The Fold (17 page)

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. Sam’s an amazing photographer,” Gina said, her head snapping to the left. “So step off.”

Lisa parted her perfectly lined red lips to return fire at Gina.

“Hey, Lisa,” Joyce interrupted her, “you were saying that they have a new laser technique for those hard spots.” Joyce pointed to her knees.

Lisa turned away from Gina, who was staring off at the ocean, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Yeah,” Lisa said, “it’s this new technique they’ve been using in Europe, but it’s not approved yet for the United States. Basically, they use a laser to melt the fat smoothly. And they can use it on smaller pockets of fat like above your knees or for people who have a BIG face, suck a little fat from their cheeks.”

Gina took off her sunglasses and turned toward Lisa. “Did you just call me fat?”

Lisa snorted. “No. But I see you have some issues, if you thought I was talking about you.”

“I heard what you said.” Gina’s head began to snake around as though about to strike.

Joyce jumped over to Gina. “I don’t think Lisa was calling you fat, Gina.”

Gina stepped back. “I can’t believe you’re defending her. She just called Sam a creepy loser, and now you’re letting her call me fat.”

“She didn’t say you were fat, Gina!” Joyce stepped closer to Gina and said in a low voice, “Will you stop with the hysterics? It was just a misunderstanding. She’s nice. Just chill out.”

Gina threw up her hands and then slipped on her sunglasses. “You know what, Joyce? If getting your eyes done
means you’re going to hang out with someone like her, I’m finished here.” Gina walked away.

Joyce started to go after her, but she heard Lisa gasp. Joyce turned around. Lisa was shielding her eyes again and looking out at the ocean.

“He is SO gorgeous,” Lisa said, pointing to a figure in the distance.

Joyce followed Lisa’s finger. All thoughts of finding Gina vanished. There was only room for three words in Joyce’s mind. John Ford Kang.

john
Ford Kang emerged from the waves like a surfing god. He flipped his head back, and his wet hair flew off his forehead. He carried his surfboard under one arm as he ran onto the beach and then set it down next to his towel. Bits of seaweed clung to his muscular chest.

Joyce could feel her mouth hanging open. She turned to Lisa, who was staring as openly as Joyce was.

“You know him?” Joyce asked, forcing her eyes to peel off of his smooth, tanned skin.

“Yeah. His father works with my uncle over at a software firm.” Lisa’s eyes openly devoured him. “Too bad his mom and dad are in the middle of splitting up.”

“Really?” Joyce said.

Lisa lowered her voice and spoke out of the corner of her lips. “She was caught cheating with this English guy at work. It’s kind of sad, actually. John and his father really embraced his mother’s side of the family and traveled to Germany every vacation to be with them. They seem kind of lost now without her, but my uncle has been trying to get them to try more Korean things. You know, go to church and see more of the Korean side of the family. Be a part of the Korean fold.”

A faint ringing could be heard. Lisa took her cell phone out of her pocket and checked the screen.

“I have to take this call. You should go up and introduce yourself to him as my friend.” Lisa held the phone to her ear and stepped away from Joyce.

Joyce continued standing there, wondering what to do. In the distance, she could see Sam and Gina walking away from the volleyball area. A few of the guys who were practicing their volleyball serves were calling out to John. Joyce couldn’t take her eyes off him. John glanced up.

Joyce froze.

John waved.

Joyce turned around to see if he was waving at someone else standing behind her. She turned back around, and John was still waving. Joyce tentatively
held up her hand and waved her fingers a bit. John smiled. Joyce wiggled her fingers more forcefully. She wiggled her fingers better than any cheerleader doing spirit fingers. What was she supposed to do next? What would Lisa do?

“Go talk to him,” Joyce muttered to herself. But her feet wouldn’t move, and her fingers just kept on writhing like busy little worms. I have to stop, she thought as her hand began to cramp up, but her fingers had become disconnected from her mind and kept on wagging.

John started walking toward her. Joyce immediately dropped her eyes only to realize that her chubby knees were showing. Joyce grabbed her skirt and tried forcing down the hem.

“Hi,” John said.

Joyce froze, her hands still clutching her skirt. “Hi,” she croaked, looking up at him.

“I didn’t know you went to these church events.”

Joyce forced her hands off her skirt. “I don’t normally. I mean, not that I don’t like to, or anything.” Joyce remembered what Lisa had said about John and his father trying to get back in touch with their culture. “It’s a great way to meet up with Korean friends.”

“Right,” John said, looking around at the group
gathering to play volleyball. “I don’t know many people here.”

“Oh,” Joyce said, pretending to be surprised.

John turned back to her. “It was great seeing you the other night at your restaurant.”

“What?” Joyce said. “At the restaurant?” Had he seen her hanging out of the kitchen doorway looking like the fool?

John gazed down at her, puzzled.

“You met my dad and my uncles and aunts. Come on, Helen, your memory was never this bad in council meetings.”

Joyce recalled how he and Helen had hugged. “Oh, wow, okay.” Joyce started to laugh. “You thought I was Helen!”

John flicked his hair back again.

“I’m Joyce.” She pointed her thumb at herself.

“Who?”

“Helen’s sister. Joyce.”

John studied her face closely. He stepped back and studied her entire body. Closely. Joyce glanced away for a second when she felt her face burning. He had thought she was Helen. Maybe she shouldn’t have corrected him.

“Joyce?” John said.

Joyce straightened her shoulders and reminded herself that she looked just as good as Helen. Even Gomo had said so. Joyce tilted her head slightly and turned to John with her eyes wide and open. “We had AP Chem together.”

John stepped forward. “You were in my chem class?”

“Yeah, you even signed my yearbook.”

John gazed down at her, a small flirt of a smile brushing up the corners of his lips. He stepped closer. “Wait, did I run into you on the last day?”

Joyce stepped closer. “You knocked me over!” She raised her finger and poked his smooth, sharply defined shoulder. Joyce felt faint, but she remained standing. She wanted to pinch herself. No, she wanted to pinch him. Or at least poke his shoulder again. Joyce couldn’t believe she was actually flirting with John Ford Kang.

“That was you!” John said, throwing back his head in laughter. “Damn.”

“What do you mean?” Joyce said, pretending to be hurt.

“You just look so different.”

Joyce jutted out her hip and placed her hand there for emphasis. She watched John’s eyes move from her hip to her chest, which made Joyce inhale and exhale
quickly to get that nice upward heave, and then his eyes moved to meet her eyes. Joyce blinked slowly, letting the full effect of her shimmering eye shadow do its job. Cool as any blonde at Orangedale, except for her armpits, where Joyce could feel the nervous sweat pooling like a hot springs. Joyce clamped her upper arms to her sides and leaned back to gaze up at his face.

“I think you need glasses or something.” Joyce pouted. “You signed my yearbook for Lynn Song.”

John’s eyes scrunched together. “Lynn? Is she the one who always has her hair hanging in her face?”

Joyce thought about the last day of school and the huge zit that she had been trying to cover with her hair. And the way Lynn’s hair kept falling forward as they washed the beakers. So it wasn’t really Joyce that he saw that day. He didn’t think, technically, that she was ugly, but had mistaken her for Lynn because of the hair in her face.

Joyce gazed up at John Ford Kang, meeting his large brown-green eyes with her own perfectly folded eyes. He was everything she had dreamed. Imagined. Wished for all year long. It was finally happening. To Joyce! She could feel the energy surging from his powerfully built body, felt the pull of his laughter as he joked about Mr. Blevins and leaned in so close
that Joyce could smell the sea on his skin! They were talking like they really knew each other. Magic. Lisa Yim had been right. The fold was not about how you looked so much as how it made you feel and act. Was this really the same Joyce, laughing like she had wind chimes for vocal cords? Joyce didn’t even know she could make that noise. Joyce’s spirits lifted high and fast as the volleyball that sailed over the net.

“Hey, John,” the guy who had just served called out. “You going to play or just flirt with all the pretty ladies?”

“I’ll be right there,” John called back.

The guy sounded a wolf whistle loud enough to make Joyce blush.

“I love you too, Eddie,” Lisa Yim called out, walking up to Joyce. “Hey, I’m glad you two met.”

Lisa slid right up to John and leaned against his chest.

“Did you know that Helen, I mean, Joyce and I were in the same chemistry class?” John said, stepping back.

“Really?” Lisa said, stepping even closer and staring up into his face. “And you two never met?”

Joyce studied how Lisa curved her body toward John.

Lisa cooed, “I can’t believe you two were in the same class without realizing it.”

“Well, you and I have known each other for over a year, and we didn’t really become friends until two weeks ago,” John said.

Lisa laughed and lightly traced the muscles on John’s chest. “Yeah, that’s true.”

A spike of pain shot through Joyce’s shoulders, making them slump forward. Her jutted hip collapsed into a slouch. Joyce could feel the tears welling in the corners of her eyes. As quickly as her heart had soared, she could feel the crush of humiliation descending on her. It had to be a mistake. Lisa was just being affectionate. Joyce pretended some sand had blown into her face.

“Man, the wind is really kicking today,” Joyce said and turned away to rub the tears from her eyes. John wouldn’t have been so flirtatious with her if he were going out with someone else. Especially when that someone had been standing just a few steps away. But, then again, Helen did say he was a player.

Joyce stood there rubbing her eye while her mind whirled and attached to John’s last words. Friends. He didn’t say girlfriend. He said friends. That was it. Lisa and John were family friends. Of course, his father
and her uncle worked together and probably socialized together. Why wouldn’t old friends be affectionate with each other? Joyce had just been imagining things. Like always. Joyce shook herself from her reverie. Lisa and John were just friends, she convinced herself.

“Come on, playboy,” Eddie called from the net.

John waved at Eddie and untangled himself from Lisa’s tentacles.

“See you later, ladies,” John said. “I have to go kick some kimchi fool loving ass.”

Joyce smiled brightly. “Kick some butt, John!”

John gazed intently at Joyce. “Are your eyes okay?”

“What?” Joyce nervously raised her fingertips to the outer edges of her eyes. “Yeah, I just got some sand in them.”

“Go help Eddie before he has a heart attack,” Lisa said and gave him a push.

John ran over to the volleyball game.

Lisa turned to Joyce and whispered urgently, “Your right eyelid fell!”

“Damn!” Joyce quickly covered that eye.

“I thought you had the procedure done for real. I was wondering how you had healed so quickly.”

Joyce uncovered her eye but kept her head down. “Dr.
Reiner just glued them back so we could see what size crease I wanted.”

“Well, do you have more of the glue? I could help you put it back.”

“No,” Joyce said. “I should get home anyway.”

“Too bad you can’t stay for the barbecue,” Lisa said, watching the game. “Oh, God, even though he’s still in high school, he’s so gorgeous, it doesn’t even matter.”

“What doesn’t matter?” Joyce asked, glumly staring at the sand.

“That he likes me,” Lisa stated.

Joyce rubbed her eyes and then yanked down her skirt some more.

joyce
trudged back through the sand, holding her skirt in place. Gina and Sam were nowhere to be seen. They probably left, Joyce thought miserably and unlocked the car door. She stepped inside, indifferent to the sand she was tracking in. What had started out as an amazing adventure was beginning to feel like a bad burn day at the beach. A cranky tiredness overwhelmed her body. Joyce checked her eyes in the rearview mirror. Her face looked lopsided with her one eyelid undone. Lopsided and tired and ugly. She tried pulling the other eyelid down, but it held fast.

“Ow, ow, oww!” Joyce stopped pulling, worried she might rip her skin. This was so typical. Everything always backfired. Joyce started up the car. Maybe this
was a bad sign. Joyce couldn’t even get her eyes done without it failing miserably. And yet, Joyce thought, if it was permanent, her eyelid wouldn’t have fallen. She could have stayed for the barbecue and talked to John some more. What made Lisa so sure that he liked her? Joyce started to get fired up. She, not Lisa, would be the one who got to see John every day of the week when school started. Joyce frantically counted the weeks before school started. Her plan could still work. Now, if she could only get the surgery scheduled sooner rather than later. Lisa didn’t have a patent out on John. He had been stalking Helen, and now he could come after Joyce. He had flirted with her, right? Joyce rubbed her eye. What if she had been imagining things? If only she could talk to Gina.

As Joyce was inching out of her parking spot, she saw Gina and Sam approaching the lot. Joyce stopped the car and waved frantically at them. Gina abruptly turned around. Sam gazed at Joyce for a second and then did the same. Joyce’s hand fell. She couldn’t believe Gina and Sam were going to make such a big deal out of nothing. How was she supposed to change if her friends couldn’t be supportive? Gina had been the one pushing her to get the surgery in the first place, and now Gina was making her choose between
their friendship or her new self? Joyce carefully finished backing up and headed out of the parking lot. The empty car echoed with the sound of Joyce’s sniffling. Maybe having a car was overrated.