I knew being confined to a hospital bed was torture for my father. He liked to be on the move all the time. “There goes the Great White Shark”—that was what Vivienne would say whenever he would go off on another one of his business trips to Tokyo, San Francisco, London. In the beginning, she went with him, but she quickly realized that she’d see little more of him than if she stayed behind in Hong Kong. It seemed to me that my father spent more time in the air, crossing continents and time zones, than here on the ground with the rest of us. Now and then, though, when he was home for a brief spell between trips, he might notice me at the kitchen table with my homework scattered about, and he’d pull up a chair (but not sit in it) and shake his newspaper open and make some sort of comment about how disappointing the world was, or how this political party or that industrial sector needed to get its act together. I’d nod or shrug as if I knew exactly what he meant, responding at appropriate moments to his weary tirade while pretending to work on algebra or French participles. As soon as I put my pencil down, he’d say he was interrupting my studies and disappear for another week. At the time, it didn’t seem strange to me that these were the moments we spent together.

“You look like you’re going to be sick.”

“What?” I looked at Vivienne, who was frowning at me, then at Keung, who was still driving.

“You look like you’re going to be sick.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“We can stop.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“We’ll stop.” Vivienne leaned forward. “Stop the car, driver.”

“I can’t stop here, Mrs. Ma,” said Keung.

“If you don’t stop, she’s going to throw up.”

Keung didn’t respond straight away. “There’s a rest area,” he said. “It’ll be another few minutes. I can stop there, but not—”

“Fine, fine.” Vivienne waved her hand and sat back in her seat. She gave me a satisfied, reassuring sort of smile. I looked away, embarrassed for her, ashamed of myself. I wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t speak to Keung like that, but I didn’t. I was suddenly afraid she would leave us.