Fresh Off the Boat Read Online Free Page B

crying. I figured they hadn’t seen each other for a really long time and I started crying, too. I just wanted to see my dad.
    * D.C., Maryland, Virginia

2.
GOD HAS ASSHOLES FOR CHILDREN
    T hat spring, Dad came home and we were reunited. But before we could enjoy it, they dropped a bomb on us: we were moving to Florida. How could I be so dumb? Of course we were moving to Florida! Dad wasn’t going to live there by himself forever, but it just never registered in my mind that I’d be going, too. It caught me and Emery totally by surprise. My mom might have told us that it was happening, but we still weren’t ready for it. With two weeks left in the school year, we packed up the house over one weekend, and prepared to leave on Monday. I didn’t want to go.
    I still remember sitting in the back of our Starcraft van, parked at the top of Phil’s driveway.
    “We’ll still be friends, Xiao Wen.” *
    “Yeah … but I’ll be in Florida!”
    “So what, we’re cousins! My mom says we’ll come visit.”
    “I may get eaten by alligators by the time you come! Gators are everywhere in Florida.”
    “Hmmm, that’s true. Remember to run in zigzags if you see one!”
    Phil was smart and knew everything about animals. He told me that if an alligator had its mouth closed, you could put your hands around it and it wouldn’t be strong enough to open again. Shortly after, my parents, aunts, brothers, and Allen came outside as well. The whole family was on the driveway to say goodbye. I really didn’t want to leave, but then the van started to move.… Getting farther and farther, the people got smaller but I could still see Phil in the front waving me goodbye. I remember thinking their hands would stop waving, but they never did. All the way until they disappeared, you saw their hands waving in the air and then poof! They were gone … and there we were, just the five of us going down to Florida in a Starcraft van like the “Definition” video. “Hold your head when the beat drop, Y-O.”
    Two days later, we got to Florida late at night, groggy, and stinkin’ from the ride. We pulled into the parking lot of this place called Homewood Suites; I liked it ’cause their logo was a duck. We usually stayed at Red Roof Inns, so I was pretty impressed with this place they called an extended-stay hotel. Emery and I walked around touching everything in the room, but my parents were tired so they made us shower and go to sleep.
    We all woke up super-late the next day. It felt like we slept a year! Dad was already at work. The best part about Homewood Suites was that you could look outside and see the sign for Atlantic Bay Seafood and Grill. It was a monstrous neon sign you could see from the highway and follow all the way from the exit.
    “Mom! Why does Dad do American food and not what you make at home?”
    “Because nobody want to pay for REAL Chinese food.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because they not Chinese! Stupid question! Your dad is smart, he has white chef so people don’t know Chinese own Atlantic Bay and we can sell seafood for more!”
    “Is Atlantic Bay like Chesapeake Bay?”
    “Hmm, kind of!”
    “Yeah? Do they have hush puppies?” I asked.
    Before she could answer, Emery chimed in, too: “We can eat all we want since we own it, right? We don’t have to have more aunts for more free kids meals anymore!”
    “Yeaaahhh! I want fried cod and hush puppies with Tabasco!”
    “OK, OK, you guys can eat all you want. Let’s go see Dad.”
    “We don’t need aunts anymore! We OWN the restaurant!”
    Emery and I were dumb excited to see Atlantic Bay. It was huge! Three times bigger than our old house and they had cool uniforms: polo shirts with big blue and white stripes. But my dad wore a suit! We found him in the kitchen and it smelled so bad. It was the first time I’d been in a restaurant kitchen. The food smelled great, but there was this funky old mildewy smell that I’d never smelled before.
    “Dad, why’s