Mismatch Read Online Free

said to themselves, ‘Hey, we’ve got a new Asian girl in our class.’ ”
    “And that bothered you?” demanded Andy. “You want to look like Ginny, with blond hair and blue eyes?”
    Sue shook her head. “You got me wrong. I’m happy to look totally Asian.”
    “Then what’s the problem?” asked Andy. “We’re both Asians, so what’s keeping us from going out? If anything, that should make things easier!”
    “You’re beginning to sound like Mia and Ginny,” said Sue with a sigh. “They think we’re made for each other, because we both have straight black hair and eat with chopsticks.”
    Andy had to laugh. “I still don’t get it. Okay, so we both use chopsticks. What does that have to do with going out?”
    For a moment, the old humorous sparkle had returned to Sue’s eyes, but now she became serious again. “I told you already. The problem is that my family’s from China, and yours is from Japan. Some of my relatives think that makes us enemies.”
    Andy stared at Sue, trying to make sense of her answer. He knew that in the 1930s, Japan had invaded China and occupied a large part of the country. And he knew that the occupation had been terrible. But he couldn’t believe that something that had happened almost seventy years before could stop him and Sue from going out. The invasion was ancient history!
    He took a deep breath. “Look, Sue, some of the musicians in our leading orchestras come from Germany, and some of the other players are Jewish. Their families must talk about how the Nazis in Germany murdered millions of Jews. But this doesn’t prevent them from making beautiful music together!”
    Sue got up and picked up her viola case. “We can still make beautiful music together, Andy, and eat at Hero’s.”
    Andy gathered his things and followed her to the door. “So, okay, your relatives think of the Japanese as enemies. How about you?”
    Sue shook her head. “Of course I don’t! You ought to know that by now!”
    “I don’t get it!” said Andy. “If
you
don’t think I’m your enemy, then why are you letting your family keep us from going out?”
    “But . . . I . . . I . . .” Sue stopped and took a breath. “It’s easy for you to tell me I should stand up to my family. What about
you
? Would you still go out with me if your relatives told you not to?”
    Andy blinked. What did his relatives think of the Chinese, anyway? It was a question he had never asked himself.
    Just before she reached the bus stop, Sue turned around. “Why don’t you ask your relatives how they feel about the Chinese?”
    Andy decided to do what Sue suggested that very evening. He had never talked to his parents about how they felt about different cultures—not in so many words, anyway. He knew his father had had some bad experiences in different countries as part of his business travels, but he was pretty sure his dad blamed those on individuals, not on whole cultures. “Dad,” he said at the dinner table, “you spent a couple of weeks in Beijing last year. What did you think of the Chinese people you met?”
    His father was adding some soy sauce to the wasabi for his sashimi. He stopped mixing and looked up. “You’ve heard me talk about the trip. Beijing was filthy, simply filthy! Except for the big boulevards. The smaller streets were run-down . . .”
    Andy’s mother broke in. “That’s all right, Don, you’ve told us all we need to know about the filthy streets.” She looked at Andy. “Your father didn’t have a very good time on the trip. You know that already, so why bring it up?”
    Andy’s father, who worked for an electronics company, had gone to China on a business trip the previous October. He had come back in a foul mood. The deal he was negotiating had gone through, he said, but the terms were not as good as he had hoped.
    Andy remembered that what had made his father even angrier was coming back with his best suit so dirty that he had to pay the dry cleaner extra for