Rereading My Childhood: The Baby-Sitters Club

#26: Claudia and the Sad Good-bye

Once again, the hospital is not great. They can't get painkillers for Mimi. That is strange because every time I've been to the hospital, they are quick with the pain meds even if I wasn't in any pain - just general throwing up and dizziness. Luckily, Mimi seems to get better as Claudia stays with her in the hospital. Eventually, the doctors discharge her.

After a few days, Claudia wakes up in the middle of the night and hears her parents talking. Mimi passed away while Claudia was asleep. Everything becomes hectic. Calling the relatives falls to Claudia's parents, and people come over all day to offer their condolences. Claudia and Janine have a heart-to-heart. Claudia calls Stacey, who cries. Then Claudia calls Kristy, who doesn't cry, thankfully, and Kristy offers to cancel the meeting. Claudia insists that they don't cancel the meeting. They sit in silence. Janine even sits in on the meeting because she doesn't want to be alone.

Claudia still wants to participate in club activities, even though Kristy let her opt out. The girls get pizza and share memories about Mimi, including the first time Mimi had pizza. The family had dressed up to eat at a Japanese restaurant and Mimi wore a traditional kimono. When they arrived at the restaurant, it was closed, so they ended up at a pizza joint.

"And everyone stared," I said, "because Mimi looked like she was on her way to a costume party, but we ordered two pies anyway, and Mimi ate one slice very bravely."

"And," said Kristy, "as we were finally leaving that awful place where everyone had been staring at us, Mimi turned around, faced the people in the restaurant, and announced, "[sic]Best Japanese food I have ever eaten!"[sic]

Us club members were hysterical. Jessi even dropped a whole slice of pizza on the floor.

I don't get it. Claudia calls an important garment a costume and Stoneybrook is racist? Like, people in Connecticut have never seen a kimono? I saw one in a store right next to the My Hero Academia enamel pins - it's not that uncommon. And I'm sure pizza exists in Tokyo. If I was able to get pizza in a little mall in a village in the Philippines in 1996, I'm certain there's some pizza joint in Akihabara in 1989. I don't get why it's funny that Stoneybrook is so devoid of culture that a kimono is perplexing to the locals. Or maybe Martin has some strange ideas about Japanese culture. Either way, the optics here are not great.

And speaking of strange cultural gymnastics, Mimi's funeral is the next day and she's buried. Not cremated, which is the for Japanese people. The whole funeral is, dare I say, white. White church. White customs. White people. There's nothing remotely Japanese in the whole ceremony. It could be that Mimi converted, but I'm just not sure and this is not addressed in the text.

For the next few days, the kids at school don't talk to Claudia, because everyone is up in everyone else's business and the whole town seems to know about Mimi's passing. Ashley Wyeth makes an appearance and she's just as pleasant and warm as ever. That was sarcasm.

Claudia is thankful when the weekend comes and it's time for her art lesson. The kids are making puppets and Corrie is making Nancy Drew. She wants to give it to her mother. Marilyn and Carolyn tell a dumb joke about twins named Trouble and Shut Up and that one is so old it went to college for fifty bucks a semester and now thinks everyone younger than it is entitled. After class, Claudia gets a call from Corrie's mother.

"Well, the thing is, I've been held up doing my errands." (She did sound like she was calling from a pay phone on the street.) "My bracelet won't be ready at the jewelry store for another half an hour, and the man at the laundry is running late, too." (What a tragedy, I thought.) "So, I was wondering if you'd keep Corrie for another hour or so, dear. I'll pay you whatever the rate is for an unexpected call like this."