Saying Goodbye

At the precocious age of four, I loved watermelon. I loved watermelon so much I didn't even spit out the seeds and I swallowed them whole. One day, Uncle Steve took me aside and told me those seeds would one day grow into plants and one day vines and fruit will be popping out of every whole in my body. He patted my stomach and put his ear to it and said it was starting to sound like a watermelon was already growing. Wide-eyed and gulping, I took his adult words to be truth and every day I checked my ears and my mouth for any signs of a watermelon plant. I pounded on my stomach and listened for the sounds I knew my mom would listen for when she chose the watermelons at our local grocery store. In my fantasies, watermelons grew off large gnarly trees and as the fear took hold of me days later, I went crying to my mother lamenting that I did not want to grow up to be a watermelon tree. When my mom started laughing I knew I had been tricked and I ignored my delighted and mischievous Uncle Steve for days.

I took my revenge when I discovered his name was "Rong Shen" which to my young ears sounded a lot like "Rou Song", the dried salty pork that my grandmother packed for me for my school lunches. I would dance around and call him dried salty pork until he'd come pick me up and spin me around til I was dizzy and showed me who was really boss.

And that was just the sort of man my uncle was. He loved teasing children and taking advantage of the gullible and he was really, really good at it.

He opened a sandwich shop in downtown Sacramento and I worked there during my holidays and summer breaks. He'd admonish me for putting too much in the sandwiches. He'd let me steal frozen Otis Amos cookies from the freezer and kept it a secret from my mom.

All my life he would bring my aunt and my cousins over to make dumplings, eat hotpot for special occasions or just for fun. He was the relative we called when there was something wrong with our car. He liked to watch Chinese serials and rent blockbuster hits with lots of action. For Christmas one year, we all got together after hot pot and watched STEALTH and he was possibly the only one who thought it was good.

He got hooked on the SOPRANOS and was a little disappointed to hear that I didn't keep up. He'd call me up and make fun of my Chinese and ask me how my car was doing. Ever since he discovered Skype, he'd ring me since he didn't have a cellphone or a long distance plan to call me here in Los Angeles.

On Easter Sunday, March 23 my Uncle Steve passed away at 6pm leaving behind wife, Grace, and their two sons, Michael and Daniel.