Sunsets and Silencers

Valerie's First Birthday Party

Qi Lin sits in a white plastic chair in the hot sun next to a bowl of pork and beans on a swaying card table draped with a plastic American flag. Her daughter Valerie, taller than the other girls, scampers around a pear tree behind the small brick house. Louise Chasteen takes the other chair next to Qi and leans forward. Her false teeth are clearly false, her eyes red and bleary behind thick glasses.

"Are you from China?" asks Louise.

"Yes," Qi replies. It feels good to say it.

"I see you have a cell phone." Louise nods and smiles at the phone.

"Yes," Qi replies.

"Do you talk to your family in China with the cell phone?" Louise leans closer as if the answer might be secret.

"Yes." Qi glances over her shoulder and does not see Valerie but can hear her voice, laughing in English. She covers the cell phone in her hand as if holding a small frog. "Do you live in this house?" Qi asks Louise. She speaks clearly and slowly, nudging her head forward gently with each word.

Louise looks surprised and shades her eyes briefly. "Gina is my granddaughter."

"Oh yes, the birthday girl," Qi says. She wears shades but the sun on her neck is hurting. A girl with orange hair takes a handful of potato chips from the table and dashes away. Qi feels sweat in her eyebrows.

"Do you talk often to your family in China?"

"Yes. But my husband is here. He teaching... He is teaching at the university." Qi feels like a potato, freshly turned from the soil.

"Oh, does he speak English?"

A mild shock runs down Qi's spine. "Yes."

Qi hears loud voices from a small group of parents sitting on a small deck just behind her. A thin little girl in a baggy bathing suit reaches into the ice at Qi's feet. Gina's mother had said, "Kee, why don't you sit here where you can be next to all the food," and then laughed. Qi had thought she would join her.

A man in torn jeans walks over and pours himself a cup of Mountain Dew. He smiles at Qi. He hesitates, points at the ice chest near her feet. Qi moves her feet slightly and looks away. He bends over and reaches toward the ice chest. He drags it a foot or two closer to him. He continues to smile, turning red. Louise has not taken her eyes from Qi.

"What is your name?"

"Qi Lin."

"Chee... Lin... ?"

"Yes."

"Well I declare," says Louise. She puts a corn chip in her mouth and sucks on it. A look of impatience crosses her face.

Russell Helms is a creative writing student at Eastern Kentucky University.