Mismatch Read Online Free PDF Page B

what the family usually had. That was one of the benefits of having Grandma Mei visit. In addition to the soup, they were going to have five dishes: two cold and three hot. A dish of stir-fried prawns had to be done at the last minute, since it was best when served piping hot.
    While Sue’s mother was in the kitchen stir-frying the prawns, her father asked for some extra soy sauce. The food was all lightly flavored, since Grandma Mei had to cut down on sodium. Sue went to the kitchen and came back with a small bottle of soy sauce, which she handed to her father.
    After splashing a little of the soy sauce on his sliced pork, he put the bottle down on the table. Grandma Mei reached over and read the label. “I don’t know this brand,” she said. Then she peered harder at the label. “It’s a Japanese brand!”
    When Sue’s mother came in with the steaming dish of stir-fried prawns, Grandma Mei stared at her. “What is this bottle of Japanese soy sauce doing on your dining table?” she hissed. “Did you buy it?”
    Sue’s mother put down the dish of prawns and hurried over to look at the bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce. “I didn’t buy this!”
    “
I’m
the one who bought it,” said Rochelle. She looked scared. “Remember, Mom? A couple of days ago, you needed soy sauce in a hurry, so I drove down to the Safeway and bought this little bottle. It’s a pretty popular brand. Everybody uses it!”
    “Come, come, Grandma Mei,” said Sue’s father. “Kikkoman may have started originally in Japan, but what we get here is actually brewed in . . . let’s see . . .” He picked up the bottle and read the fine print. “It’s brewed in Wisconsin.”
    Grandma Mei’s face was blotched with patches of red and white. “I don’t care where it’s brewed! It’s a Japanese soy sauce, and I’m shocked to see it on your table!”
    Rochelle had turned pale. “I’m s-sorry, Grandma. I was in a hurry and didn’t pay any attention.”
    “I don’t think a few drops of Japanese soy sauce will poison us,” said Sue’s father.
    Sue nearly groaned aloud. Her father meant well, but she suspected that his remark would open the floodgates.
    She was right. Grandma Mei took a deep breath. “You all take this lightly, because none of you lived through what I did. If you had, you’d hurl this evil bottle out the window!” She reached for the bottle.
    Sue’s mother quickly took it away. “Now, now, Mother, calm yourself.”
    “That’s easy enough for you to say!” spat Grandma Mei. “You’ve never been bombed by enemy airplanes, have you? You don’t know what it’s like to run in fear, while high in the air the pilots giggle and enjoy themselves as they rain bombs on you!”
    Sue had been hearing these stories for years and years, but she still hated them. She could picture the panicked Chinese running around on the ground while the Japanese pilots spread death and destruction from above. What she hated most was the thought that Andy shared an ancestry with those bomber pilots.
Maybe if we
just sit quietly, Grandma will tire out.
    But Sue’s mother had to add her bit. She hated the Japanese almost as much as Grandma Mei because she had grown up constantly hearing these stories. “I agree with you, Mother, that the bombing of civilians is contemptible! It’s pure terrorism. Of all the forms of warfare, it is the worst, because its purpose is not to attack the military but to terrorize the people into surrendering.”
    “The greatest number of civilian casualties was from the atomic bomb at Hiroshima,” murmured Sue’s father. She was glad he spoke too softly for her grandmother to hear.
    “But even worse than the aerial bombing was when soldiers came into our homes,” continued Grandma Mei.
    Sue knew exactly what was coming next, because her grandmother told this story over and over again. She sighed and got up with Rochelle to clear the table, praying that her grandmother wouldn’t cry.
    “I still remember the