Morning Coffee With Betty
Betty, an old lady of 52, with inspired taste in breakfast every morning, was not well informed. But she was very intuitive. For some one like Lulu who had an amateur interest in world affairs, Betty’s input of news and events were more entertaining than instructive. That was why Betty’s political stand was highly appreciated this morning by Lulu, who prepared Betty’s breakfast as part of exchange for rent. It was the major part of the exchange and Lulu did not wish to spoil Betty’s appetite and her own chance of keeping her room. Besides, what difference it would make when Betty commented on the important issues that concerned President George Bush? As the saying went “it’s important to participate than to win.” As an American citizen who had never traveled even once outside her own country in her entire life, Betty kept her mind on the world. Betty was mentally global, as the old Chinese saying went： “The scholar knows what‘s happening in the world without setting his feet outside his own hut.” Betty told Lulu that she had people all over the world staying in touch with her at any given time. That must have made the FBI Intelligence workers puzzled at the conversation flooding in over her phone line, she giggled. That was a flourishing joke, she spoke only English she confessed, as an after thought to Lulu.
After the 911 terrorist attack, Betty had tried, as a lot other people probably did , to keep her head above “fear”。“God is there. God knows what’s going on with the world.” she beat her chest with conviction. “I’m not going to share that Heavenly burden of interfering with God’s plan. I trust my God, oh, no, our God, us God. I don’t want to get my head muddled by all the news reports.”
When Betty saw President Bush getting into his airplane to come to California to talk to the Governor David, she commented that the President enjoyed 70 % of the nation’s support. She said solemnly that she supported Bush’s “Presidential position” in “following his father the Elder Bush，trying to make big names for the Bushes” . “They are the Baseball boys, swings their bats impatiently. Hit, Hit, trying to break the record. I won’t be surprised if FBI find out that the Bushes paid Bin Laden to do the dirty attack to get the Bushes famous.”
Lulu dropped her jaw. It was a long and curve-ball shot from what she could decipher. However, old lady Betty knew that her words did not count. She depended on her freedom to comment even she did not have the freedom to convict.
“Last time we had this womanizer President Bill. But we were able to separate his political life from his private life. He was certainly toasted when that intern slut messed up with him. That’s why he bombed Iraq to make us look the other way. His dick is not for the public as far as I am concerned. Now this one of the Bushes has to wipe up the mess he left behind. Dick heads. Jimmy Carter is a good President. He built a lot houses for the poor. Nixon was way out of line when he got busted but boasted that he was at least the first one to visit China in the 20th century. What cheeks.” Then she told Lulu that the cheeks on the face were called cheeks, on the butt, bums, and on the breast, booboos. She had been working at a meat factory for 20 years and knew all the names for different parts of the beef.
“I certainly remember the Nixon visit,” Lulu got excited. She was then 20 years old and she told Betty that the fish the Chinese cook served moved while being “served”. And the Chinese cook made a plate of duck tongues which took one hundred ducks to make. Lulu was eating her Hot-Doodle noodle soup by the table.
“Do you know this thing has been going on for more than a year? Betty asked.
“What? The terrorist attack?”
“Yes, I think so. Remember the cows, sheep and the beef stuff in France, Britain? That’s part of the same plot, now they brought the Anthrax to the Capital Hill and Santa Rosa Post Office.”
“Why Santa Rosa ? This town is of no significance to the security of the country. We don’t have White House, Pentagon . We don’t have majority leaders or minority leaders. We have no Twin towers, why Santa Rosa?” Lulu asked.
“Just to scare you, if such small town of no significance is even attacked, then the terror is hit home, you know? That ‘s how the mind of terrorists work. Well, better be prepared than not prepared, for our own sake.” Betty sipped solemnly from her coffee cup.
The phone rang. It was from Frank, he was on the line asking if Betty was ok.
“No, not good, I am afraid. A lot of things going on. I had pains last night. A sharp pointed pain over my shoulder. It spread and traveled down my back. That’s the stroke pain. I am all wired up. You can come for a few minutes, can’t you? ”
Waving Lulu over, Betty nodded to Lulu to get another piece of carrot cake for her. “He is not coming, ” Betty said with retired enthusiasm. Frank was a practicing preacher, learning to preach to become a minister. He got up and preached in his back yard to the four quarters, east first, then south, west and, north the last. Then, he raised his hand up and prays to the Heaven. He had just secured the lowest mortgage loan rate and he thanked God that moment for keeping the rates down. He was going to move out from his low-end apartment complex into a four-bedroom and two baths house. “It is a house, a house, thank God.” He must be burying his face in his big hands, to catch his big tears, Betty told Lulu.
Then the door bell rang. It was the delivery Guy from Safe-way. Betty was not bothering to introduce the delivery guy to Lulu. She busied herself choosing the items she loved to stock up for the Halloween and Thanksgiving. She still seemed to suffer from the annoying stories of her girl friend Gene about the same delivery guy that brought food to their doors.
He, whatever his name, Betty deliberated to Lulu, the delivery guy, one day after putting the boxes of sweet and sour pork dinner in Gene’s refrigerator, asked Gene for a “hug”. “Oh, man, oh, boy, oh, my,” Betty made delicious little protests “You know what? What would be the next, a kiss? A squeeze? No, a good strategy that Gene made clear to the delivery guy that she would not do it. And Gene was extremely upset and asked me if she should report it.” Betty looked at her cake intensely.
“What’s your line?”
“Of course, hugging is not to be encouraged. That’s what you will expect if you give in this time, an inch given, a mile taken. If you give him a hug, then next , he will want another display of affection in some kind of this or that form. He might even ask other single females for hugs. He is in uniform, He is incorporated. He should know the ethics of employment and service. Poor Gene is very sad that she could not help wanting to report him. She doesn’t like to do it and she feels empty if that guy is fired. Besides he might counter-reacts saying she is inviting. Bad situation, bad situation, a local terrorist case.” Betty was now pouring herself another cup of steaming coffee that Lulu made sure was permanently heated.
“Did Gene do it, I mean reporting it?” Lulu was very intrigued.
“She is taking time, taking time to….oh, I’ve so much to think about, so much to think about, the Anthrax, my pains, my small toe’s numb, now. I did not get much sleep last night. I have so much on my mind. Gene, you, Social Security Card, your Green Card, my bankruptcy, my Medicare, the middle east;… They put a stop on my payment, because some idiot has typed my ex husband’s gender as female on my benefit form. What’s going on, the world is going crazy. …Oh, mine,…” Betty agonized. “You don’t understand my pains. You look at me. You look at a fact, as an intellectual , as if you are a scientist, looking through a telescope. But you don’t feel my pain. You know my pain, but you don’t have the same sensations. You don’t feel the clutching of my heart muscles. You don’t feel the pinch of my temples. You look at me, with some doubts, maybe, even.. I know, I have been there, done that, I was a care giver myself before, my patients, they never trusted that I did feel for them and I don’t trust you feel it for me either, even if you want to. Physical pains are not communions. But I have developed such ability to sympathize. Why I have leg pains. There is nothing wrong with my legs. That’s Sarah’s leg pain. Those big, fatty, lumpy legs, their veins crawling as grape veins, but only more aged, drier. Why do I have breast pains? I am so old, how do I feel the swelling of the breasts? That’s Lucy’s. Lucy’s next door. That bitch, looking for single man all the time, makes her breast thrill and expand. Pains, lust of pains. I have them all, Lulu, the empathy pains. You don’t know. You are intellectual, a teacher before, an artist. You look at us as objects. I know. But I am aren’t complaining no more. I am tired, I need to go back to bed, and cover myself. I hate the pains. Not half of those pains are even mine. ”
She picked up her coffee cup and wobbled towards her bed room. It was in her bed, in this room, with curtains drawn, she would lie her heavy and tired body down and contemplate.
Lulu started to clean the table when Betty yelled from the bed room: “Please, dear, I want some more coffee, hot and fresh, just make a new pot, and bring some Irish creamer. “
Lulu brought in fresh coffee and the Irish creamer.
“You know Lulu they are my pacies, my pacies.”
“What is a paci?”
“A paci is a, a rubber to suck on, you know those rubber nipples for the babies, when their mothers’ nipples are not available. Baby suck those rubber nipples and they are satisfied and their mouths shut, they can’t cry unless they drop the rubber nipples?”
“Oh, paci is short for pacifier?”
“Yes, you got it. This is I believe, an American invention, and you got kids?”
“No, never given birth, and never breast fed anybody physically. ”
“Well, then, you might never know the sensation. But everyone needs some comfort, that’s what my coffee does, my Irish creamer does, my carrot cake does”
“I take comfort in Chinese poem.”
“Well then, it won’t cost you anything to read poems.”
“Tears, I shed tears.”
“Silly you. Who cries over poems nowadays? I remember the days when I used to read poems. But it is too long ago and too feminine to me. When my ex made me mad, I don’t read poems, I pick up the wooden cross and smash his head with it. That’s my heavenly wrath. That’s me, Betty, the meat packing strong arms. I flip slaps of meat day in and day out. I got strong arms.” Betty ‘s cheek looked fresh and well circulated.
This morning at breakfast, after Lulu laid the table and placed Betty’s French toast and bacon on a silver rimmed plate, a cup of 50 ounce of orange juice, and steaming coffee in front of her, Betty declared that she had made new decisions.
“I decided this morning that I will never give my own food away in exchange of friendship. I am suffering from compassion fatigue and I am bone tired of such petty benevolence. It’s very painful to lose friends. And how many I have totally lost since I moved in this apartment complex? Let me tell you, two sisters in F 5th, the guy in L 3rd ,Mark No.1 in A 8th, Mark No.4 in H 3rd, Steve in S 9th… total 6 of them. ” Betty recalled her lost and sadly chew on her bacon. “Six of them, I know they would not talk to me anymore. It pains me to lose friend, Lulu, ” She stood up and went to the bookshelf and pulled out a little book called “Friendship”.
“This book was given to me on my 50th birthday by Lulu , my sister-in-law, your name sake. That’s why I remembered your name and picked up you as my live-in caregiver. She is the only member from my ex’s side who had treated me nice, though my ex’s father, the old chucky Jock, my ex father-in-law started to write to me two letters a week, asking me to go back to his family.” Betty signed with some lamentable attention to her butter melting over the French toast.
“Well, see, ” Betty put her book in front of Lulu, and lifted through the pages. “Oh, here, this one, by Oscar Wilde, by the way you know he is a very well know movie star…”
“A movie star? ” Lulu was amazed, She did a paper on Oscar Wilde’s Novel “Picture of Dorian Gray” while she took English Literature course at college.
“Yes, a movie star. And this one, here, let me see, I will show you. This page, here, oh, he is also a famous poet. This is what he said of friendship--
“I always like to know everything about my new friends and nothing about my old ones.” Lulu read it aloud.
“Oh, no, not this one, another one, it must be on one of the pages. Let me see…” Betty took the little book in her own lumpy hand and turned the pages.
“Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.”
Betty pointed this line to Lulu,
Lulu looked at the page and the quotation was attributed to Aristotle.
“Artist Turtle said it. ..” Lulu shouted.
“So, whatever. I love it, I know it from my heart. And I trust God. God has told me that I should not give away meals in exchange of friendship. Misfortune tells the difference. I have to feed myself first. I have to feel sufficient in God’s hand. I had times when I did not have money for a cup of tea or a cookie. I buy food, stock up, Look at the food I have , I know God is looking after me. I use to cook large pot of soup the last week of the month, every month, in case some families can’t last to the end of the month. But people start expecting me to give my things away. They came and asked “Betty, can I have this, can I have that? I can’t bring myself to say no, because God asks me to share. But you can’t share with greedy people. You make them greedier by giving.”
Betty cut her French toast neatly into small squares and dripped maple syrup over them, timing her bite with the dripping. Her delivery of little bites into her month was elegantly executed. In her little domain of French toast, Irish creamer and dark roast coffee, she was the queen of the house.
“Mark starts to expect gas quarters from me now if I don’t feed him from time to time.” Betty inched her body a little way to the east to get out of the morning sun on her eyes. Mark was Betty’s male companion. He was a tall, curly haired, half Indian and half Spanish. He was the maintenance guy for the complex. He was at least 15 years younger than Betty, but the age difference worked for both of them. At least, she was too over worked to want to take care another “husband”, and he was too comfortably taken care as a “side job” to want to be one. Like the saying went, “why buy the cow when you can have free milk.” Mark met Lulu for the first time yesterday at dinner. He sloughed towards her and looked at her as if she was a fireplace. He came in just from the pouring winter rain, and the room must have felt as cozy as a womb. That was why he advanced towards Lulu, and said straight forward to her “I can pregnant you.”
“How?”, Lulu looked at him straight in the eyes. “By the way, my name is Lulu and I am the new care taker for your mom Betty.”
Betty wanted some more juice, “That’s why I stock sweet and sour pork for him. He likes it. I am using the Safe-way delivery so I can save on my gas quarters. I don’t want to depend on him to drive me around, doing grocery shopping. ” Only then Lulu suddenly remembered Betty listed as her chores to ride her bick to get grocery. To save 1 dollar bus fair. When one had to cut corners, one had to cut corners.
“In times of war, being frugal. In slack season, eat porridge. ” Chairman Mao’s quotation suddenly jumped into Lulu’s head, “Save every penny for the revolution.” Such wisdom was shared by peoples the world over. “Break your penny into half and save .” People in China used to describe the way of life in old Shanghai.
“Do you realize that I don’t have any more visitors? How many have visited me since you moved in? Carol, Kathy, Frank, oh, Edith. But Edith forgot to buy the Banana. For me. She did return the 2 dollars. Carol came with 3 cupcakes. We finished two, threw one out. Kathy came to return the soup jar. I offered her tea. She did not ask for it. Mark No.1 came. True, he came, to get some of the meatballs. I offered him a pastrami sandwich I brought back from a friend’s birthday party. Mark is a good swindler. He did drop the video and get some new ones for me without asking for the gas quarters. ” Betty looked out of the window and asked Lulu
“Did you hear that he is offering you free ride while you were packing his sandwich?”
“Yes, I remembered. He said if ever I was out in the rain, all I needed to do was to call him and he would come to pick me up. ” Lulu answered.
“He got a Pontiac, it is like a boat. He dumps all his money into cars. ” Betty commented.
“Yes I heard him. It’s very kind of him to do so.” Lulu filled Betty’s cup and pushed it closer to Betty’s hand.
“But Lulu, I am telling you now and you should listen, all men are charming when they first meet you. My Mark No. 1, oh, God, isn’t he charming? He came to the door and shouted over my fence: resident, resident, Madam, Madam. He never calls me Betty, He expected me to call him “maintenance”. I didn’t. He wanted to keep the tension going. At last he blew all that tension away. He ended in my bed one night.”
“You must like him or even love him. He must have done a good job maintaining your system.” Lulu commented. “But he is wild .”
“You got a good eye for man. I got a full king size, and what you expect when he came in from the rain, and I just need a drinking buddy. Got me pregnant. I did not know that my oven can still bake. But you never know how he got me pregnant. He knew some black magic and I got used to having him in my bed, especially in rainy seasons. ” Betty was putting the last piece of bacon into her mouth.
“The rainy season is starting, and now I have you in the house, I can’t let him stay anymore. “Betty said.
“He can stay for the nap when I go shopping.”
“But he said he preferred not. He said he enjoyed staying in his car and listening to the rain. I never know what he is thinking. He likes meatballs and I always have meatballs ready for him. He feels shy when you are around. ”
Lulu grinned to herself.
“Ok, Betty, sip your coffee, nibble at your carrot cake and I will leave you so you can snatch up some sleep.”
Lulu left the door open just wide enough for a cat to come in, in case Betty’s cats Kelly, Smoky or Buttery would so incline. Betty said that Smoky had a pair of reincarnated eyes that reminded her of her male companion Mark No.1.
