Story #37: A pie for a pie

She rented out the bottom floor of a two-story house previously owned by prominent silent film actress Gloria Swanson. What used to be a rec room for her landlord’s two sons—20-something deadbeat boys with a penchant for pot and an enjoyment for loud arguments with their father—was now her home. For Valentine’s Day, she baked the three men a rather ordinary-looking apple pie, and they thanked her repeatedly. In return, one of the laziest sons baked a huge and gorgeous blueberry pie with cutouts of hearts and arrows in the top crust and proudly handed it to her.

Story #36 - Am I doing it right?

“What are your favorite animals at the zoo?”

“I like elephants,” said my three-year old niece, “but I don’t like monkeys...”

“Why not?”

“Because they’ll eat me!”

She then hugged herself and rocked back and forth.

Needless to say, I was confused.

I started noticing a pattern of the word “monkey” being used in conversations around her. I overheard her grandmother say, “If you don’t finish your food, the monkey will get you.”

I later realized that my sister and her husband had been using a fictional maiming monkey as a parenting tool to keep their rambunctious daughter in check. 

Story #35 - It Gets Better

When the doorbell rang and I saw him through the crack of the open curtain, I immediately ran to my bedroom and locked the door.

I thought after the police tackled him a few days earlier and taken him to a mental hospital, he would be gone for good.

It took me years to fully understand how schizophrenia affected my brother, that it was treatable, and not taboo for an immigrant Asian family to talk about mental illness. And now, I can’t see my brother as anything other than a loving person that had just been dealt an unlucky hand. 

Story #34: Staring at the Sun

Some of us were in shape to climb Mount Fuji, but most of us had spent the year drinking in bars instead of doing any real form of athletic activity. We began our hike when the sun set with the goal in mind to hit the top by sunrise. I was delirious by the fourth hour when the altitude sickness kicked in, and sadly watched the elderly powerwalk past me. The small oxygen tank I bought felt like a sham. But when I reached the top, all the pain was forgotten when I looked at the sun eye to eye.

Story #33: Sometimes you're the bug; sometimes you're the windshield

He hopped on his last bus ride in Vietnam headed towards the airport after a long trip through Southeast Asia. In the heavy rain, his bus driver had a minor fender bender that led to a heated argument with the other motorist, who claimed he was owed $50 for the damages. A month’s wage to the driver, he refused to pay the man, and the standoff escalated to the bus driver nearly running over the man. Defeated, the bus driver paid the man and drove in the rain with a missing windshield wiper that was ripped off in the scuffle.