Panda Gifts Chapter 1 part 7

From Taipei to Queens to Mt. Vernon

Sorry for the break in posting, but I went on a short vacation. Panda Gifts continues.

Despite the precipitous ascendancy of our family fortunes, dark clouds were gathering on the domestic horizon: the children were closer and closer to Puopuo and we fled from Dad. When he came home from work, we suddenly fell silent and grew sullen. He couldn’t understand why we would avoid him when he made a habit of calling us stupid and hitting us with an open hand or whatever was handy when he lost his temper. He blamed Puopuo for turning his family against him, a family that depended on him not just for the food on its table, but for its very right to live in the United States. The UN job gave only my father diplomatic status in the United States. Mom and I remained in immigration limbo, our status tied to his employment. David and Helen by good fortune had American passports, but Puopuo was in the U.S. on visa overstay. Dad had paid for her plane ticket to come to the United States. How dare she undermine him? When Mom told Dad that her supervisor at work was willing to file the paperwork to get her a green card, Dad flew into an epic rage. Thus, began a short period of brutal domestic warfare. Almost every night, we could hear screaming fights between my parents behind closed doors. I heard snippets like, “You Wus used me! You used me to get yourselves of Taiwan. Now you and your family are plotting against me. You’re going to get a green card, get your mother a green card and then you’re going to take my children and leave me! I know your plan. You all depend on me! You’re al worthless. You would be starving without me.”