Land of Milk and Honey

It is May. The narrator starts crying multiple times a day after running out of her stash of cigarettes and other drugs. Aida notices the difference in the narrator’s eyes. The following day, a doctor calls and directs the narrator to take various readings, like blood pressure and weight. The doctor says that she is underweight.

The narrator’s birthday is in May; her generation is called “Generation Mayfly” because of a report that determined that their life spans would be shorter than those of previous generations (48).

When the report came out, the staff of the family restaurant where the narrator worked started getting into fights. However, the report didn’t upset the narrator: Her mother already considered her a disappointment. The narrator’s mother, who grew up impoverished in China, had won a scholarship to study medicine in China and then a visa to America. In the US, she married a Korean American man. However, this man became physically abusive and left the family. Meanwhile, the narrator’s mother’s Chinese medical credentials only got her an entry-level position in a nursing home. The narrator’s mother saved up enough money to move from Pasaje, California, to Los Angeles when the narrator got into the University of California, Los Angeles.