The Zodiac Schmodiac Story Cycle

At Least I Have My Mustache

Over the years he had experimented with different ways to wear it. He let it grow wild and cover his mouth completely, he waxed it and turned up the ends like Bismarck, he kept it trimmed short and tidy. These days it seemed to grow so much that keeping it short was hard, so he had returned to letting it get bushy and a bit wild. No matter how it looked, one glance of it in the mirror made him sure that everything would be alright. 

Zhang had not been so lucky in many other areas of his life. His wife nagged him constantly. They had met not long after Zhang opened his shop, she had come in with her parents one afternoon. Her father was impressed with Zhang's industriusness and pleased at the flavor of his noodles. "Excellent, these taste just like the squid noodles my grandmother prepared for me as a child!" His praise only increased when he learned that Zhang was single. He returned often, and after a few visits his talk turned to his daughter. "She is a hard worker, my Yu-lan, she would be a great help to a working man like yourself. She may not be much around the kitchen, but you don't seem to need much help in that area, now do you!" Zhang would chuckle along with the man, and try to remember what she had looked like. She seemed pretty enough, but he had only had a casual glance at her the day they came in. After months of these discussions Zhang expressed interest in marriage, and the discussions of dowry began. He ended up giving Yu-lan's family nearly $80,000 in dowry, a fortune in those days, but one he could afford. They were married not two weeks before she proved herself not only to be useless in the kitchen, but a terrible nag as well.  

"Zhang, you work all the time and leave me alone here at home. What am I to think about my husband who never comes home to spend time with me?"  

"You should be grateful in silence for a husband who brings his money home to you in such great quantities. Other men spend their money playing ma-jiang or dice, but I bring all of my money home. Other men chase women, I have only you. I would be happy if you would just speak less." 

"Speak less? If I don't speak up who will tell you how slow and doltish you are? Zhang, I tell you that I am a woman with a bitter fate, married to a man like you. Here I am all alone day after day, never taking a vacation, never seeing the world, stuck here waiting for you to bring home your precious money. Does it not occur to you that I want to speak to other adults?" On and on their arguements would go, grinding slowly in the same path, day after day.  

Zhang and Yu-lan had two children, beautiful girls with none of their mother's disposition. For a man of his generation, Zhang was remarkably open-minded about his daughters. Another man may have complained the lack of a son, but Zhang loved the girls as much as he knew how. As soon as they were old enough to walk they came to the noodle shop to help, sometimes taking bowls and chopsticks to customers, sometimes playing in the dishwater. The only thing that could distract him from his cooking was his daughters. They loved his mustache as well. When he would pick one of them up for a hug they would reach out their small hands to grab tufts of the bristly hair and tug. "Ai-ah, daughter, you'll pull half of my face off if you yank any harder! What did I ever do to deserve treatment like this?" The girls would laugh and pull some more, and this became their greatest game.  

When Yu-lan was pregnant with their third child, she began to bleed one night. Zhang rushed her to the nearest hospital an hour away, and stayed by her side for three days as the doctor first tried to save the child, and then the mother after the child was stillborn. Yu-lan survived, but the doctor told them that they would not be able to have more children. Yu-lan wept when she heard and Zhang comforted her as best he could.  

Thus life went on, year after year. Both girls grew and became excellent pupils. In an era when university was a dream for most students, both girls passed the entrance exams and became a part of the few female students studying in university. The elder daughter became an accountant and the younger a teacher. While in school both met many classmates who were interested in them, but both stayed away from young men interested only in marriage and graduated with honors. Within a few years of beginning their careers they married and went of to live with their husbands. Zhang and his wife were alone again, and Zhang spent many hours alone, wondering what would come next now that his daughters were gone. Whenever his loneliness threatened to overcome him, he would glance in the mirror and think, "no matter how sad I get, at least I still have my mustache."