Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jenny Xie
- Language: English
- Genre: Literary Short Stories
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Heartbreak was its own kind of incandescence that morning, scrubbing
the world raw with its floodlight. I felt acutely out of place among
Marin’s pristine streets and quaint signage, its veneer of health and wealth
an insult I couldn’t answer. As we entered the bridal shop, my mother
wrapped a hand around my biceps and squeaked her excitement, and this
grated on me, too: Not so many years ago, she might have clung to me like
this, her breath a lank cloud of vomit and liquor.
Inside the shop, a series of alcoves illuminated a froth of white dresses.
The other clients were expensively dressed, model-esque women with the
exception of a boy in a basketball jersey who was slumped on a clear
acrylic bench, frowning at the handheld Nintendo between his knees. I cast
a line of hope in his direction, seeking an acknowledgment of our mutual
misery, but he kept his eyes trained on the game.
“Good morning, ladies!” A bridal consultant tottered toward us, legs
bound by a black pencil skirt. “Welcome to Francesca’s,” she said in
chirping tones.
My mother fitted her sunglasses onto the crown of her head, removing
her hand from my arm. My grief swelled again to the boundary of skin. “Hi,
I’m Marissa—we have ten o’clock meeting.” Her halting English, which I’d
grown accustomed to, newly rankled in the marmoreal perfection of the
shop. “This my daughter, Kathleen. Today she find the dress for wedding.”
The consultant, who introduced herself as Greta, pumped my hand. “So
exciting! Congratulations on the engagement, Kathleen.”
“Actually, she’s the one getting married. I’m her maid of honor,” I said.
Greta’s smile froze. “Oh, that’s wonderful. Why don’t you girls come
back with me?”
As we followed her, my mother whispered in Mandarin, “Let’s have fun.
Don’t worry about how much it is.”
This excursion, and the Big Sur wedding that was three months away,
was being financed by her fiancé. Brian Lin owned a software company
called Wayfindr that, as far as I could understand it, leveraged personal data
and real-time location to herd people into buying lattes or visiting the zoo.
When they had started dating a little more than two years ago, my mother
had said “I’m going to love him” in the same tone she might have used for
“I’ll finally be able to redo the kitchen.”Money had always been elusive for us.
We were diligent with our
frugality, elevating it to a kind of morality—especially after my parents’
divorce. Birthday parties I attended caused agonizing negotiations over the
spending limit,
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