“Oh,” Leah took a breath. “I’d hoped that they would. . .”
Leah nodded. Tina wouldn’t tell her any more than that. The nice young man was gone. It wasn’t that she believed that if her daughter was married, then everything would be all right. But she wanted her child to be stable. And why didn’t she come home if she needed a place to stay? Maybe Casey was right to look up to a person like Sabine, who was a success in America.
Was God punishing her? Was she losing Casey to Sabine because of what had happened between her and the professor? No, Leah argued with herself. God wasn’t like that. You didn’t always get what you deserved. Thankfully. Job was a good man, and he had suffered. Christ was the son of God, and all he did was suffer. But Leah had sinned. King David lost his baby after taking his friend’s wife and killing his friend. Her daughters did not respect her. They didn’t like her.
“Yobo,” Leah shouted over the noise of the television coming from the living room.
Joseph folded his newspaper and dropped it on the seat of his chair. He muted the television and picked up the phone.
Leah held on to the receiver. She could hear the happiness in her husband’s voice. First, Joseph asked to speak to the baby, but he was asleep. Then he asked Tina how she was. Tina told him how tired she was, how much she missed school.
Leah put down the receiver.
Tina heard the click. Her mother had sounded awful. And there was little she could do for her so far away. After graduation, she and Chul intended to go back east.
“Daddy, can’t you and Mom come for a visit?”
“The store. One of us has to be here. You know that.”
Tina nodded. The store. They had never been on a family vacation. Her parents had never asked Mr. Kang for the time off, and the owner had never offered. But even if her father had gotten permission to close the store for a few days, Tina didn’t believe that her mother would have gotten on a plane for California.
“Why hasn’t Umma been to the doctor?”
“You know she doesn’t like to go. I told her, but she said she’s doing better. It sounds like a cold. Maybe the flu.”
“Daddy, a cold shouldn’t take this long.”
“If she doesn’t go to church on Sunday, Elder Shim is coming by with the hospitality committee. He’s a doctor. Maybe he can talk to her.”
“He’s an eye doctor.”
“Okay, okay. When will you bring Timothy to New York?”
“We were just there, Daddy. You should come here.”
“Okay, okay.”
“I better go,” she said, getting ready to say good-bye.
“Take care of my grandson.”
“I will,” Tina replied. She wanted to keep talking to her father; she wished he’d ask her more questions. Was it possible to tell him that she felt lonely ever since she had the baby and that Chul had no idea what her life was like now, to lose school and friends? He just wanted to have sex regularly and get good grades.
“Daddy. . .”
“Hmm. . .” Joseph cleared his throat, unable to say how much he missed her. He could tell she was tired, and he was embarrassed that he couldn’t send her a maid. That was what a rich man would have done back home—send his daughter a nanny so she wouldn’t have to work so hard.
“Good night,” she said.
“I know you will do a good job with everything,” he said before hanging up.
Tina got off the phone, then went to check on the baby.
The following day, Leah went to work, came home, and made dinner, then went to sleep at eight o’clock. On Sunday morning, she could hardly move her body out of bed. The weight of it overwhelmed her. Joseph made her stay home and went to church by himself. That afternoon, whether she liked it or not, the hospitality committee would come.
Douglas Shim, Elder Kim, and Deaconess Jun rang the buzzer at exactly three-fifteen. After being let in, they marched inside without much of a greeting, sat on the sofa, and prayed silently. Douglas finished praying first, Elder Kim second, and Deaconess Jun prayed vigorously for another three minutes. Joseph led them to the bedroom.
Everyone bowed and smiled at one another.
Leah felt shy about being in bed in her nightgown and robe in front of the elders. She offered them coffee. A little while before, she had boiled water and put out a fresh jar of Taster’s Choice and Coffee-Mate on a tray with three clean mugs so Joseph could fix the coffee in case the committee wanted some refreshment. There were no biscuits at home, and she was embarrassed by this, but she hadn’t had company in a long time. But the committee explained that this was their third visit of the day and they couldn’t drink another drop of coffee or tea. They had brought her twelve cans of orange juice and a box of eclairs from Le Paris bakery.