H's Chrismas Eve, 1980

The snowstorm slammed New York. It had snow for days. The sky was low and it seemed it would embrace the buildings in Manhattan. The blizzard finally stopped howling but the night was dark and cold. This was the Christmas Eve in 1980.1. The three AmigosThree new comers shared a small house up on the hill between 90th street and 53rd Ave in Queens. They were all from China. Yes, China - the red-land in the mystery east.Nan was from Beijing. And he was the oldest one among three of us. Nan has a long face and puffy hair. He always had his head down in deep thinking. He seldom smiled. He never laughed. He wanted to study Chemical Engineering but he knew had a long way to go because his English was poor. Nan didn’t even have enough money to pay the tuition for the first semester but he refused to work in restaurants. He was hunting for the scholarship.Jimmy is tall and skinny. His hair is always as shinny as his polished shoes. He liked country music and enjoyed the comedy shows. Jimmy wanted to study Business. Jimmy never studied the books at home but he said school was easy. Jimmy must be smart because he said he was from the top schools in Shanghai.I am Cantonese. I knew nothing but food. I loved to eat but not how to cook. I wanted to go to school but I didn’t know what to study. Also, I had to work hard to make money for the tuition because I knew I was not smart enough to get any scholarships.2. Christmas EveNan came home after midnight in Christmas Eve.“Where did you go?” I asked.“I went to Church” Nan replied with an ice-cool look on his face.“When did you start going to Church?” I asked“ This was first time. I went to Church because I had a chance to dress up my three-piece-of-shirt that Ibrought in Beijing. I paid a lot for the shirt but I only had it on for only once - that was on the plane when I came here ” Nan said“Well, you can wear it when you interview for your scholarship” I said it with a smile.Nan went to Church for Christmas Eve because he could ware his three-piece-of-shirt again and made sure the money was worth spending on his shirt.Interesting enough Jimmy went to Church too. My mouth dropped.Jimmy said he went to Church because the dinner was free. As long as the dinner was free he could listen to the Christmas songs instead of country music. Listen, the key word was “Free”.I was riding the bike delivering Chinese food on the streets in uptown Manhattan. Man! The icy wind seemed cracking into my pants and freezing my butt. The tip was good so I was happy because I was making money for my tuition. I was one step closer to my American dream in my own way. 3. Ten Years Later - It was 1990 Ten years later, we met again in New York. Nan was married and a father of three kids. He was working in a hospital as a lead medical technician in Maryland. He enjoyed working in the Lab and had already published three papers on American Sciences, a well-known magazine. He didn’t change much except his puffy hair. The three-piece-of-shirt he had on was similar to the one he wore ten years ago. I was wondering if he still wore the three-piece-of-shirt to make it even more worth the money. Nan was a good guy. After graduating from college, Jimmy became a manager in a warehouse in New Jersey. There were only two people, a driver and a mover, under him but he loved people to call him “the general manager”. He liked to joke his driver “Why people drive their cars in the Parkway and Park their cars in the Driver Way? “. Jimmy was still single. He still loved “free stuff”. Ah boy, he was looking for marring a rich fat lady, who was 5 years older than he was. The woman’s father, of course, owned the warehouse. He was dreaming one day he would inherit the warehouse for “free”. Listening to country music or Christmas songs was not an issue, so what matters? Over the years, the tips helped me through schooling. I graduated from college, too. I had a job working as a systems programmer. I still lived in Queens and didn’t changed much either expect my cooking skills. I was proud to become a good cook through an extensive training – my wife only knew how to make soups so, by default, I ended up cooking everyday either I liked it or not. 4. Twenty four Years later To be continued …..