Day 1: 6:00 pm-2:00am
Around three or four a.m. is when they tell me they normally start
cleaning and preparing for the morning.
I envision my mother cackling at the thought of me 'getting ready to serve' the type of people who come to
this kind of place for brunch while canoodling with her latest meal ticket in
the Caribbean. Mostly all the
customers have left except a fairly drunk woman and an exceptionally drunk
man. I begin sweeping the dining
room, brushing white rice and snow peas into the pan mindlessly. My pores leak soy and my skin is
spotted with duck sauce making my fingers stick to one another and every
surface I touch. The lanterns
always shed the same shade of dull yellow and you can never really know what
time is it.
Red
silk cloths cover the tables lined one by one like cadets reporting for morning
roll. Water drips from rock to
rock into a small pond in the center of the room under the belly of the golden
lion statue that is said to bring the restaurant “peace and prosperity.” Maroon columns decorated with dragons
and monkeys hold the water worn ceiling upright. Thin gold trims trace along the corners of the walls helping
to cover the building’s true age.
Each table is dimly lit by a single tea light, just enough to see the
movement of hands and the whites of eyes.
Metal lanterns dangle from any open space. Pictures of plum blossoms and the Great Wall are spread
about. The place looks authentic
and phony at the same time.
Back
in the kitchen, a black cat grinds against the oven next to the fryer where
extra dumplings are sizzling for the employees who are here late cleaning. A hair goes in the peanut oil. Shredded cabbage and daikon litter the
tile floor. Whisks and woks pile high in the sink. Two children chase each other around the kitchen fingering
bowls of noodles and slurping sauce straight off spoons. Blenders, pots, and knives are tossed
about and they punch them as they run by making the plastic cutting boards jump
and fall onto the floor. I scrub
the stubborn grease stains that are splattered from end to end of the kitchen. My eyes are caked with crust and under
my fingernails are thick strips of a black grainy mixture of soy sauce, dirt,
and grease. My hair smells of chicken feet all the way home.
I step into the night and the authentic blackness of the sky reveals the real time-four
o’clock. The streets are slick and
dark. The only light comes from a
lantern hanging on the overhead of the restaurant. The light guides me the
sixteen blocks home, while I contemplate how I will return the lantern to the
Yios if I don’t come back tomorrow.
Because we do not yet know the full direction of our blog or where we might want to take it, I tried to stay as general as possible just so I would have the flexibility to alter it if necessary and would not be stuck in a certain setting that no longer applied. I am very interested and infested in living a positive lifestyle and finding the silver lining or ‘light’ in every dark situation which is how I came up with my title and background picture with my blog. I know the story I want my blog to take but I am not sure if it will end up that way so I did not want to reveal too much in the first assignment. I am very inspired by the nonlinear structure of the past two novels we have read and how they incorporated actual historical events and figures into fictional narratives. My theme of ‘letting the light guide you’ will somehow come about in every blog post and I will relate the story back to that ideal. My intention with this blog is to do just that. I wanted to start my story in a natural and casual space where anyone could supposedly walk into, which is why I chose a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant set in New York City. My plan is throughout the blog posts have different famous political, historical, and social figures come in to the restaurant and converse with my character, a struggling waitress at the restaurant, which will in turn help her on her journey to self discovery, while simultaneously informing readers of real historical events. Hopefully, my blog will become a text similar to Mumbo Jumbo and Nadja.
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ReplyDeleteThe description in this blog is incredible. The extended metaphors and the detailed imagery really shine through in the writing. The introspective thoughts are a great move in writing to progress the movement of the story. I like that the author stated in the above comments that they tried to be fairly vague because they did not know the true direction of the blog. I felt the same way when creating my blog, so I can connect with that easily. I also liked reading that the author has a very optimistic outlook on life, and was interested to see that reflected in their writing.
ReplyDeleteI can not stress enough how good the description is in this story. "Back in the kitchen, a black cat grinds against the oven next to the fryer where extra dumplings are sizzling for the employees who are here late cleaning." They could have said, "Back in the kitchen the fryer is sizzling". The extra detail is high level writing and makes for a very easy and interesting read. "Two children chase each other around the kitchen fingering bowls of noodles and slurping sauce straight off spoons." Endless description creates a sense of place and makes the reader feel like they are in the kitchen.
The picture placement goes well with the story, as well as the background of hanging lights. They describe "dull lanterns that always give the same shade of light" and it complements the blogs background. The description of time and place also go along well with these images. The French title adds a bit of mystique to the blog, which is an original idea.
I don't have anything I would change, I like the direction this blog is going and can't wait to read future posts.