A Wild Woman's Guide To Traveling the World
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
so I think I'm going to go home. Elaine has said this to me is I swigged for my bottle of San Miguel. She wouldn't look me in the eye. Instead, she stared down at her bowl of wiry brown noodles, jabbing at them with the fork she had procured from her purse. The emergency fork should have been my first indicator that she wasn't comfortable in Hong Kong. What do you mean? You think you're going to go home? I forced the words from the back of my throat, suppressing a cough from the mouthful of beer that I'd gulped. The bitter aftertaste burned the edges of my tongue. We just got here eight hours ago. Our flights not for another week. Well, when you were in the shower before I called the airline and changed my return flight to tomorrow morning. So I think I'm going to go home. She twirled the noodles repeatedly around her fork, watching them glisten, but never brought them to her mouth. It was the most perfect noodle I'd ever tasted firm and salty, but here she was, wasting them with her mindless fiddling. I wanted to grab the fork from her pale bony hand and stabber in the eye. What about me? Oh, I didn't change your ticket. You should stay, she said. You should definitely stay and enjoy the rest of your vacation. It was now my vacation, not ours. The din around us at the Temple Street night market began to fade, and I felt a dull ache behind my eyes. Jetlag was descending. I had expected to spend this meal reviewing our itinerary for the rest of the week, the itinerary I'd so carefully and painstakingly planned. Instead, I was being abandoned by my best friend 7000 miles from home. The earmarked guidebook I had placed on the table mocked me. An overburdened waitress deposited to plastic plates in front of us, each laden with food. Fresh from the makeshift sidewalk kitchen four feet away, spicy fried pork piled atop a thin layer of shredded white cabbage dotted with nickel slices of fiery red peppers. Razor clams heaped with green vegetables sopping in a thick brown sauce. Steam rose from them in fragrant grey plumes. A grimace passed over Elaina's face. Help yourself, I challenged. It's probably your last chance for a meal in Hong Kong. The fork stood upright in her bowl, tangled in the cooling noodles. Her hands were clasped around the purse in her lap, signalling that she was done with this meal. I picked up my chopsticks and pinched a narrow tubular clamshell from the serving dish. What is that? She asked, recoiling slightly. The clam. A potential threat to her well being. It's a ******* clam, Elena. I tour the chewy flesh from the shell with my chopsticks and popped it in my mouth, getting a burst of sweet fission. Issa's I bit down. Why don't you try one instead of sitting there feeling sorry for yourself? Why are you being so cold to me? She said, her face twisted in disbelief, as if my aggression had been unprovoked. We'd known each other since grade school, but her little Miss innocent act still managed to astound me. As soon as we buckled ourselves in on the plane ride over here, I said you started crying about how much you miss Roddy, and you haven't let up since I planned this whole trip for us. And now you're ditching me without even giving it a chance. If you were in love, you would understand my eyes reflexively rolled to the back of my head. Is this what love is being so obsessed with someone that you can't be apart from them for a few days? I have fun with a friend in a new country. When it happens to you, you'll see, she said, turning her nose up. I expected to see her storm away in her usual theatrical fashion, but I could see in the way her eyes darted, that the crowd was intimidating her. She was too afraid to get up from this table and take the subway by herself, back to our hotel in one shy. So I held her hostage while I ate, taking my time to savor the flavors before me. The meal that I'd looked forward to for so long. Hong Kong had a reputation for delectable street food. At least one of us was going to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience.