You say, “Sounds trememdous. I heard that line-dancing is for people who have no imagination.”

You’re being mean and you don’t sound like you. I tell you I’m sorry for not writing sooner and that I understand why you’d be pissed about it. You sigh. “I’m not. You seem well, and I’m happy for you, honestly. And I think it’s great, your little dance movie idea.”

I laugh. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”

“No.” You take a sip from my tea. You screw up your face in disgust as you return the cup to its saucer. “I can’t help myself.”

Freaky, huh? So anyway, I really am taking off to do my little dance movie, in exactly twenty-four hours in fact. My uncle and aunts insisted on a send-off, so we had a barbecue yesterday at Aunt Mei’s cottage on the river. It’s the first time I’ve seen everyone in months, and it’s beautiful: sky and mountains all around and green, green fields. We sit around the barbecue pit, my uncle and aunts and cousins, roasting meat and fish over white-hot coals. Aunt Mei fusses over me, insists I don’t have enough mosquito spray on and pushes the aerosol into my hands. Aunt Flora’s dishing out her homemade sweet rice soup. Did I tell you her husband screwed around, went bankrupt, and left her with loan sharks graffiting threats over the front of her apartment? Now she’s an obsessive angler. She sits in a boat on a lake in the middle of nowhere with her fishing rod and a floppy sun hat and stays there for hours. I think it calms her.

Uncle Yun tells me about wanting to get out of electronics, maybe opening up a café instead. He’s also started Korean classes. He’s a little bit shy and a little bit proud when he demonstrates the few phrases he can say: Hello. How are you. Would you like some tea.

I look at them all, and I think: We’re showing each other so much love. But see what it took…

So the sun is setting, I’ve got a million mosquito bites on my legs, and I’m getting on a plane tomorrow. I have my passport, ticket, and $$$. Adios my friend, and thank you and good luck with everything. See you in the next life. // Yi