Page 86 of Let's Talk About Love
“I’m sure they offer many majors that are a waste of time.”
“Cynthia,” her dad said. Her mom inhaled and pressed her lips together. “Alice, sweetie, you know that’s not what she meant. If you like it, it’s not a waste of your time. However, I have to agree, it’s not something you should pursue professionally.”
“Why not?” Alice braced herself for impact.
“Because it’s a frivolouscareerchoice.” Her dad never lost his temper, never disciplined her a day in her life. That stern, unflinching look in his eyes was worse than any switch off a tree.
“As if that’s all it is.” Her mom had reached the point where she began to talk through her teeth. Alice didn’t have much time left. “And what’s the salary range for that kind of work? Or do you slave away, interning for free while they pay you inexposure? How will you support yourself?”
“Most college grads can’t get a job straight out of college anyway, regardless of their major.” She stared at her keyboard. Any second now her mom would say,Look at me when I’m talking to you.
“Which is why they continue going to school,” her dad said. “Is there an advanced degree for this field to make you a more attractive candidate?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “But I have a plan. Three more years of school, three years to gain work experience. If it doesn’t work out then, I’ll go to law school.”
She hadn’t rehearsed that compromise with Takumi. For each millimeter her mom’s eyes continued to narrow, the whispered compromise got louder. She didn’t want to say it, to make that promise, but now that she had… “I just want a chance to do something for me. Please.”
Her parents exchanged a look. They had been married nearly twenty years before she was even born—words between them weren’t necessary. Her mother raised her eyebrows. Her dad chewed on his cheek. She pursed her lips. He rubbed the lower half of his face. They continued on like that, moving in tandem reactions, until finally, her dad sighed, got up, and left.
It was over.
“Fine,” her mom said.
“Fine?” Hope made her voice squeak.
“You want to waste six years of your life? Fine. That’s your right. But it will not be on our dime. When you’re ready to be serious about your future, your college fund will still be there.”
Her mom disconnected the video call.
Alice sat there until her screen turned black. The silence in her room resounded in her ears, her eyes remained dry, and her stomach became a black hole leaching away anything she should have been feeling. Everything was nothing. Her nails tapped against her phone screen as she dialed.
“Hey,” Takumi said. “How did it go?”
“I think my parents just disowned me.”
She didn’t know how much more silence she could take.
“Say something. Please,” she said.
“Please tell me you’re joking,” he said. “Tell me it went fine and you’re trying to play a trick on me.”
“Nothing feels real right now. I think I might be asleep.”
“Do me a favor then? Go to your dream closet and find a bathing suit. Preferably something with polka dots if you can conjure it. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
***
MEGUMI AND MAYUMIsquealed as they ran away from the incoming surf. Their matching yellow-and-white-daisy bathing suits sparkled in the sunlight. Every so often they remembered Alice was there and yelled for her to come play with them.
“In a minute,” Takumi would call back.
It had been nearly thirty of those already.
Alice hugged her shins, rested her chin on her knees, and watched the horizon, unseeing. Her dad hadn’t even looked at her before he walked away. She knew they’d be mad. She had a greater chance of being selected by NASA for the next lunar landing expedition than to have her parents get on board with her decision. But never in a million years did she think they’d actually disown her. Would they pick up if she called? Would they pretend she wasn’t there when she went to meet her niece for the first time?
She ached in ways she didn’t think possible and it had only been an hour. They were herfamily. Her blood. When she was little her dad told her that she had half of each of them inside her, only the best parts of course, so no matter where she went, no matter how far apart they were, they would always be together. Fused by genetics and love. She had her dad’s dark skin and her mom’s brown eyes. His hair and her teeth. His kindness and her laugh.
How in the name of heaven was school more important than all that?
