Chapter 2

2: 2

2.

"Daughter-in-law, we know you city folks like things clean."

"We all bathed and changed into fresh clothes before coming over today."

"I promise you, these relatives are honest people. There's nothing wrong with any of them."

My mother had on an old-fashioned jujube-red dress with a small floral print.

It was the best thing in her closet.

She never wore it, just opened the closet every few days to look at it.

The last time she'd worn it was at my wedding.

Bianca just stared at me, her face full of resentment, and said nothing.

Ulysses shoved my mother aside.

"Oh, please."

"It's been all over the news. That hometown of yours is famous for being an STD village."

"So poor they'll do anything."

"Selling blood, selling their bodies, selling their kids. Even the three-year-olds are crawling with germs."

My father couldn't hold his composure anymore.

He rubbed his hands anxiously and looked at Bianca, at a loss.

"That stuff online is all nonsense. Everyone back home is decent."

"My wife and I both had to get health certificates for work in the city. We really aren't sick."

Deborah rolled her eyes, her voice sharp as a knife, cutting our family's dignity full of holes.

"You've got some nerve saying that!"

"Last time Bianca stayed at your place, just one night, and she came back with diarrhea and vomiting and a week of fever!"

"She said you don't even have running water. You still use a well. Who knows how much bacteria is in it."

Ulysses's expression turned mocking.

"That well's how many years old now."

"Who knows who's been spitting or pissing into it. The whole thing's a petri dish. Bianca really got the short end marrying you."

My mother fell silent.

Trembling, she picked up the lancet and jabbed it at her finger.

The first try didn't go through.

She was like a child who'd done something wrong.

She said to me quietly,

"I know my daughter-in-law likes things clean, so I didn't use the well at home."

"I went into town a day early to buy bottled water."

"Carried it back on a forty-minute walk."

I reached out to grab the lancet from her.

"It's not your fault."

"Bianca got the runs because she insisted on eating that raw marinated seafood Ulysses bought on the way home."

"It has nothing to do with our family."

Ulysses's face changed.

"Cut the useless talk!"

"Today is Bianca's son's one-month celebration. Everyone coming is somebody, important bosses and family. If they catch some disease from you people, can you take the blame for that?"

I looked at Bianca, all ten fingers clenched into fists.

"I'll only ask you one thing."

"You're set on humiliating my family today, aren't you."

Bianca pressed her lips together and said nothing.

Ulysses lost his temper.

"How can you talk to Bianca like that?"

"She gave you a son. She's your family's biggest hero!"

"Your whole family should be down on their knees thanking her!"

I shoved him back.

"I'm asking her, not you!"

Bianca lifted her head, her eyes full of hurt and resentment.

"Aren't I doing this for the baby too?"

"He's only a month old, when his immune system is at its weakest. I can't gamble with my son's health."

The words had barely left her mouth.

My cousin pulled two thousand out of his coat and pressed it into my hand.

"Here's the gift for the baby. We'll skip the meal."

"Your family's food is too fine. I can't afford it."

He set down the money and made to leave.

His wife and my second uncle stopped him.

Nobody said a word. They just looked at me in silence.

Everyone was holding it in.

They didn't want us to lose face.

Then Deborah blew up.

"What is this supposed to mean, from your family?"

"My daughter carries on your family line, and this is how you bully her?"

My mother's eyes went red.

She snatched the lancet back from my hand.

And drove it hard into her own hand and my father's, tearing open a gash in each.

"It's a joyous day."

"Let's not make things hard for Rod."

"It's just one little prick. It's nothing."

"We're country people. We don't fuss over things like that."