Porkbellies

Jason lives in Indiana in one of those houses that’s miles from its nearest neighbor. His dad explained to me that the market price for pork is less than the cost of raising a pig. So there were only two on the farm— for the family, for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I stayed overnight at his house, I also spent one night at Adrian’s. Adrian is Chinese and his grandmother died two days before I got to his house. I thought I shouldn’t stay there but I did. His mother’s family came over for dinner, most of them don’t speak English. They smiled at me because we couldn’t talk to each other and because I didn’t like the fried fish that I was trying to eat. He calls his hometown a suburb. It seemed the only available entertainment there was sitting on the corner with the traffic light or bowling, so I’d call his town rural, I bowled a 121 which is a decent score for me. There is a girl that Adrian is in love with. He worries about his feelings for her often. He also worries about her feelings for him. He has just bought her plane tickets so she will come visit him. She is going to stay for a week and Adrian is hoping that during the time she is with him it will be clear whether they will be together forever. It is not going to be clear.