How Stinky Tofu & A Pen United Three Strangers

Stinky Tofu- I Hate You!

     

 Stinky Tofu permeated the block.

   

 “I couldn’t smell the fried rice. The French Fries whiffed of Stinky Tofu. Not even the scent of fried Squid could be breathed in. Is there a Stinky Tofu tax for stall owners at the Taiwan Night Market?"

      

    Her eyes pierced the roughness out of my soul. She wiggled free from his hand. Her feet tried to escape her body.

     

   Those eyes told me something important. She remembered where she was last Wednesday night. His cell phone distracted him. This put her at an advantage.

     She jumped to more adventurous ground. He held the box of Mr. Wu’s Pork Dumplings. Her purple sneakers landed on the concrete. She did not even stumble.

    She had made it, all the way to the sidewalk. She paused to acknowledge this feat. She waited for him to hang up the phone.

     

I'm not leaving the Night Market Daddy

No pouting Taiwanese child pics available either. I should have Googled Buxiban.

     

She returned to her duty of asking him questions. I didn’t want to hear the Taiwanese love songs anymore. I wanted to hear him say in Mandarin, “Damn. I am hungry. Leave me alone, kid."

     He could have kept going, "You don't ever stop with your stupid questions. Maybe I just want to eat a dumpling in peace sometimes too. Did you ever think of that?”

    I believe something. Another person's sufferings surely make another person chuckle. This is especially true if you have been in his similarly painful situation.

    He snapped his fingers and lipped “Kuai Dien.” I learned the meaning of, Kuai Dien, after five minutes of being near Taiwanese children. This phrase commands a child to hurry up!

    His three-hour shift neared the end. He fed her candy. He won a stuffed animal for her. He wanted to relax.

    His snappy fingers told me that he didn’t want to play her game. He could taste the suds of Taiwan Beer. He could hear Pink Floyd putting him to sleep.

    Of course, this was only after Bath Time, Story Time, and more questions, "Why Daddy, Why Daddy?"

    He worried about her bed time. “What would Mom say if she showed up to school tired?”

    

    Her eyes told me that she preferred a fight.

    I applauded her spirit. She didn’t even know the risks. She gambled with a permanent smell of Stinky Tofu on her favorite shirt. She still wanted to stay longer.

    I assumed. "This girl would probably drown her favorite doll in the toilet if that meant staying outside. She knew Story Time could wait. I loved it."

    Those cute black eyes returned to me. In school, her teachers reward her for obedience and respect. We are seldom brave enough to reward creativity. As a teacher, I know that we even much more rarely promote rebellion.

    I enjoyed the thickening plot of her next attempt to avoid bed time. She rejected his help. She dashed ahead of him. She plopped herself on his parked scooter. He wrangled her in. He buttoned up the Hello Kitty jacket over her yellow and black shirt.

    He took another phone call. She unbuttoned her jacket, from the top of his scooter. Her mind churned over her upcoming jobs. The scooter co-pilot needed to do it all with precision.

Her Serious Duty of being a Co-Pilot on a Scooter in Taiwan    

No internet pictures available of children driving a scooter in Taiwan, strangely. 

The phone rang again. He updated Mom on their ETA back home.

     Her body got ready for the task of being a scooter co-pilot. Her leans practiced the turns ahead. Her smile practiced pestering him for ice cream at the convenience store. Her pretend pout flashed her ahead to the park she always refuses to leave. She even fake-coughed to practice faking her way out of school on days she just wants to play. She examined all of it in her head, with the utmost seriousness.

   Our eyes locked. His phone call ended. She braced herself to leave me forever. Her head nodded in approval, of me writing it all down. She tried with all her might to throw up a five-finger wave. Three fingers came up from her, a smile from Dad, and they rolled away, until next Wednesday night.