Bonni heard her dad’s ‘scratching’ statement more times than she could remember. One day Bonni commented to her dad. “Dad, I haven’t seen you scratching anyone’s back. Why do you say that?”
Her dad smiled and started thinking like a father whose little girl needed help with her homework. He had always been proud of her inquisitive mind. He tried to feed it with knowledge that would excite her whenever he could. These were memorable moments for him and he jumped all over this one.
“Bonni," he started, “do you ever have an itch on your back that you can’t reach?” She looked at him and considered his question. She had observed him politicking for several years. She knew her answer had to be clever. Then she tilted her head slightly to the right just like she had seen him do many times and answered. “Sure, but isn’t that what backscratchers are for.” And she ran out of the room.
Mark watched her leave. That moment of pride was replaced with thoughts of organizing the paperwork on his desk. Suddenly, Bonni bounced back into his office with what looked like a wooden stick. It had a dull claw-like carving on one end and a tapered handle with a hole in it on the other.
Bonni beamed up at her father and showed him her mom’s backscratcher. “When mom has an itch she uses this."
Her dad smiled. “Have you ever used it?”
“Sure,” she replied proudly.
This wasn’t the first time Mark Giardina had to improvise. He hadn’t considered Bonni using the back scratcher as a prop. His memorable moment suddenly clouded over. In a political second, he recovered. “If mom didn’t have this backscratcher, what would she do?”
Bonni immediately knew the answer. But she positioned herself to add a bit of flare to her answer. She walked over to the window, pushed back the curtain and pointed out. As she stared, she said. “Mom would send Charles to that store across the street to buy one for her.”
Her dad chuckled. “Of course she would. If the stores were closed, then what would she do?”
Bonni pursed her lips pretending to think. Finally, she said, “Mom would ask me or you or maybe Charles to scratch her back.”
“Very good! Now if mom asked you to scratch her back and you did, would you expect her to scratch your back when you had an itch and asked her?”
She looked him in the eyes experiencing a moment of clarity. With her brightest, biggest smile, she nodded slowly. “Yes.”
At that moment in time at the tender age of nine, another politician was born. Her dad recognized it and so did she. The Giardina political tradition had just been extended another generation.
Chapter 5 Chop Sticks
“Up for Chinese tonight?” Mac asked Jimmy.
“Sure but we’ll have to get back before our study session. I asked Carol and Juan over to review cases with us for tomorrow’s test.”
“What time are they coming over?”
“About eight.”
“Ok, let’s go now and we’ll be back in plenty of time.” Mac sprung to his feet. They left their apartment and began walking.
Anxious anticipation powered Mac’s stride. “Slow down, big fellow. The only thing we have waiting for us when we get back are two nerds and cases up the wazoo.”
“Let’s go to King Lings.” Mac pointed with his head towards the Chinese restaurant and didn’t slow down.
Jimmy reflected on Mac’s story from the other night and understood Mac’s rush. Wild as the fake BJ story was, Jimmy understood Mac’s itch to find his Eurasian damsel in distress. For fun he started to out-stride him. He joked as he passed him. “First one there gets the Eurasian dream girl!”
Mac knew this was a wild goose chase, but fantasies were his only outlet at this time in his life. Law school monopolized every waking minute. It compromised his eating and sleeping habits until he started rooming with Jimmy. Jimmy’s carefree spirit complimented his serious nature. Leaving the apartment for dinner and chasing some fantasy girl tonight was his way of taking a break. Jimmy was among for the adventure.
Mac decided to change the subject. "Did you hear some Democrat Senator called the Republicans, an E. coli club."
"That's nothing new," Jimmy claimed. "I remember Frank Colacurcio and his buddies sitting outside his deli and talking politics. They voted for Democrats because they could be bribed with less money than the Republicans."
"I don't know anything about that," Mac responded. "But I do know that they have been accusing Republicans of starving babies for years."
"Funny isn't it. Democrats support Obamacare's death panels for the elderly and publically funded abortions. Who really is the E coli club?"
Mac opened the door to King Lings Restaurant. Jimmy walked pass the register counter with its ‘seat yourself’ sign. They found a table half way down the aisle against the wall.
The waitress dropped off two glasses of water and a couple of plastic covered, sticky menus. As she walked away, Mac noticed a chopstick in her hair. Jimmy took note of Mac focusing on the waitress’s hair and said. “That’s what long-haired Asian girls do. They roll it up into a bun and push a chopstick through.”
Mac memorized that little tidbit of information. Then he started imaging the chopstick in his mystery girl's hair. He took this thought one step further. He removed the chopstick from her hair and watched it unroll down most of her back. He sighed and looked down at the menu.
Throughout the meal, he made mental notes of the restaurant. From the wooden chopsticks to the plastic plates to the paper napkins, nothing seemed to connect to his Eurasian mystery girl. Even the servers were more Chinese looking than Eurasian. He observed that the Chinese have more rounded faces than other Asian cultures.
After gobbling down the orange chicken, house noodles and fried rice, they sat back. Mac took in a lungful of air. He acted disappointed. “Let’s get out of here.”
Jimmy smiled. “Don’t take it too hard. You really didn’t expect to see your mystery girl here, did you?” Mac just gave him a half-grin.
On their way out Mac stopped at the counter by the entrance. He looked for a toothpick. He froze while looking into the display case window. Right behind the takeout fortune cookies was a box of chopsticks. They were tan colored and plastic with King Ling written in red on the handle.
Jimmy noticed what Mac had seen. “Just because you see her chopstick, doesn’t mean she was here. She may have picked it up on the street or in a second hand store down on Market.”
They left the restaurant. Jimmy kept chattering about the odds of ever seeing Mac's mystery girl again. No matter what Jimmy said, Mac held out hope.
Chapter 6 Study Session
Mac and Jimmy's second floor flat overlooked the two and half acre Father Alfred E. Boeddeker Park in the Tenderloin district. Father Boeddeker was a Franciscan priest who served the poor and hungry in the neighborhood years before. He established the nearby St. Anthony Dining room where Mac occasionally volunteered to serve dinners.
