This Is My Brain in Love - I. W. Gregorio Page 0,115
quite follow and Miss Zhou laughs, the fatigue dropping from her face for just a moment. Will rounds out our motley crew, and Priya’s camera catches the deference with which he spoons out a plate for my amah and tops off my dad’s water when it gets low.
If Priya’s video were a film, it’d be the kind that gets a Rotten Tomatometer rating from critics but scores off the charts in its audience rating. Even as I teared up the first time I watched her initial cut, the reviewer in me wanted to use words like “mawkish” or “sentimental.” And the tropes! I stopped counting after a while: The “Family Restaurant” trope. The “Multigenerational Family” trope. And here I am, the walking “Your Tradition Is Not Mine” trope.
But the second time I watched it and burst into uncontrolled weeping, it occurred to me that the video works because the tropes hit so close to home, not in spite of them. That’s when I called up Priya and told her that my plan was to make this the most manipulative video in the history of man. If my whole life was a trope, I was going to own it.
I’ve watched the video enough times that it doesn’t make me cry anymore, but I can see Miss Zhou scrabbling in her purse for a tissue. Even my dad looks a little stricken. And yes, I’m a total atheist (or at least an agnostic), but at that particular moment I pray. I pray to an unnamed God or Goddess that my dad will see. That he’ll realize that our family is so much bigger than him and Mom and Alan and Amah and me. I pray that he’ll understand that now is not the time to give up, and that he’ll see that he’s not alone anymore, that I have just as much a stake in the business as he does. Most of all, I pray that he’ll see that for the first time in my life I might have a chance at happiness—and that my dreams for the future might not look exactly like his.
I turn the lights back on, and my mother is the first one to burst into applause. Everyone joins in, even my dad. And as people blink back into reality, I turn to Will.
This Is My Brain on Pride
WILL
“I hope everyone enjoyed the video,” I say. There’s a chorus of approval and a grunt from Mr. Wu, who is giving off some very conflicted vibes from where he’s sitting with his arms crossed. “It’s the first time I’ve been involved in anything like this, and it was awesome because it was so easy to capture how much love people have for this place. I’ve only been working here for a couple of months, but thank you for opening up your hearts to me and making me part of the family.”
“Thanks for making it so my math book doesn’t seem like it’s written in Dothraki,” Alan yells. I fight to keep a straight face as I continue my speech.
“We’ve had an amazing summer, and Jocelyn and I wanted to show you exactly how amazing.” Jocelyn pulls up the PowerPoint that we made and turns on my laser pointer.
“The most incredible growth we’ve had has been in our social media,” Jocelyn says. “We went from zero to one hundred in our presence online, and the number of check-ins and e-coupons we’ve seen has driven a twenty-five percent increase in revenue compared to last year. Thanks to Will’s online cart, we’ve also been able to be more efficient with taking orders—there are hardly any days when people have to wait on hold, and of course payment processing is a snap.”
Jocelyn pauses and clicks ahead to her next slide, which is a picture of the A-Plus storefront. “So, I know there’s been some concern about rising rent costs.”
Alan, who was there the day the men came by with the tape measure, grimaces. Mr. Wu just looks gloomily at a half-empty cup of tea.
“The good thing is,” Jocelyn says, “we’re hopeful that sales growth will be able to outpace overhead. And Will has an update on the status of our lease.”
That’s my cue. I clear my throat. Mr. Wu is staring at me with narrowed eyes. A month ago that look would have sent me scurrying. But today I eat that suspicion up like it’s gelato on a hot day. It fuels what I say next.