一个北京女人在美国

First time I met Nancy was when she came to my apartment to join us to go to the university gym. There were Alice, John and I. Alice was a 40-year-old woman. John was in his 30s, about my age. Alice introduced us to one another. I offered Nancy coffee. She said she preferred black coffee, no cream and no sugar. I asked her if she was enjoying her life here.
She said, “ I just want to get myself gilded. I will go back to Beijing as soon as I get my degree.”
This surely impressed me, since many Chinese students wanted to stay in the states.

We went to the university gym. The two ladies went swimming. John and I went to use some exercise machines. They were so complicated I did not know how to use, so I looked at a white boy who was working out. He probably realized I was looking at him, and was a bit uneasy. When the two ladies got out of the pools I overheard Nancy saying, “We need to take a good shower.”
Alice said, “Yeah. Sure. The pool is clean though.”
Nancy said, “Do I have to say it out loud? Some Americans have many sex partners. We got to be careful of STDs.”

On our way back to the apartment Nancy told us about her hu*****and. A surgeon in a big hospital in Beijing, he was widely respected and making some serious money.
“Will he give up his life in Beijing and come to the states?” she asked herself, “No way. Patients are trying hard to ingratiate themselves with him; chicks are after him all the time. I have to be extra vigilant to hold onto my guy.” When she said all this, she did not seem to be worried about her marriage. Maybe she just wanted to tell us how successful her hubby was. It was turning dark and you can see the beautiful silhouettes of those tall palms against the evening sky.

But in fact she was worried. She went back to Beijing after her first semester, without telling her hu*****and about the trip beforehand. She told Alice that she wanted to take her hu*****and by surprise. She said she searched her home carefully and thoroughly for perfume, clothes, hair, and everything else that might indicate the presence of another female. She was satisfied: no evidence of a sexual escapade was found.

I wanted to buy a second-hand Camry. John took me to check out the car. John was the kind of guy who liked to take lead and make decisions, which I was entirely incapable of. The seller was a middle aged white man. He said, “There were 10000 miles on the car. But trust me, it would still be on the road for the next ten years.” When we requested a test drive, he neither wanted to ride along nor asked to copy my photo ID. John test-drove the car and said it was good, so I decided to buy it.

Since I couldn’t drive yet I asked Nancy to pick up the car for me. John and I went to Nancy’s apartment when we were leaving to do the transaction. It was a two-bedroom apartment. She was sharing it with another girl. She had a brand new mattress and box. I had been using a mattress that someone else threw away. A pair of new mattress and box was a couple of hundred of dollars, a very noble amount for me at the time.

I said, “Nancy, you are so rich.”
She said, “I can buy everything else used, but I have to buy a new mattress and box. I have to sleep on it for eight hours every night. It just makes me so uncomfortable, you know, the idea of using a second hand mattress.”

John took us to the seller in his Nissan Sentra. A car suddenly changed to our lane. It was so close John had to change lane abruptly to avoid a collision. In a moment it seemed that our car was going to turn upside down. I instinctively grabbed something: in fact I grabbed Nancy’s hand. She said, “Harry, you were so scared.”

When we got there, Nancy said, “Do you want to take the car to a technician to check, just to be on the safe side. It is only forty bucks.” I asked the seller if I could check the car. He was a bit unhappy.
“ It is ok.” He said, “but you did not say you want to check the car last time.”
John said, “ I don’t think we need to check. I test-drove it. It is ok.”
So I paid 2700 dollars for the car. And Nancy drove the car back for me.

A few weeks after I had my own car, Nancy called me. She said she was with a friend, and their car was out of battery.
“Can you come here to give our car a jump?” she asked.
I said of course. I just learned how to drive and I was enjoying driving to places. Besides, Nancy helped me before. She gave me the address and I went there. On my way to meet her, I took a wrong turn on a one way street and a black guy yelled at me, “ Hey, you!”

She was with a guy and she introduced us to each other. His name was Nick. We went to his apartment after we jumped the car. Nick said he came to the states with H1B visa; his wife applied for H4 visa but was denied. He had been working in the states for four years now.
“Do you need to know another foreign language for a PhD?” Nick asked me.
“Yes. I know some Russian.” I said.
“Your wife knows Japanese.” Nancy said, touching Nick’s arm.
I had the feeling that they two were not just friends. But as the saying goes in the Bible: Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Besides, you can’t ask a guy to live alone for four years.

A few weeks later, I met Nancy in the parking lot of our apartment complex. She just stepped out a Jetta. She said Nick bought her this car for 7000 dollars, in a very calm way. I said it was a very nice car. She did not care that other people knew that she, a married woman, was having an affair. This was a far cry from when she suspected her hu*****and of infidelity.

One day John called me, saying that he rented a very good Asian porn movie, asking me to go there to check it out. John did not like American porn movie. They were too brutal, he said. I went to John’s apartment, and unexpectedly, I met Nancy and Nick. They seemed to be embarrassed and I did not know why. We chatted for a few minutes and they left. John said that he was going back to china for a month, during which time he was renting his apartment to Nick. Nancy told him that Nick was the son of one of her mother’s friends; that Nick just came to the states, and needed a place to stay.

I blurted out that I met Nick several months ago. So stupid was I. I really regretted it. Nancy helped me before. Why did I have to give the lie to her story? John emailed her in great indignation, asking her why she would cheat him. This completely ruined my friendly relationship with Nancy.

After that I met Nancy and Nick in a grocery store once. They walked by hurriedly, pretending they did not see me. Nancy went back to Beijing upon graduation. We did not say goodbye. I knew that she was leaving school when I saw an ad in the Chinese mailing list. She was selling her Jetta for 7000 dollars, the price Nick paid for the car.

所有跟帖： 

• Enjoy this one and another about John from Shandong. Thx -internuts- ♂ (0 bytes) () 11/02/2008 postreply 08:31:08

• 写的些啥东东啊 -我爱笨女人- ♂ (27 bytes) () 11/03/2008 postreply 12:17:29