Devil in A Quipao

He was his mother's only child.

My father broke her heart when he moved to Japan at the age of 15 to live with the Russian father he had never met.

He pissed her off when he met a young enlisted single mother stationed by the US Army stationed there in Tokyo and fell in love. 

My older brother Wisdom's birth in April 1993 filled her with rage. She refused to even see her firstborn grandchild. 

My birth 18 months later caused her to disown him.

By the time I started toddling she had forgiven him or at least that's what my parents thought when she showed up unannounced at our home in Tokyo in early 1996.

She claimed that she wanted to meet her grandchildren and daughter-in-law. 

Our parents fell for her charm, but would soon come to regret their trust.

Our mother soon had to go away for training as per Uncle Sam's non-negotiable orders. Our father who was still a boy and not even 20 yet, didn't want the responsibility of caring for two toddlers.

"Let me, son." His mother offered. "Go out and enjoy yourself. I am quite fond of my grandchildren. You don't need to hurry home all the time. Mama will care for them." 

Encouraged by his mother,Baba left and went out clubhopping and didn't return for many days.

His mother, 3 year old son, and 1 year old daughter had vanished without a trace.

In reality, Nai-Nai had taken Wisdom and myself to Narita International Airport and hopped the first thing spoken back to China.

We were her bargaining tool.

Either leave that American w***e and return to China or never see your children again.

Nai-Nai expected that Baba would leave Mama and repatriate to China, but instead he did the unthinkable. 

He and Mama lawyered up and prepared to go to war with Nai-Nai.

They fought tooth and nail in the Chinese Court System until 2001.By then our parents were broke,but refused to give up. They wanted to keep fighting,but the Supreme Family Court ruled for Nai-Nai, made us Chinese Citizens under her sole custody,and refused us American Passports.

By then Mama was no longer a soldier. She and Baba had long since taken up residence in Los Angeles. They were penniless and out of options.

They returned to Los Angeles for good when I was 7 and Wisdom was 8.

Nai-Nai, our grandmother, was Mongolian by ethnicity, therefore she saw nothing wrong with conceiving a child with a Russian man, but she could not accept that her son had conceived with a black woman.

"Devil Eyed B******s!" She shouted at Wisdom and me near daily. 

"Monkies!"

"Tree climbers!"

"S**t Eaters!"

The list of slurs and insults goes on and on,but that wasn't what gave her the most pleasure. 

She took the most pleasure in insulting our mother.

We eventually joined in.

"Mama's a ho!" I proudly declared in response to the judge asking me if I loved my mother, in my very poor English, at one of the last court hearings before the judge sided with Nai-Nai. 

My mother was horrified and ran from the chamber with her hand over her mouth in tears.

Nai-Nai smiled at me and Baba glared at his mother, but didn't say a word.

Our already didn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell from the very beginning, but after Wisdom and I began to speak Nai-Nai's hate, it was over.

Nai-Nai's evilness finally broke Baba's sometime in 2004. That is when he settled up with associates in the drug game, emptied the bank accounts, and returned to his home country.

Only by that time,Nai-Nai did not want her son back. 

He had become a different person in his 13 years abroad.