Chapter 10

You know how women get when the shopping gene surfaces. They had just left the Jewelry store after buying almost $5,000 worth of diamonds. That put them in the festive shopping mood. James played chauffeur. Keiko headed for an upscale mall on the Maryland side of D. C., Westfield Montgomery. When Sean saw his future father-in-law audibly swallow, he just hugged his little lotus, smiled, and kept his mouth shut. He thought Dad always said you gotta pick and choose your battles. Women and shopping is a battle a man can’t win...

After walking the mall for thirty minutes, James and Sean breathed a sigh of relief when they realized that the historically frugal nature of Japanese women won the day. Translation: all they wanted to do was window shop.

Sean received a call from Josh about 1pm asking if he, Suki, Megumi, and Sean could go to Iron Age, a Korean all you can eat BBQ in Ellicott City, and then a movie. Of course, the girls were down with that idea. Besides, it would give Sean a chance to show those three what real speed feels like. They planned to pick Josh up at 6pm.

After picking Josh up, he was extremely excited. He had his two favorite items: his newfound love, Suki, and ... all you can eat meat. Joshua was a carnivore extraordinaire He loved eating meat, especially Korean BBQ.

When deciding on the movie, Megumi and Suki decided, Sean guessed, to be magnanimous about the movie choice. So. The guys chose to watch a reshowing of Spiderman 2. After the movie, Sean drove out Route 29 to Route 70 east where there was a three mile stretch of road that was relatively straight. Being an Interstate, the speed limit was 65. Sean punched the accelerator to the floor, and in about 4 seconds was doing 148. Josh was whooping it up like a Good Ole boy, Suki had her head buried in Josh’s armpit, and Megumi sat speechless looking out the windshield. Her eyes were as big as dinner plates and her lower jaw was figuratively in her lap, she couldn’t speak. Her left hand had sunk her nails into Sean’s on the gear shift, and she may have left puncture holes in the door’s arm rest.

The last thing Sean wanted was a $500 ticket and a suspended license, so he shut it down. Five miles later, they were on 695W headed to Lutherville to drop Josh at home. Megumi had regained her voice and asked Sean. “How fast were we actually going?”

Sean smiled and said, “Well, after about 2 or 3 seconds we were doing 100, and after 5 we hit 148. There was a lot of pedal left too. Wasn’t that a rush?”

“You, you dufus flyboy, have part of your brain that is insane!”

“What’s the problem, Sweetie? You don’t have an issue flying 350MPH in a 767 flight to Tokyo, do you?”

“Yeah, but ... but...”

Sean smiled and replied, “But what?” She turned and stared out the windshield, silent.

After several minutes of silence, she turned and said, “I was terrified, but it was one helluva rush.” Sean broke out laughing. She slapped his arm and added, “Don’t you ever do that to me again Once is enough!”

Sean nodded and answered contritely, “Yes, Ma’am.”

⸟

During the next five weekdays, Sean stayed at home with his family while Megumi was in class, but on most evenings. He and Megumi were together doing something either alone or with Josh and Suki.

That Friday, Megumi packed a small bag and stayed with Sean’s family. That Friday afternoon was the first time Bill and Lili had seen Megumi’s ring. Lili looked at her son with a raised eyebrow and asked, “Where’s mine?”

Sean feigned a guffaw, pointed to his dad, and replied, “Ask moneybags over there.”

Everyone chuckled at the exchange.

Lili had told Megumi she had learned to make some Japanese vegetable dishes because they were healthier, using less oil. She wanted Megumi to teach her how to make a Japanese dish.

Telling Sean this, after Megumi’s last class on Friday, they drove to the Asian market, got shitake mushrooms, mirin [sweet Japanese cooking wine], and bean sprouts along with boneless chicken breasts.

That evening, with all the ingredients laid out on the food prep island, Megumi said, “Mom, we are going to make a dish called Oyako-donburi. It is a very popular Japanese dish. “Oyako” means “Parent and Child”, and “donburi” means big bowl of rice topped with something. Oyako-donburi is made with chicken, shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts and eggs served over hot rice, hence the name. It is a tradition that Japanese mothers and daughters make this dish for the family together.”

Although Lili had been an American citizen for twenty years and had a degree in English, she was a very traditional Chinese woman. She was very moved when Megumi explained how mothers and daughters made this dish together.

Lili explained how at the age of four, her, her mother and grandmother would make homemade dumplings, sometimes known as pot stickers together for the Chinese New Year. Making meals as a family was a very important tradition she missed because her sons weren’t interested in cooking. it turned into a very warm and bonding time for mother and daughter-in-law.

The very next evening, they made Chinese dumplings together. Lili was surprised that Megumi learned how to roll out the small three-inch round small pancakes of dough to put the filling of ground pork, chives, and cabbage. The dough was then folding in half and the ends decoratively pinched shut. The boys were stunned to see both Megumi and their mom eat two plates each. That’s about thirty dumplings each. Bill quipped that he and Sean would need to roll the women away from the dinner table.