Page 3 of Next Time Will Be Our Turn
She chuckles.
I hold out my index finger. “Two, everyone knows Laura’s going to be your successor.”
“Yes. So?”
“Isn’t that the very definition of ‘protégé’?”
Nainai frowns. “Is it? I suppose if you’re thinking about it specifically in terms of the company, but that wasn’t what I was thinking of.”
“Oh.” Well, now I feel stupid, which makes me feel defensive. “But why wouldn’t it be about the family company? Everything revolves around the family company. Everything.”
“Yes, the company has a tendency of doing that, doesn’t it? I never meant for it to get so big and overwhelm everything else,” she says, and there’s a surprising note of wistfulness in her voice.
I can’t help but give her a wry smile. “Oh yes, poor you, you accidentally built an empire.”
She laughs. “There’s the spark I know and love. I haven’t seen it in a while.”
That wipes any traces of a smile off my face. I cast my gaze down and focus on my feet. Left, right. One step at a time.
After a long, heavy silence, Nainai says, “So. What did you think of my girlfriend?”
I snort.
“You didn’t like her?” There’s no admonishment in her voice, only pure curiosity.
I manage a shrug, and I know I’m being the stereotypical surly teen, but really, what does she expect me to say?
“Well, I like her very much, and I hope that you—”
“You can’t have agirlfriend, Nainai!” I burst out, and the amount of venom I put into the word “girlfriend” takes even me by surprise.
Nainai, as usual, remains unflappable. Sometimes, I wonder if she came out of the womb unfazed, blinking out at the world and thinking to herself:Oh, is this what all the fuss is about?Now she raises her eyebrows at me and says, so innocently, “Why not?”
I am the literal opposite of unflappable as I flap my arms. “Because! You—you’re old!”
“That’s ageist.”
“You know what I mean! I—you—you’re a grandmother.”
“And grandmothers can’t have girlfriends?”
“No!” I cry. Then I realize how stupid it sounds. “I don’t know. Just. You have nine grandkids and one of them is about to have a baby, so you’re about to be a great-grandmother—”
“Still ageist. Really, Izzy, I expected more from you.”
“Argh! You know what I mean.” I hate how petulant I sound.
“Yes.” She smiles at me. “I know what you mean. It’s unexpected from someone like me. Unsettling.”
I nod.
“But who made these rules, anyway? Who decided that women in their seventies don’t get to have girlfriends?”
“I don’t know. Society?”
Nainai gives a mirthless laugh. “Society. I think I’ve had enough of pleasing societal demands, haven’t you? You know, I always tried so hard to raise your mother to have that same attitude, but…I guess peer pressure’s a hell of a thing. Maybe it’sher way of rebelling against me. But I have a feeling that, like me, you’re sick of trying to meet societal expectations, am I right?”
God, what the hell do I say to that? I’m so nervous, feel so exposed, that I might actually throw up. My mind races through all possible answers and settles on:Answer the question with another question!Brilliant. Yes. Turn it around, make it all about her. Deflect, then go on the offense. “What do you know about living your life according to societal demands? You’ve always done whatever the hell you wanted to do.”
