Chapter 10

I looked at my watch.

"It looks like we just have time to go pick Sarah up at school. And then we can head over to the bank."

I was euphoric. The kids were mine until Susan got out of jail. Without anyone willing to sign for her, she might be in there for a month. A lot could happen in a month. Lisa's hand in mine kept my feet somewhere near the pavement as we walked back to the car.

Sarah came running over to the parking area as soon as I pulled in. She could detect the rumble of the Porsche over all of the sounds of a schoolyard filled with dispersing middle schoolers and surrounded by idling minivans. She was a cyclone of non-stop enthusiasm. "Oooh! Mommy-Lisa. Mommy-Lisa! You're back! I missed you last night. You're going to be my new Mommy? You're going to marry my Daddy? Yes? Yes! Oooooh! I love you, Mommy-Lisa."

Lisa got out of the car and Sarah wrapped herself around her. Happy child would be the understatement of the year. Lisa tried her "oh-my-God-I'm-not-the-parent-but..." look. It hadn't worked last Tuesday, and it didn't work at all, today.

Wrapped in Lisa's arms, Sarah slowed down. "Hi, Daddy. May wants me to sleep over Saturday night and that way we can meet her grandfather and skinny Jenny's mom is at a bridal show at the Convention Center and we could go there Saturday morning and Lisa's going to be a bride anyway and that way I can meet her and say 'thank you' for the hairbrush."

A Chinese lady detached herself from a group near one of the minivans and approached us. "Hi, I'm Charlotte. I'm May's mom. What relation are you to Princess's parents? I met her mother..."

I got out of the car and shook her hand. "Hi. I'm Herb, I'm Sarah's father. And this is Lisa. She's my new fiancée."

Charlotte smiled. "New fiancée? The way Princess wraps herself around you, I was sure that it was longer than that."

"No. Sarah has wanted us to get married from the first time she met Lisa. It just took a while for us to get adjusted to the idea."

"Yes. Us adults seem to lose our enthusiasm for doing things. But sometimes we get it back when we get old enough. Did Princess tell you that Grandfather Yoon wants to meet her?"

"She just mentioned that May wants to have her over for the weekend."

"Yes. This is quite a change for May. May doesn't have friends over, overnight. Her friends come over for an hour or for ninety minutes, and then leave. This overnight is because Grandfather Yoon wants to meet Princess, and May does things on his schedule, not hers."

"Sarah tells us a story about May's great-great something having been a warlord in China..."

"Grandfather Yoon is May's great-great-grandfather. Actually, his grandfather was the last warlord in the family. Grandfather Yoon was sent to America back in the Thirties to reestablish the family.

"There's this family thing. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse. Every other generation, there's something, it's like a call to power, an ability to command, to have people follow blindly. Sometimes it's accompanied by second sight, other times, it comes alone. Without the second sight, without any vision for the future, it's an invitation for brutality. In this generation, it landed on May. She doesn't have the second sight, and we've watched her rule her friends, rule the school. It hasn't been pretty. Grandfather Yoon said that May would find an advisor who would stay with her, give her the advice that she needs. He said that one day, when she was still a girl, she would meet Princess, and Princess would tell her what to do and what not to do. So we've had May describe all of the girls at school to Grandfather Yoon. It's our ritual at Sunday dinner. And a couple of weeks ago at dinner, she described your Sarah. And Grandfather Yoon said, 'That's Princess. I want to meet her.' So she's been 'Princess' ever since Grandfather Yoon said it.

"I met Princess's I guess it must be, mother, it must be two weeks ago. She was rude and dismissive and, should I say, racist... so I wasn't able to complete the invitation."

"Yes, that's my ex. Not us. Sarah's with us, now, so if you're willing to host her, and May wants her there, then she can go."

Sarah erupted into another cyclone of enthusiasm. "ThankyouDaddy. ThankyouDaddy. ThankyouDaddy. ThankyouDaddy." She detached herself from Lisa long enough to give me a hug, then went back to wrapping Lisa around herself.

Charlotte smiled. "It should also be interesting before Grandfather Yoon wakes up. The only thing that I think is more dangerous than one pre-teen with an iPod is two pre-teens with iPods. I guess Saturday afternoon while Grandfather Yoon naps will establish who the premier computer expert is in the school. I expect the hordes to descend upon us."

I couldn't resist the tactless joke. "Hordes, maybe. The Mongol hordes, maybe not. Warren will probably be over at Kumar's working on their computer business."

Charlotte liked the joke. "The family is from Western China. Our ancestors spent hundreds of years, uh, managing the incursions of the Mongol hordes. We do know a few things about doing that. After all, that is the warlord's job.

"And Warren's yours, too? May has him on the short list of adolescent males who are not totally beneath contempt. She doesn't consider the male half of the species worthy of any consideration, let alone respect, save for her father and Grandfather Yoon, but one day the hormones will kick in..."

"Is mid afternoon OK? We could drop her, and then pick her up Sunday."

"Pick her up Sunday evening. That way she can have Sunday dinner with Grandfather Yoon. You should probably have our address..."

Sarah bounded up the steps to the Farzoun building. "So this is Mommy-Lisa's office?"

Lisa hesitated for a moment. "For a little while, I guess."

"Why, Mommy-Lisa?"

At that moment the door swung open, and Nariya stepped out.

"So there you are, you two," she mock-scolded. "I was about to send out a search party." She smiled down at Sarah. "And you must be Sarah."

Sarah stopped her bouncing to look up at the tall sari-clad woman who knew her name.

"Yes."

Sarah shyly stepped back and grabbed for Lisa's hand. Holding on to something familiar is one way to deal with strange things happening in one's environment.

Nariya continued her mock-scolding as we walked to the elevators. "I send the two of you home this morning to collect Herb's passport, and it's now the middle of the afternoon."

Lisa came to my rescue. "Herb had a custody motion this afternoon at one. He won custody of his kids."

Nariya smiled down at Sarah. "So now I have two new family members to train?"

Lisa laughed. "Just me. This one has a couple of years to decide if this is what she wants to do. And she also gets to decide for herself if she wants to go to law school."