The Gaze of Caprice (The Caprice Trilogy Book 1) by Cole Reid Read Free Book Online

time in Liaoning province.   A child’s name could be changed within two years of birth.  Two weeks after her father left, her mother thought about changing Xiaofeng’s name entirely so that her father could never find her as an adult.  She reconsidered.  She liked the name Xiaofeng, Young Wind , and the child had gotten used to answering to it.  She had always been an appropriate woman, so she did the appropriate thing.  Two weeks to the day of Xiaofeng’s father’s absence, her mother went to the Dalian City Communal Records Bureau and changed Xiaofeng’s family name.  She deleted the father’s family name, Zhang, in favor of her own family name, Li.
    She had spent the past eleven years raising Xiaofeng and working different jobs to support herself and her daughter.  Xiaofeng’s grandfather had helped her out when he had a job, but for the past five years, she was on her own.  She saw an opportunity in moving to Taiwan.  Most of the jobs she took had no permanency built in.  She had a stint as a private English tutor for over two years but the economy in Anhui lead to growing competition, especially from native-speaking foreigners.  She served as a teaching assistant to an older American woman for six months in Anhui.  Working with an American woman, who waited tables to support her son after her husband left with another woman, Xiaofeng’s mother learned one very important cultural difference between East and West, tipping.  In China, you didn’t give servers something extra for good service.  They’d be rude to accept.  In the U.S., a patron was rude not to tip.  And if the service was above, a patron was obliged to give more.  Learning this, Xiaofeng’s mother considered waitressing a better way to support herself and her daughter.
    In 1979, the U.S. Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act.  The long-term effect of the Act was the transfer of American military technology in one direction and Taiwanese consumer technology in the opposite direction.  The weapons trades were package deals that included US military personnel to train the Taiwanese on weapons made in America.  American soldiers began exercising with Taiwanese soldiers in Taiwan.  The locals understood that the arrival of American military personnel meant the arrival of American dollars.  Savvy Taiwanese entrepreneurs realized they could convince more American Dollars to give up a sedentary lifestyle if they catered to American interest.  1980 Taiwan saw American themed bars, restaurants, nightclubs and barbershops replace local spots and empty spaces in Taipei.  Local Taiwanese grimaced at American flag stickers on shop windows.  Still, everything was understood:  business is business.
    Unleaded started out as a regular bar and grill in mid 1979.  It served a regular half-pound hamburger with spud potato fries.  Your choice of side was 10 cents extra which included:  coleslaw; baked beans or mashed potatoes with gravy.  The hamburger could become a cheeseburger for 5 cents extra.  The T-bone steak came in rare, medium or well-done with the same choice of sides.  Potato salad was added to the menu later in the year, as well as, the New York Strip steak. One G.I. from Philadelphia showed the kitchen they could make a Philly Cheese Steak with ingredients already on the menu.  It became the second most popular dish after the cheeseburger, by early 1980.  Along with the menu, the name Unleaded changed as well.  Mr. Nan, the original owner, took the suggestions of a few patrons and changed the name to Unleaded 87 .  By early December of 1979, the same month Xiaofeng’s mother was added to the wait staff, the name was 87 .  Mr. Nan insisted that wait staff correct anyone who said eighty-seven.  The name was eight-seven.
    Her black ponytail slowed with the pace of the green Vespa .  The hair, braided like black scales, wound around the nape of her neck and came to rest over her left shoulder.  Her Vespa came to a