapped Sue. She knew she was being unfair, but she couldn’t bear to tell Mia and Ginny about the fight with Andy. How could either of them understand?

  At lunch the next day, Sue saw Andy come into the cafeteria. This time she turned her head away and pretended to ignore him. She was angry now; she had wanted to apologize, but that was before Andy had started acting like such a jerk. She didn’t want him to know that she was watching for him. She hoped that maybe Andy would stop to talk—how long could he stay mad?—but it didn’t happen. If anything, he brushed by her table even faster than the day before.

  And so it went on like that. Sue felt worse with Friday’s lunchtime snub. She even considered marching up to Andy and confronting him. But then she remembered the anger on his face when he had stormed away from her. She didn’t want to fight with Andy in front of everybody. It would just have to wait until Monday.

  “All right, Sue, what’s going on with you and Andy?” Mia asked at lunch when Andy again sat down at another table.

  “What do you mean?” mumbled Sue, although she knew perfectly well what Mia meant. It was obvious to anybody with eyes in their head that almost overnight Andy had gone from being crazy about her to hating her. Suddenly, she felt hot tears well up in her eyes. “Got to go to the bathroom,” she blurted, and bolted to the girls’ room before the tears could spill down her cheeks.

  As she stood wiping her eyes with a paper towel, Mia came in. “You and Andy had a fight, didn’t you?” she asked gently. “You can’t stay mad at each other like this, Sue. You’ve got to do something.”

  “Because we’re just made for each other?” snapped Sue. “Because we’re both Asian Americans?”

  Mia came over and put her arms around Sue. “Listen, Sue, now that I really know you and Andy, I don’t think of you as Asian American, or whatever. You’re just you. What I do know is that Andy likes you a lot. I can tell he’s really upset about the fight you had. Whatever he did to make you mad, get over it!”

  Sue shook her head. “That’s just it. It isn’t something Andy did. The problem is with our folks. Andy’s family is from Japan, and mine is from China. They think that makes us enemies.”

  Mia stared. Her mouth opened and close
d, so that she looked like a goldfish. “Are you serious? You’re telling me that you broke up with Andy just because your family didn’t approve of him?”

  When Mia put it like that, Sue had to admit that it seemed stupid—especially since her family hadn’t even met Andy yet.

  “You know what this reminds me of?” said Mia. “ Romeo and Juliet. How the two lovers have to meet in secret because their families are feuding. Are you making yourself out to be Juliet?”

  Sue’s tears had dried, and she found herself smiling. “Okay, Mia. I get it. Just promise you won’t start calling Andy Romeo.”

  4

  As soon as the orchestra members were seated at Monday’s rehearsal, Mr. Baxter gave them a big smile. “Well, folks, I just got word that your parents will be meeting next Tuesday to discuss the trip to Japan. If they manage to work something out, we’ve got Tokyo in our sights!”

  The players cheered, and the rehearsal started with a bang. Mr. Baxter launched the orchestra into the noisiest piece they knew. He drove his players so hard that they were practically panting at the end of the piece. But nobody complained. They all shared the excitement of knowing that the trip might really happen.

  In the viola section, Sue was too busy thinking about her fight with Andy to play her best. When the rehearsal ended, Sue started walking automatically over to Hero’s. Andy usually caught up with her before she was halfway there, and even though she knew he was still mad at her, she was hoping against hope that he would show up anyway. If he followed her to Hero’s, they would have privacy, and Sue could finally apologize. She could tell him that whatever her mother or her grandmother thought about the Japanese, she liked and trusted him, and that was all that mattered.

  The last of the orchestra members were leaving the school. Sue walked slowly toward Hero’s, looking back every now and then to check for Andy. She was almost at the sandwich shop and there was still no sign of him.