Pohpoh waved her hand. “What if, what if. I can take care of myself.”
Nadine kicked Noah under the table before her mother could respond, and he coughed loudly. “Hey, did I tell you about the cool thing I’m working on?” He didn’t wait for a reply and started talking about his new VR project at length and past the point where any of them were interested.
It left Nadine to stew about her parents’ attitude. Although they swore they only wanted her to be happy, they neglected to add,as longas it doesn’t upset us. Her parents needed the comfort and stability that came from the familiar. They’d lived in the same house since before Nadine was born and worked in the same companies as their first jobs. They’d had taco Tuesdays for over a decade straight. Her mother didn’t even like making left-hand turns in the car.
It had been hard for Nadine to go against their wishes to become a journalist instead of an accountant, but telling stories to make a difference was something she’d craved, and it had been worth it. Despite all the problems, it was worth it.
Not to mention she hated math.
After lunch, she and Noah chased out the rest of the family while they cleaned up, Noah tackling the pots in the sink while she filled the dishwasher. He glanced over. “It works better if you put the bowls—”
“Shut it, Noah.”
“—on the top. Otherwise, they stop the water from circulating,” he muttered to himself.
She put in another bowl and lowered her voice. “Why do Mom and Dad want to move Pohpoh? Is her health worse?”
Noah finished washing the pot before answering. “It’s not that. They’re worried about what might happen to her outside.”
“Like falling down?”
He shook his head. “A guy pushed Mrs. Lee coming out of the grocery store.”
Nadine gasped, feeling ill. “Mrs. Lee iseighty.”
Her brother glared at the dish in his hand. “You think someone like that is going to attack a person who can fight back? She had to go to the hospital and get stitches.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” she demanded.
“What are you going to do about it?” he asked. “It’s life. It sucks, but Pohpoh says she’d like to see some runt try it on her. I got her some pepper spray. It’s illegal, but if she needs to use it, that’s on them.” Her brother’s face was granite.
“That’s why Mom and Dad are upset.”
“Yeah, but Pohpoh doesn’t want to live in fear. Or to be monitored.”
They worked in silence for a bit, and when she looked over, Noah was frowning as he scrubbed. Nadine knew that face, which was the same one he wore when he was stumped by an algebra problem. “Hey,” she said. “Pohpoh’s tough, you know that. Remember when that guy tried to steal her purse and she broke his leg when she tripped him?”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.” He dropped a pot into the sink with a clatter. “Not all of it anyway. Are Mom and Dad right?”
“About what?”
“I’ve been reading a lot about the shit journalists get online, and I know it’s worse for women.” A deep line split his forehead. “Especially women who aren’t white. You should see what Preeti has to deal with in her engineering classes.”
“We’re white,” she said.
“I am. But you’re more whitish.”
Nadine understood what he was saying. Very few of Evelyn Tan’s features had filtered down to her grandchildren. Noah was a mini me of their father, with light hair and eyes that shifted from gray to blue to green depending on the color of his shirt and, more bizarrely, the weather. Nadine looked more like their mother, with her small nose and round eyes that narrowed at the corners, and like her, Nadine somehow didn’t look part Chinese but also didn’tnotlook it. It depended on her expression and how she wore her hair. However she looked, it was enough to get her voluntold into theHerald’s diversity committee by Frank after her editor had come back from a managerial meeting.
“It’s like a twofer,” he’d said, tone making clear his belief that this entire diversity thing was another corporate trend that would soon fade. “A woman and some Asian. Think of it as good for your visibility.”
Nadine hadn’t wanted to join, the same way she hadn’t wanted to join the social committee or any of the other committees almost totally run by women to improve the quality of office life for everyoneelse. That was time she couldn’t do her actual job and for no extra pay, acknowledgment, or appreciable benefit. After all, she didn’t care if they had a holiday party, and the best way to build visibility was by breaking good stories. “I’m not Asian.”
“But—” Frank waved his hand at her face. Maybe she shouldn’t have done the cat’s-eye eyeliner that morning.
Nadine prepared for her standard Giving of the Genealogy. “My grandmother is Chinese. I’m a quarter, and it doesn’t really impact my life.” Despite her father urging her to say she was Asian to take advantage of what he apparently thought were the boatloads of perks available to diversity candidates, Nadine felt uncomfortable claiming a heritage she didn’t feel matched her or that she had a right to. If she looked like Pohpoh, it might be different, or if she’d been raised with more of a cultural consciousness than learning to eat with chopsticks. Also, her dad had no idea what he was talking about.
She turned back to her conversation with Noah. “I changed jobs anyway.”
