Chapter 1
The Rice Husband
Lena St. Clair
This chapter is narrated by Lena St. Clair who discussed the chapter titled "The Voice From The Wall". She explains how her mother was always able to predict evils, and she was curious as to what her mother will see upon visiting her and her husband Harold at their new home. Lena thinks back to a time when her mother told her that her future husband would have one peck mark on his face for every grain of rice that she did not finish from her bowl. Lena immediately thought of her neighbor Arnold who bullied her and had a pitted face. She began to eat every single grain of rice from her bowl, determined not to marry Arnold and marry a smooth faced man. Yet, Ying-Ying continuously found grains left in Lena's bowl. Lena became terrified that Arnold was destined to be her husband and began to hope for his death. Over time, Lena thought that the relationship between eating and the possibility of marrying Arnold developed into a relationship between her eating and Arnold's well-being. She refused to eat anything, hoping that it would cause illness on Arnold. Five years later, even though she had forgotten about Arnold, Lena's fears turned into anorexia. At 17 years old, Arnold dies of an extremely rare measles related disease. Although Lena can not find a logical reason that she is the cause of his death, she blames herself. Later, she wonders if her evil intentions caused her to be with Harold as punishment for the situation with Arnold. Harold is a controlling, manipulative man. He and Lena hold seperate bank accounts and all of their own products are paid for by themselves. Even though Lena is the sole reason for his success, he is overtaken by greed. Lena works for him as a project coordinator. Even though she shows great talent and brought the company to higher places, Harold refuses to promote her because he does not want to be unfairly favoring her because she is his wife. When Ying-Ying arrives, she notices the shared expenses list on the fridge. She tells Lena that she should not pay Harold back for ice cream because she does not eat it due to a vomiting episode when she was younger. She had eaten so much strawberry ice cream that her stomach could not handle it and she got sick. Lena later brings this up to Harold and even though he agrees, she picks a fight. The fight is interrupted by the smashing of a vase upstairs in the guest bedroom. Harold built the table when he was a student, but it was wobbly. Ying-Ying said "You put something on top, everything fall down". When Lena is cleaning up the glass she tells her mother not to worry, she knew it would happen eventually. Ying-Ying then asks Lena why she hasn't done anything to prevent it.
This chapter expresses the similarities between Ying-Ying and Lena. Ying-Ying's supersititions and constant fear of impending doom have reflected onto Lena. Her supersition that something as simple as rice controlled her fate of who she would marry eventually turned into the acceptance of her unhappy marriage. She accepts her "fate" because she believes she is in a world that has forces beyond human control. Ying-Ying uses the wobby table as a symbol to show Lena how imbalanced her marriage is. Ying-Ying finally sees that to fufill your own wishes is not selfish as her Amah had told her. She does not want her daughter to remain passively silent and accept her unhappiness as she did. When she asks why Lena did nothing to prevent it, she does not mean the vase, but Lena's failed marriage.
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